Figure 1 – American bullfrog, Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, June 17, 2016. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Hmm. To a large extent nature photography tends to be a matter of you never know what you are going to capture. Today I went down along the water’s edge and stood quite still in hopes of seeing some of the frogs that have been serenading in a bass voice. As  Figure 1 attests I was not disappointed. So there I am with my big lens at 400 mm shooting a macro-subject perhaps six feet away from me. It was very successful in terms of sharpness and background. The lens performs amazingly well under these circumstances. Frogs are about as wary as any creature in the woods. Also i do have to point out that with macro-photography it is way better to get down with the subject and shoot a portrait into its face. But there was no way that this frog was going to put up with this kind of familiarity. And indeed, as soon as I looked away to adjust the camera he left into the water and retreated beneath the surface. “It is not easy being green.”

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 400mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/2000th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Don’t eat the hand that feeds you. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Today’s photograph, Figure1, is of my friend’s new puppy, Emma. In a moment of over exhuberance, puppy Emma forgot what they taught her in puppy school. “Don’t eat the hand that feeds you.”

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 100mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/500th sec at f/7.1, with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Eastern chipmunk peeking out of a log, Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA, June 14, 2016. (c) DE Wolf 2016

I’ve got to apologize for constantly posting pictures of cute and cuddly eastern chipmunks (Tamias striatus). It is just that they are so photogenic and their antics so endearing. They seem to be following me as I walk through the woods – ro at least they seem oblivious to me. But when I stop and look at them they freeze. Today this one retreated to the security of the hollowed out tree, only, as expected, to pop its head out a few moments later. I suppose that there is a certain insecurity to not being at the top of the local food chain, and here they fall victim to owls, raptors, and snakes. SO I cannot blame them their nervousness. It is after all a dangerous world.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 320 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/160th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Reserved seating, Eastern pheobe, Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, June 13, 2016. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

I cannot tell you how many times I have schlepped my heavy, big lens all the way through the woods at the Assabet River National Wildlife refuge without taking any photographs, only to emerge from the forest to discover something photogenic near the center’s parking lot. I suspect that this follows from variety of habitat. You can walk along the path and predict from experience the kinds of birds that you are going to run into.

The parking lot is an open space with a grassy area – perhaps describable as a meadow. The birds here are a bit less nervous around people. They are more comfortable with the things of man: cars, benches, wires, and pavement. Today I came upon the lovely Eastern pheobe (Sayornis phoebe). It had chosen to sit on a sign, as if it were reserved seating. 

The final point to make here is how sharp this lens can deliver under the right conditions even at the maximum extension of 400mm. There is a lot of eye and feather detail.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 400 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/800th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Anthropologie, IPhone 6 photograph, Natick, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

I always love to test the limits of the IPhone. To see what it takes to get an interesting image. And this is particularly challenging in the mall, when there is in general little to photographs. But geometrics always come to the rescue, and the other day I found this ill-illuminated wall by the Anthropologie store with huge letters in high relief. I thought I would test the depth of field of the IPhone 6 camera and was pretty pleased with the results. It is like a lesson in perspective.

Figure 1 – Cut-outs, Natick, MA. IPhone photograph, (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Figure 1 is an abstract that I took of a cut-out paper background in a store window with my IPhone. The appeal of Iphones, both to the artist and the viewer is an intriguing and multifaceted one.  They appeal to the human mind which is intrinsically reductionist – assessing a scene from a limited set of points and what are called spatial frequencies. Beyond that there is the appeal of purity: the appeal to a vivid and pure color, the appeal of a pure tone. I suppose in a sense that the appeal of black and white images lies in the shedding of color, the reduction of the image to form, and the replacement of  color with a depth and richness of tonal dynamic range. In some cases there is the suggestiveness of the form, an allusion to something purely human such as spirituality or sexuality. In the image of Figure 1 the triangular glare that emits from some of the horizontal surfaces reminds me of votive candles, suggesting the sacred to me. And yes I use both those terms in the same sentence. And of course, as in the present image we surrender ourselves to the purity of geometry. Indeed, where as in the current image that geometry becomes broken, we are not dismayed. Rather it enhances the appeal, as if the the deviation reminds us of the complexity of the real world. It is as Euclid (365-275 BCE) said:

“The laws of nature are but the mathematical thoughts of God.”

Figure 1 – On the Marsh, Photopictorialism Study # 14. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

My apologies for having disappeared for a few days. It has been a very busy week. So to relax I went for a walk this morning at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. The geese are in a hissy mood as you pass them The orchids are drying up now. The ferns are abundant, and I came across a large number of insect egg pods. On a mini-scale it is Invasion of the “Body Snatchers,” “Aliens,” or worse. At one point in front of one of the bunkers I came upon a literal swarm of colorful dragonflies.

The marsh is, as always, stunning and this morning I used my IPhone the capture the dead tries on the marsh against a cloudy bu azure sky. I decided that this was best done in a photopictorialist style (Figure 1) – filled with noise to mimic a painting and the bromoils of a bygone age a century ago.

Figure 1 – American Red Squirrel at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Suspicious that I may have been waxing philosophical about the Belle Époque and the Singularity too long, I thought that I should take a break and venture back into the woods. Whereever manking may be headed – arguably a mechanical word – its origins are in nature and the forest. Figure 1 is a photograph that I took the other morning at the Wildlife Refuge of an American Red Squirrel – Tamiasciurus hudsonicus. The other major squirrel species in Massachusetts is the American Grey Squirrel – Sciurus carolinensis, and apparently if you go out at night you will see, or hear, the Northern flying squirrels – Glaucomys sabrinus. I would love to go out at night with an IR camera and photograph the ghostly spirits in the trees.

As one who grew up in New York City, I have always liked squirrels as they are one of the few wild creatures that we see. A friend refers to them as “rats with fluffy tails and good PR.” And, of course, people who feed birds hate them. But actually at this time of year the floor and trees of the pine barrens are filled with chipmunks and squirrels – much to the delight of owls, hawks, and eagles, and of course young children.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 250 mm, ISO 1600, Apreture Priority AE Mode at 1/125th sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.