Is It Always Winter Where You Take Pictures?

No, of course not.  I had a buyer ask me just that question though, regarding a collection of black and white imagery, which included quite a few infrared images.  Light reflected off certain materials, when photographed with an infrared sensitive camera (or rather one that is sensitive mostly to infrared and not to most of the visual spectrum we normally see) will indeed appear white, a bit like snow.  This is an approach to photography that has a long storied tradition. Infrared film, made mostly by Kodak and Ilford was the tool of choice.  Kodak no longer makes their brand.  The film was very difficult to use, but still (though I never had the chance to use it myself, or rather was never forced to use it myself), the results were often worth it. Why?  In my view, the mood.  Infrared speaks to us of other worldliness, or being out of the ordinary.  It captures beauty, tinged with just a touch of anxiety, a feeling one might expect when in an unusual place.  Perhaps anxiety is also a part of the spiritual sense of some places.  I happened to hear today about a new video game based on the work of Thoreau, arguably one of the best writers of all time when it came to describing the experience, the mood of being in nature.  A video game? Interesting concept.  I wonder if the gamers will be able to capture that complex sense of being alone in a beautiful wild place?  This image is from today, spring 2012, Connor Pond in Harvard Forest.  (Click on the image for a better view.)

Quite the Mess

I have written before about the work of Robert Glenn Ketchum.  He is without a doubt one of America’s great landscape and nature photographers.  Some of his best work, in my opinion, was on the Hudson River Valley.  An environmentalist to the core, he does not shy away from troubling vistas.  His work is not anything like “eco porn” as it is sometimes described, beautiful but essentially meaningless pictures. He tells a story with his work.  I cite him in the rather unusual context of a blog with a title “Quite the Mess” because of his ability to deal with just how messy nature can be.  We are implored as photographers to simplify, get just a few elements in your photos, and above all, get an image that doesn’t include a lot of distractions. I actually agree with that advice.  On occasion, such opportunities fall right into your lap.  More often when you’re trying to capture what is really happening in the wild, it ain’t going to happen.  Or, if it does, you will have lost your story line.  Case in point, the Swift River (Middle Branch) running under the old stone bridge at Gate 30 of the Quabbin Reservoir (located in New Salem, Massachusetts) a few weeks ago.

Could some one get that tree out of there!  No, I guess.  I actually debated the wisdom of putting these messy vistas on view.  I can hear some of my old teachers now.  ”Some things are beautiful, but don’t photograph well, that’s the way it is…..cope!”  But it occurs to me that we run risks when the work is always pristinely simple.  Have we at least paid attention to the way nature works, the way things look when they are in fact left “wild?”  So, ladies and gentlemen, from my “messy” portfolio..

I have to comment on these bells.  I tried every way I could think of or was physically capable of to create a compelling composition.  The problem here is that the tree branch from which the ice bells grew cuts across the frame in a rather mundane fashion.  Such is life.  This fallen tree created a platform for all sorts of wonderful ice forms.

A work of classical fine art?  Perhaps not. But the story here is, in part, the weather. Much of the “mess” resulted from the Halloween 2011 snow storm.  Such storms reshape the forest.  Nature obeys the laws of, nature, of course, the rules of photography not withstanding.

On closer inspection, things start to make a bit of sense.

With apologies to Robert Glenn Ketchum!

Beautiful Birch Trees

New Hampshire as it turns out is the second most forested state in the U.S., coming in at over 80% forested.  Yes, this figure is down a bit from the peak, due largely to development. Still it remains an impressive resource.  Not surprisingly, the forest there is somewhat different from that in Massachusetts, at least to the eye.  My subject impression is that they’ve got far more birch trees there.  Birch trees make for a most interesting photographic subject, particularly when they are found in a group.  Across the street from the entrance to the Mt. Washington Road (“This car hasn’t climbed Mt. Washington and probably won’t”) is a beautiful stand of birch.  It had rained that day, so an impromptu street cut through the forest.  (Click on the images for a better view.)

The (mostly) white trunks of the trees make for a nice contrast with and framing for the foliage of course.  The trunks aren’t always white, though.  We came upon two older silver trunked birches caressing one another amidst all the white birches.

Brich trees love son.  They live about 70 years and many took root during the reforestation of New Hampshire just after the turn of the last century.  As such, we often see old ones, toward the end of their lives.

