Foto Friday No. 1

Curly kale seedlings in the cold frame makes Zy a happy girl. Happy Friday!

Orange Season

It's orange season in Vermont! You know, the time of year that you have to wear orange into the woods so you don't get shot at by hunters? It's currently bear, turkey, grouse, fox, deer, and rabbit season. Guns, bows, and traps, oh my! Now, I'm not a hunter and I live in a state forest, so I don't really know the rules and regulations here, but I like to be on the safe side. And I could hear shooting in the distance. But I wasn't going to let that deter me from hanging my trail cam near a game trail I found.

However, wearing orange doesn't keep me from being on edge the whole time. I don't prefer to explore the woods alone. If AGP isn't up for the adventure, I usually try to convince Tina, but she wasn't up to getting her paws wet today. So off into the woods I go on my merry way, set to bask in the whimsy of the forest and try not to get shot.

For solo expeditions, I like to take the time to frolic and play with my cameras. In my camera bag, I packed my macro lenses and hoods, waterproof camera, trail cam, water bottle, and waterproof bag for all my non-waterproof toys because I have to cross the brook and it is relatively raging this time of year.

I also make sure to wear my calculator watch so I can keep track of the time and do on-the-fly calculating!

 
I am on a huge biodiversity kick lately. I just want to identify everything. Sure, late fall might not be the best time for this hobby, but there is still a lot out there rocking the chilly weather and ready to name. I am particularly drawn to mosses these days. It must be because they are so easy to spot in the defoliated forest! But then again, they are sooo dang hard to identify.

Umm... any ideas?

Look! Artist's conk mushrooms! At least that I can identify. Apparently people use these as natural canvases for etching and painting. I don't super understand the appeal. The white band on these mushrooms are this year's new growth.

There are a lot of balsam fir saplings in my local woods. You can tell the difference between balsam fir and hemlock from the length of the needles. Balsam fir has longer, more delicate needles.

And of course there are the always odd looking Indian pipe flowers, also known as a corpse plant. These specimens are dead and the bulb at the top of the stem holds the seeds. See a photo of a living corpse plant here! As you can see, the living plant has a bent stalk (like a pipe) and becomes erect once it has been pollinated.

After enough exploring and leaf lounging, I made my way stealthily towards the game trail running I recently discovered running alongside the Burnt Meadow Brook, just a short walk from our house. I decided to hang the trail cam here to see what kind of wildlife (or human life!) might be frequenting our neighborwoods.

Interested in knowing what kinds of goodies I have captured on the trail cam so far? Check it out!

After stumbling across some paw prints and a flurry of blue jay feathers, I tricked myself into thinking I was being stalked by a fisher and high stepped it back to our banks and the safety of my house among the trees.

 Home!

Morning Over Mono: A Poem

(Follow along on the adventure! Ready, Set, Tulsa!, Oklahoma to New Mexico, Adventure in the Jemez Mountains, On Arches & The World's Oldest Living Organism, and Dreamland & the Extraterrestrial Highway)

Life subaqueous, beneath Lake Mono
In hypersaline stream's end hydro
Precipitation in silhouette
From fresh water springs, spires beget

The western watchmen, Sierra Nevada
Keeping watch on solvent aqua
Lest the Angels whisk it away  
Long live Mono! is what we'll say

But tufa castles still impress
By dwindling waters, lightly dressed
For admiration, lens and eye
The craggy forest and lightened sky

A desert oasis in Mono Basin
Offers parched landscape hydration
Perched aside three ninety five
The sky and ground and lake's alive

Welcome day to Mono's shores
To obelisks of lacustrine ores
And gradients of sunrise drama
The tufa towers in panorama

Daylight glints on softened water
A magnum builder, sculptor, salter
Rejoicing in the sun, awake
The salted banks of Mono Lake
 

  
Boy! Writing scientifically and geologically themed poems is hard! I hope this one does the trick. I'll try to elaborate more on the astounding nature of Mono Lake soon. If you are interested in learning a bit more about hypersaline lakes, check out my post on The Great Salt Lake in Utah! 

Accidental Light Painting

I've been seeing a lot of light painting on the internet these days, popular among tech geeks with tripods and headlamps or newfangled LED light strips (which I super want, by the way). And don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of intentional light painting too, but I am more often amused by accidental light painting. You know, when you snap a picture of pretty lights in the dark and when the digital preview pops up, you think, Woah.

My history with digital photography has been pretty loosey goosey. I've mostly stuck with point-and-shoots because lugging around expensive, bulky equipment on my many adventures is not my favorite thing to do. I want something small, compact, and inexpensive so I can continue throwing it in my bag without worry.

(It's hard to get drunken, on the fly shots like this if you have to lug your camera bag around Reykjavik, Iceland at 4am.)

Shitty camera + nighttime settings + pretty lights + the flick of your wrist and you've got yourself some blurry, streaky, colorful art, creatively dashing across your friend's beautiful faces or lighting up the night sky. I tend to lean towards drunken whimsy, so these pictures actually end up capturing my memories more closely than boring old real life.

There are many ways to light paint without props. With cheap point-and-shoots that don't give you supreme control over your exposure lengths, you'll probably end up sticking with nighttime as the best time to paint. I usually find the Night Portrait Mode, or something similar, as the best setting because it features a long exposure and a timed flash that prevents your subject (should you choose one) from getting too blown out (not that I mind that look too much). But don't forget to play around with your settings to find the best one for you and your camera.

The best thing about the Night Portrait Mode is that it will capture your subject but still give you that beloved long exposure to play around with. It can get double exposure-y and I love it. That's why I like to get jiggy and call upon that desired light play.

Here are some of my favorites over the years and some interesting lights to play with:

The bar/venue scene is a great place to start with some fun light painting. You know you are going to be there anyway, surrounded by bright lights and dancing around. Plus, the blown out quality of night portraiture can end up painting your subject in a flattering light once you reach that not-so-flattering part of the night.

Fire is also a quick and easy light painting subject. You can really never tell what kind of paranormal, sentient flame work might be captured.

Also, try burning a piano some time. It's fun.

Ever try to photograph the moon? It almost never comes out in photographs the way our mind's eye perceives it. A long exposure gives the opportunity for spelling and shape making, almost like reverse light painting: instead of standing in front of the camera and waving a glow stick to draw something, you move the camera around the light subject. Except you have to do it backwards. The following two pictures were taken with the moon and a lot of paper lanterns at the Wakarusa Music Festival in Ozark, Arkansas.

The above picture was also taken in Arkansas at Woolly Lake State Park in Greenbrier; a different place, a different time. Boy, I love Arkansas!

And then there's Burning Man. I won't even elaborate on that here. There are pretty lights everywhere and if you aren't seeing them streaky to begin with than you're doing it wrong!! It may be hard to tell, but the next picture is of a 60ft tall rooster mutant vehicle.

I also love these whitewashed pictures I took one overcast evening just before dusk at the Devil's Hopyard State Park in Connecticut. They fall more into the realm of double exposure photography than light painting, but the spooky swirls light get me every time.

And then, of course, there are just the streaky, unformed free-for-alls I love so well. The recipe for these is simple: point, shoot, and wave your camera madly around until the frame is captured. Some times they are psychedelic and some times they are just plain spooky. Win-win.

Hooray for low budget light painting!