Figure 1 – August 31, 2015, September’s First Light. Fresh Pond Reservation, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I went walking on Monday, August 31st, in the intensity of a late summer’s heat. It wasn’t unbearably humid, just very hot. There was that sultry silence of late summer. And there were the colors of dried vegetation: fluffy milkweed, wilting cone flowers, and desiccated Queen Anne’s Lace. The birds were for the most part silent – their voices silenced by the torrid temperature. I am not sure where they go or what they do during these afternoon siestas.  Along the path by Black’s Nook I saw this giant tree illuminated with an intense side light complete with the dancing shadows of the surrounding forest. Here it was the last day of August, and this tree was already bathed in the first glorious light of September.

Figure 1 – Double crested cormorant on the old fountain head by the Glacken Slope restoration. Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Most of the large water birds that you see, the egrets and the herons, are stealthy hunters always either on the move, however slowly, or ready to lunge. A notable exception to this are the double crested cormorants (Phalacrocorax auritus). You see them out swimming on the water, launching themselves beneath the surface in search of food and you see them standing on the rocks drying their wings. But a lot of times they are just standing there as if in contemplation, as if they were sentinels just watching, just guarding.

I took this image of such a bird last week.  H was standing on the old fountain head by the Glacken Slope restoration on Fresh Pond in Cambridge, MA. As is often the case, especially on cloudy days, the water on that part of the pond is gray and almost motionless. Despite my admiration of the yellow or orange throats of these cormorants, I decided in the end to process the shot as a black and white, to emphasize the silhouette. It is very unusual for me to photograph a bird in black and white. Color is typically so defining. Black and white focuses on form. The toning, I think, adds just a dash of brightness to the image.These are one of the more primordial looking of birds. You watch them, observe their vigillance, and you are taken back, reminded of their prehistoric origins. It is humbling, for so they have watched for millions of years.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 200 mm . ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE mode, 1/3200 sec at f/7.1 with +1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – The triple altars of mmaon, clear skin, and the sacred pretzel. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

It is late August now, and I went this past Sunday for a walk at the Mall. It is both a melancholy and an expectant time. I feel for school children, now doomed to succumb to the demands of “back to school,” and soon my easy commute to work will be slowed by a convoy of school buses. It not only seems, but is, inevitable. However, right now it is very quiet and, when I got to the mall, it was largely silent. My favorite coffee stop wasn’t even open yet, and I watched as the Godiva chocolatier, the woman who stands in the window and dips fruits in luscious dark and creamy chocolate, sleepily unlocked the door to the shop, closed yet to the public as she performed her magic.

I have in the past advocated that photographers document the ephemera of our times, the trends, and the soon-to-be obsolete. On this particular Sunday morning I happened upon one of those giant vending machines. This one sold acne creams – indeed, America’s #1 Acne Brand.  That struck me as strange and worthy of a photograph before someone realizes how stupid an idea it is.  Is it perhaps catering to the embarrassment of teens who want to buy these treatments in private? What could be more private than the middle of a shopping mall? Hello there, people!

So I took the photograph of Figure 1 before these machines disappear completely. I have seen them before selling IPhones and tablets. That really perplexes me. Have you ever had a vending machine fail to deliver a Coke, when you were parched and dying of thirst, seen your favorite chip dangle tantalizingly close to release but never quite making it? In both cases your money is gone. I mean, like I’m really going to risk eight hundred dollars making a purchase at a machine. This is not the singularity it is singularly stupid!

There I was Sunday morning. I was struck by the juxtaposition. America’s #1 Acne Brand stood right next to the Bank of America ATM. And if you think this was coincidental then puzzle me this. There is a second America’s #1 Acne Brand on the other side of the mall, right next to the Bank of America. So there I was standing before the triple altars of mammon, clear skin and the sacred pretzel. You will note that the pretzel even has its own halo.  I am spiritually exhausted. I resign myself to this misappropriation of the sacred. But I do stop to photograph it in the hope that it will soon disappear.

Figure 1 – Aqua, Boston, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

Today I’m offering up Figure 1 as another IPhone experiment. I call this photograph “Aqua” for obvious reasons. But in this case aqua has the double meaning of both water and color. It is summer soothing. And I have to say that I remain  impressed by the IPhone,s ability to handle pretty extreme close-ups, just tap on the screen where you want the sharpest focus and voila!  As I’m looking at it on my computer screen the image is about two inches wide and the glass is pretty much actual size.  I had to darken out some distracting elements across the table, which I did with a combination of the burn, magic wand, and clone tools. I thought that the napkin in the upper right was going to annoy me.  But in actuality I find it balancing both in terms of color and shape. I think that the composition would be just too monotonous without it, I like all the rings of reflection and refraction, but I particularly like the distorted lensing of surrounding elements like the napkin in the glass.

Figure 1- The fire-escape, Boston’s South End, IPhone photograph. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

OK, I’ll put in a plug for the Coppa Restaurant in Boston’s South End. I went there for brunch on Sunday with my family. And as a truly sluggard photographer, I took the image of Figure 1 without getting up from my seat. I keep experimenting with the camera on my IPhone 6 for art photographs and continue to be pleased with the results. It has its limitations: only takes 8 bit jpg, no optical zoom, and then there’s the annoying need to be able to see the back of the phone to frame the image.  But on the other hand, it does the rest of the job for you and also enables HDR and panoramas.

