Figure 1 – The path in black and white. Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

There are few sights more alluring then a path not trod. Where does it go? It beckons with a warm and joyous light. In Figure 1 I have such a path. I promised myself that I would do it in black and white and that I would not succumb to the temptation to flood it with noise and making it pictorialist. What I wanted was the full tonal range, and, of course, that is the very problem or challenge. Leave in all the shades of grey from darkest dark to lightest light. Don’t get carried away with dodging the midtones. Leave them to tell their own story, to create a sense of mystery. Emphasize just slightly the beckoning light. Give it a subtle selenium tone to add a sense of warmth. It is in the end a metaphor for so many possibilities that lie just beyond sight in the next glade.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 100 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode, 1/400th sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Rain on the pond. Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

It was a rainy, foggy day here in Massachusetts. But at lunch time the sun came out and I headed to the pond in the hope of catching the peak of the foliage. When I got there the clouds had come back. As i walked through the woods marveling at the damp silence, I ran into another photographer and chatted with his for a while. When I made it down to the pond the rain had started in earnest; so I tucked my camera beneath my rain coat. But then I decided to experiment with the image of Figure 1 of the rain on the water. I was quite pleased in the end not only with the rings on the surface but also with the vertical rain drops. Vertical as a result of the fact that the shutter moves vertically as well.

And speaking of rain drops. I dried them off my camera with a Kleenex and when I got back to the car with a cloth that I keep there. Once home I carefully further dried the camera with my wife’s hair dryer. No damage done and I am reasonably happy with the results. Rain is tricky with your camera but it can be rewarding. But it’s always important to plan on how you would keep your camera dry in a pinch.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 184 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/200th sec at f/7.1 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Fall on the pond at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Maynard, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

A friend and reader wrote me yesterday in response to my photograph of the fall foliage at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge. She is traveling in Europe and asked me to save some of the fall color for her. Well i went off into the woods again this morning and well, Jane, I’m a little worried that I’m eating it all up!

It was a picture perfect [sic] day this morning. There was gorgeous long golden light, blue skies, and so many leaves falling that I even tried t capture the scene in a little video on my IPhone. You pass another walker and you greet them with a big smile. Well, I always do that, only here when you are not fighting mosquitos the act seem a little more sincere.

So this morning I found myself delighted by the image of Figure 1. I am starting to realize, to understand, that fall is more than vivid reds and yellows against crisp azure skies. There are also wonderful pastel tones, cyans and magentas, that seem to give the season a contrasting, complementing pallet.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 100 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/1250th sec at f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – October on the pond in a season of drought, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

I went walking at the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge for the first time, in a long time, yesterday. There seems to be a disagreement about where we are in terms of fall foliage. One point is clear, that the color this year in New England are going to be pretty pathetic, because of the past summer’s drought. Still there are a few spots of dramatic color, as in Figure 1. The drought itself is clearly visible on the pond, where the water levels are dangerously low. In many places where there should be water there are only reflective pools of mud.The geese are irritable and the sluice-way where the path crosses the water and bisects the pond is dry and there is no reason the walk across the make-shift wooden bridge.

I met an enthusiastic young fellow, who was walking on an adventure with his mother and brothers. He was so excited about the ammunition bunkers and explained to me, barely able to contain himself, about how the bunkers were locked and how there were bullets inside but no dead bodies. I told him about the history of the place and he said, “wow you know a lot about it.”The only actual war being waged was by a battalion of rangers and volunteers clearing the path of branches and pulling up invasive plant species.

Canon T2i with EF100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM lens at 100 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode at 1/2500th sec f/7.1 with -1 exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Late summer harvest, Concord, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

I was looking through some photographs over the last coupkle of months and came upon this one of the late summer harvest. I was troubled by the whiteness of the sky, but the addition of noise gives it some depth. When I took the photograph my thought was very much of a landscape painting. So here it is done up in an impressionist photopictorialism style. As we head now into autumn and winter, this is meant to capture the last glorious moments of summer, as if it were and old friend.

Fuji FinePixAX550, ISO 100, 1/60th sec at f/8.0 with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Having your tarantula on a silver platter. Halloween, 2016. West Concord, MA. IPhone photograph. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Well, we are deep into October, and you never know when you are going to encounter something delightfully frightening. As an example we have the ghoul of Figure1 serving up a silver platter of tarantula. He bears just a bit of a resemblance to the Harry Potter’s Gringotts Wizarding Bank. This is part of the great joy of a New England October. The air is crisp. The colors are emerging, there is apple cider and pumpkin pie, and Halloween is everywhere. We can, for a few moments, ignore the upcoming election and just be kids again.

Figure 1 – Ferns giving up their color in October. Wilmington Town Forest, Wilmington. MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

When we think of the changing seasons in the Northeast, we tend to think about crocus in the spring and maples in the fall. Both shout out their message of change with vivid color. But I have noticed that the ferns seem more solid in their prophecy, The start as fiddleheads, but wait until spring is firmly established before they fill the forest floors with chartreuse and delicate leaves, delightfully illuminated by the sun through the canopy. And then they hold the stage through summer, creating what is both a fairy land and a primordial landscape. It is always worth a few moments to stop and study them. Like a character in Jurassic Park, your look nervously about for the tiny but ferocious and pirhana-like Compsognathus longipes. And then when you reach autumn, as we have now, you watch as these intricate old friends turn yellow and then brown. They are soon to disappear, and where they stood proudly, is soon to be covered in snow.

Fuji FinePix AX550, ISO 200, 1/30th sec at f/3.3, with no exposure compensation.

Figure 1 – Patchwork in black and silver (c) DE Wolf 2016.

I was attracted the other day by this patchwork fabric. The pieces are black cloth and the lines are made of silver thread. The appeal to me was multiple. First, I love the metalic reflections. Second, I love the simplicity of the geometric. Third, I like the top lighting that accentuates the texture and enables you to create a photographic story, a tone-on-tone in black. And recognize that black is the lack of light; so it seems almost a contradiction to have tones of black. Are these shades of nothingness? Fourth, and finally, I am drawn to the randomness of the patchwork itself, which seems to challenge the perfect symmetry of the lines.

And needless-to-say I took this simple photograph with my IPhone. I am starting to master the trick of lining up the lines and edges with the IPhone while at the same time not tilting the camera and creating a warped image.

Get excited, everyone! It is October, and Halloween, my personal favorite, is right around the corner. So I am dusting of my Halloween gallery and adding a Frankenstein image to get everyone in the mood.

The great point about Halloween, in the United States, is that it has lost its religious connotation. It is about trick or treating children, costumes, and candy. Everyone has their favorite candies and there is a lot of trading after the trick or treat, and also a lot of mothers and fathers seizing their tithe by eminent domain.

1. Thanksgiving

2. Stream in winter

3. Old Manse Boat House

4. Waves along the Concord River

5. Irish Harp

6. Assabet

7. Winter melting

8. Melting stream

9. Logs and Ice

10. Into the Woods

11. Christmas Eve along the River

12. Lord Cthulhu's Tree

13. Rain on the Pond

14. Ice

15. Winter Ice #1

16. Winter Ice #2

17. Wingaersheek Beach