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Archive for the ‘Photography’ Category

Lunar eclipse

Friday, February 22nd, 2008

There was a lunar eclipse on Wednesday night at a reasonable hour (10 ish), and fortunately my husband remembered! I saw him hustling the kids down the stairs late –after having woken Eli up– and asked what was up… the eclipse they chorused. So I grabbed my camera. This was a first attempt:

Blurry eclipse

Then I got smart and ran inside for the tripod, and got these shots… the one is remarkably sharp given my skill, camera and COLD conditions (probably about 8 degrees outside). I used my Panasonic FZ30 which has a 12x optical zoom, so I was happy!

Eclipse with tree branchesEclipse, sharp focus

World Beach Project, Project 2

Monday, February 18th, 2008

The sad news is that my lovely shells and brick project (blogged here) didn’t fit the criteria for the World Beach Project (click here to see a map of where the projects were made and here for the “lightbox”), but the note I received from the V&A staff was SO kind and thoughtful! I honestly didn’t realize the emphasis was on art made from stones. I had wanted to do more anyway, so when I was out visiting Mom, I asked if we could go to Fort Cronkhite (previous post) for one more visit. While there, Mother waited in the car while I trotted down to the beach with the goal of looking for carnelians and making another piece for the beach project.

Last minute update…the V&A has added my project to their project, here!

Alas, Cronkhite beach is much more nearly-sand and much less pebble-y than when I was a child, and I didn’t see a single carnelian (tho honestly I didn’t really have time to look much). I quickly set about gathering stones….. and started making swirls. There was a ladybug who flew in to check what I was doing, so I encouraged her to crawl up on my hand and help me:

Making the stone art, with ladybug

I added more, and the swirls became a tree of life.

Stone art, in progress 2

Finally, I added a single piece of beachglass to catch the light at the center-top to complete it:

Tree of Life

And here’s a view of the stone art looking across the beach to the south. Bird Rock and Point Bonita:

Stone art, done! view down toward Point Bonita

Autumn Leaves 2007

Friday, October 19th, 2007

Autumn 2007-1

It is that glorious time of year again, when the air is crisp, the leaves are on fire, the sky is screaming blue (alternating with stormy gray). I don’t know if autumn is my favorite season because I was born in early October (yep, I hit FIFTY this month…. don’t feel a day over early-30s except for my knees!), or just because autumn is so spectacular. After retrieving two quilts from a local quilt show on Monday, I took lots and LOTS of pics on the way home. The one above is one of my favorites…. as usual, I love the close ups. I totally love the sharp contrast of the nearly-black bark and the bright oranges and reds. I’ve been really inspired by some of Dijanne Cevaal‘s recent quilts of treescapes (click on her name, which will take you to her July 2007 archives and scroll down to July 15 and 7), and after the Week 2 dyeing class with Carol Soderlund, think I have several TreeScape quilts in my future!

While on the way down to the quilts, I spotted this tree and, on my return, pulled over for the first of a series of road-side Driver’s Seat Snapshots:

Autumn 2007-10 Orange glow tree

Then there was a whole string of glorious shots (all from the car! I WAS careful and pulled over to the shoulder, etc). Here’s one of turning leaves–I love to see the progression of color change from the treetop and tips of the branches, flushing back towards the trunk.

Autumn 2007-9 Leaves turningThen of course there are the startling silhouettes of branches laden with red, the deep shadows of the northern woods behind:

Autumn 2007-8 Red maple branch

Here is a wide-angle shot, not so pretty, but it gives an idea of what the roadside looks like on Route 90 in Warren and Rockport:Autumn 2007-7 Roadside scenery

Here is a glorious massing of red:

Autumn 2007-6 Lotsa leaves

And a portrait of a young, understory maple:Autumn 2007-5 Understory maple

And another:

Autumn 2007-4 Red maple, trunk on left

Even the gas station had glorious shots. The best priced gas is at the independent station at Tolman Pond on Route 90 in Rockport. Here is a major zoom picture of the trees on the far end of the pond (in the West something this large would be called a small lake!):

Autumn 2007-2 Tolman Pond view

As I took the picture of the diesel pump, a guy asked me if I was focusing the camera. I said no, taking a picture. He allowed as how he’d never seen anyone take a picture of a gas pump before, but I think it makes a good photograph. Who knows, we all know I’m slightly deranged (said in a John Cleese voice, please! “Deeee-Ranged!”).

Autumn 2007-3 Diesel pump