There are a variety of ways to try and capture the spiritual feeling of a place.  A birch forest has such nice vertical lines that suggest a multiple exposure, which you see here.  This was ten images with camera movement up just slightly between images. Nikon DSLRs will compile them for you right in camera, a very nice feature.

It would be remiss of me not to report one other observation from this particular forest.  We had a visitor during our efforts.  Not a particularly great shot.  As usual I was prepared for trees when another opportunity happened by, but here he is.

Now all we need is a squirrel.

Battling an Invasive Pest – The Asian Longhorn Beetle at Dodge Park in Worcester, MA

Worcester, Massachusetts, for those who don’t know, is currently at ground zero in a major battle against an invasive specie, the Asian Longhorned Beetle.  This particular critter probably joined us via wood palette, courtesy of global commerce.  Here are a few links that will give you more information about the pest and the battle if you’re interested.  We paid a visit recently to the front lines of the battle, Dodge Park, in the Burncoat section of Worcester.  Here’s what we saw.  (Click on the image for a better view.)

(You can see the full sized panorama posted at gigapan, and get geographic coordinates for the shot here.)  If you take a visit to Dodge Park via Google Earth, this is not what you’ll see, at least not yet.  Their most recent satellite photos will show a park that is completely forested, largely with maples.  All of the maples and other susceptible trees were cut down in the past few months from what I am told. You don’t see any stumps in this image because the stumps have to be ground up as well.  The Beetle can’t live in ground wood evidently, so the wood can actually be repurposed to an extent, in this case to make paths through the now rather Martian looking landscape.  It’s quite eerie there.  The good news is that the State’s Division of Conservation and Recreation is now involved in doing some replanting.  This is a big park though, and recovery will take some time.

The battle is not without controversy.  The taking of the trees, which is actually a Federal (Department of Agriculture) and not a State decision obviously has a terrible aesthetic and natural set of consequences.  Indeed, as reported in a recent Boston Globe article, some scholars question the value of some fights against invasive species. (Though evidently very few question the value of the fight against the Beetle.)  What is at stake of course are the economic consequences of not fighting the Beetle, including the loss of the maple syrup industry in Vermont if the critters make it that far north (a possibility to be sure) as well as significant impacts on the lumber industry.  Government intervention to stop the spread of disease is as old as humanity and often quite necessary, though at the same time, painful.

On the other hand, it is difficult to know what we could possibly do to stop an invasive such as Pine Needle Scale, which I’ve written about frequently.  The reality is, the Red Pines will die, and other species will reclaim their place in the sun. Perhaps the question as to whether or not to fight an invasive isn’t the only one we should consider.  Another question might have to do with lessons learned.  On our visit to Dodge Park we had the pleasure of chatting with a DCR supervisor who was happy to answer our questions.  She said that one of the factors that promoted this particular epidemic was the Great Worcester Tornado of 1953.  The tornado passed through this part of the City and obliterated much of the standing shade trees. Replanting at the time relied heavily on  one particular species of maple, a species highly susceptible to the Beetle.  Mono species populations packed in too tightly are in general more vulnerable to the spread of disease.    This is true of Red Pines, Maples and who knows what else.  Diversity, in the face of global travel and global warming, is likely a very good thing.

The Spring Forest

As I have complained about here before, creating compelling visual imagery of a forest is a challenge.  It’s not that forests aren’t visually interesting or fascinating in and of themselves.  Increasingly I’ve come to believe that there’s just too darn much going on.  So what you can do?  One approach, to  focus on chunks rather than the whole thing.  That’s what I’ve tried to do here.  We had the chance to visit a wonderful forest fully engaged in springtime a few weeks back, The Chamberlain-Reynolds Memorial Forest in Center Harbor, New Hampshire.  This is a wonderful working forest that borders squam lake. There were quite a few more birch trees than I’m used to seeing, which was a refreshing change from a photographic standpoint.  Now you’re definitely going to have to click on the images to appreciate the site.  Remember I’m simplifying here, so help me out.

As is the case for most of our forests, this was once farmland.

It is now largely utilized by the community for recreation and spiritual matters.  The trails are in terrific shape.  It has other jobs to do as well.

Just below this scene is an active loading area for logs.  Harvesting on a sustainable basis is taking place here on behalf of the owners, the New England Forestry Foundation.  The forest will survive I’m betting, in part because it’s got a job to do.  It’s been going on for some time.

For those who may have seen enough forest after a mile or so, there is a payoff at the end of the trail.