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More light in the forest

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Figure 1 – The sun breaks into the Pine Barren. (c) DE Wolf, 2017, Stow, MA.

I posted last week about Light in the Forest, but I’d like to pick up the theme again with today’s Figure 1. It captures that moment when the sun suddenly floods the pine barren, and you witness it like a mini-Stonehenge as if caught between two giant limbs. It is, needless-to-say, a photographic challenge in terms of dynamic range. In the moment you squint at it, and all the grey tones seem to collapse into nothingness. There is the sensation of fuzzy darkness. And most curiously there is the sense of silence. How is it that the suppression and collapse of tonality tricks the senses into feeling that you are sound deprived as well.

My mind immediately raced to images of the so-called Manhattan henge effect. I never expect less than magic in these particular woods. For some reason there are very few birds on this side of the forest. It is as if they defer to this fundamental magicality. Magic exists, expresses itself most strongly, where nature and our minds resonate.

Killdeer

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Figure 1 – Adult killdeer, June 2017, Wilmington, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2017.

I was driving home from work yesterday and was passing an abandoned section of the parking lot. Abandoned here means a section never used that has in part surrendered to grass and weeds. I noticed two killdeers (Charadrius vociferus) and so decided to bring my bird lens in today to see if I could find them again.

I also decided to bring my car. I had heard that birds run or fly away from humans but not from automobiles. They seem to see cars as part of the landscape; so they are the perfect birding blind. Well, I can now say “true enough.” I immediately found the killdeers and the fuss. They had their fledge with them, and this little bird was darting about but staying close to its parent’s cry. With the car I was able to get remarkably close. And they didn’t seem to be particularly bothered by my slowly driving into a more advantageous position.

The Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology’s website makes the interesting point that with the inland killdeer, you don’t have to go to the beach to find this close relative of the semipalmated plover. The killdeer is another one of those birds whose name derives onomatopoeically from its call – here a distinctive “Kill-Deer.” Their most dramatic behavior is the broken wing act that they use to distract predators away from the nest.

Figure 2 – Fledgling killdeer, June 2017, Wilmington, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2017.

Figure 1 – Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 310 mm, ISO 800, Aperture Priority AE Mode,1/2000 sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.

Figure 2 – Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 400 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode,1/4000 sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.

Golden Christmas balls

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Figure 1 - Golden Christmas balls, Natick, MA. (C) DE Wolf 2016.

Figure 1 – Golden Christmas balls, Natick, MA. (C) DE Wolf 2016.

Figure 1 is another photograph of Christmas. These are golden Christmas balls. And of course, there are connotations or memories that they invoke. An obvious one is bubbles, perhaps a soapy foam. But for me, as a scientist, I cannot help but think of molecular packing. Spheres will tend towards close backing, and this reminds me very much of a crystal lattice, perhaps the molecular packing of a gold nanoparticle, and, of course, of planets.

Crystal packing is like its opposite, the random fractal. The crystal is supreme order and like the fractal occurs at all scales. And then there is the curious paradox that, in general, crystals are assembled by the fractal random process of diffusion. It is the ultimate example of order out of chaos. The structure of the crystal is locked within the physical properties of the individual atoms and they assemble like so many Legos according to physical law.

A Day on the Coast

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Important Days

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Along the Shore

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The World Press Photography Winners for 2016

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The World Press Photography Winners for 2016 were announced today. So take a break from inane and endless election coverage and depress yourself all over again with the tragic events of 2015. Well maybe that’s an overstatement. These are not just images of tragedy, and even when they are there is often an attempt to capture an essential element of humanity. This year’s images are amazing and it is really hard to pick favorites. I’m going to settle on two favorites and let you decide the rest for yourselves.

My first pick is Matic Zorman’s “Waiting to Register,” showing a child’s face covered with a plastic raincoat as she waits to register at a refugee camp in Presevo, Serbia. The bars speak for themselves and the distortion of the child’s face by the raincoat creates a Kafkaesque surrealism. This is marvelously crafted.

My second favorite Rohan Kelly’s “Storm Front on Bondi (Sydney, Australia) Beach,” a sunbather reads a tablet, oblivious to the looming clouds. I suggest an alternative title: “At the beach for the Apocalypse.”

As always these press photographers do something amazing. They capture just the right instant, “the decisive moment” that tells the entire story. It really speaks to a magic element of photography – the ability to reduce time to a single instant.

Portraits and Light

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