This picture is a black and white of the fire-escape acoss the street and its shadows against the brick. I even refrained from toning. I almost got the perspective: horizontal, vertical, and tilt just right.  The picture also required just a touch of digital zoom in.

Can you imagine Ansel Adams standing on the side of the road with his IPhone in Hernandez, NM? If you could have gotten him to stop taking pictures long enough, he would have been the first to point out that it’s about the photographer not the equipment.

Figure 1 – A break in the clouds in the style of Maxfield Parrish. IPhone photograph. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

I was driving home from work on Tuesday and stopped at the local farm-stand. When I returned to my car I heard the distant peel of thunder and looked up into a dense atmospheric cloud cover. I headed down the road towards home traversing the marshlands of the Assabet River. As the horizon came into view I was greeted by the scene of Figure 1. This is the reason one should always carry a camera. In the case of this picture, it was my IPhone.

The IPhone actually works better for me than my Canon when it comes to photographing clouds because of the marvelous wide angle field of view. With my Canon I seldom have a wide angle enough lens with me. I took this picture twice: one straight and the other with HDR on. As it turned out the dynamic range did not require the HDR setting. On the other hand IPhone pictures always suffer in that they are only eight bit. You can see the discreteness as your set the histogram.

As for the image itself, it is a break in the clouds. I think of it as a notch which seems to separate the Earth from the heavens, in such a way that the different planes are ambiguous. The ambiguity is part of the appeal of the light. But beyond that, these are clouds in the style of the artist Maxfield Parrish (1870-1966). I have always admired in this painting the power of the blues and how he captured the luminance of the light.

Figure 1 – The dog walker in August, (c) DE Wolf 2015.

These are indeed the most sultry days of summer.  We are experiencing our first “heat wave” in two years in Boston. A heat wave is defined by three consecutive days in a row of temperatures in the nineties Fahrenheit.  I know that this truly pales in comparison with the locales of many Hati and Skoll readers, but it is what it is, and it is enough to keep yours truly from his daily walk at Fresh Pond.  And speaking of Fresh Pond, it has been a rather quiet place. Many of the dogs are on vacation, and the dog walkers are herding diminished groups. Indeed, many of the dog walkers are themselves on vacation. And the birds when it gets really hot tend to be silent. Hmm!

I am including here as Figure 1 and image of one of these more intrepid dog walkers. As I believe that this indicates I am experimenting with changed controls to great a more pastel color palette in an image. I admire photographers who can easily reproduce in this way the glorious visual quality of now long lost Kodachrome.

In addition, it is time to celebrate the third anniversary of the Hati and Skoll Gallery, and I really want to thank my many readers for their continued interest in my persistent ramblings – both actual and verbal. I really appreciate all of your comments that come to me in many different ways: on the blog, personally, and on Facebook. I have learned a lot from you all.

As we head into year four of the Gallery, I just wanted to point out that I recently updated many of the photogalleries. Yes, more of those insidious bird photographs! In addition, the “New Gallery” now contains photographs from Southern Maine: Kennebunkport, Cape Porpoise, and Freeport taken in 2014 and 2015. I am looking forward to soon replacing these with an updated Halloween Series (my personal favorite holiday) around October First.

I am tempted to say that the coming of autumn marks a particular glory time for New England photographers. But in truth, it is the seasons themselves that define New England, and all seasons have their own marvelous lights.

Thanks again to all of you for your interest and support.

David

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 70 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE mode, 1/500th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Sage, Fresh Pond Resevation, Cambridge, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

These are glorious sultry days, the dog days of summer when the Dog Star, Sirius, rises and the weather can be medicinally hot. People are on vacation; so everything is a little less crowded and maybe just a bit slower. I came upon Max the white dog walker on the path around Fresh Pond, and he was walking a black dog. It was a beautiful dog, a Belgian shepherd named “Sage,” who seemed to know his own beauty. He is a wary fellow and a little aloof. But ever contemplative, he seemed to live up to his name. But after I had given his chin a rub, he decided that I was OK and allowed me both to rub his ears and take his photograph.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 70 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE mode, 1/800^th sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – American goldfinch, Little Fresh Pond, Cambridge, MA, August 2015. (c) DE Wolf 2015.

It is early August, and the weather in Massachusetts has been truly gorgeous. After that threatening storm, we got glorious warm and dry days. I was thinking about what defines this time if year. There is a special quality to the August light as the sky transforms slowly from the intensity of July to the mellow glow of September.  And then there is the Queen Ann’s lace in its myriad forms and, of course, it is the time for the goldfinches to show off their peak yellow color. I have tried to capture this sense of summer in this portrait of an American goldfinch – Spinus tristis– Figure 1. I have photographed the goldfinches before at my feeder, where they act as well behaved guests slowly dining on thistle seeds as if in polite conversation. But outside they are much more wary of humans, ever so peripatetic in their motions. You hear their characteristic chirping song, struggle to find them among the flowers or branches, try to frame and focus on them, and they quickly move on, as if you were some annoying paparazzi. This brilliant colored male was kind enough to allow me a few pictures against the perfect background of underbrush and flowers.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 188 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE mode, 1/4000th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.