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!

Images that Change the World – Updated

I recently had a wonderful video drawn to my attention by Stephen Gingold, a terrific nature photographer from central/western Massachusetts.  (You can catch up with Stephen’s blog here.)  The video, only about three minutes long, presents the work of Philip Hyde.  Hyde was a student of Ansel Adams and one of the founders of what might now be called the environmental photography movement.  Hyde’s work raised awareness of man’s impact on the environment and provoked a number of critically important conservation initiatives.  As we contemplate the fact that this year humanity resumed increasing the amount of carbon dioxide we pump into the atmosphere, the fracking of rocks to find natural gas (which will greatly impact the water supply in places like Pennsylvania) and the recent effort in the House of Representatives to link continuing the tax cut for the middle class in the US to the building of an unneeded sludge pipeline from Canada to the Gulf Coast (those two things have a lot in common now don’t they), Hyde’s memory seems more relevant than ever.  Oh, and he was also an incredibly gifted photographer.

Update:  This blog has proven quite popular which is great, but, typical for me, I neglected to provide you more information about Philip Hyde and his recent exhibit. You can find that at the blog written by his son, Landscapephotographerblogger.com. This is one of the most interesting and sophisticated blogs on environmental, nature and landscape photography on the web. If this is an interest of yours, check it out.

Farewell to the Fall Foliage

Fall in New England is definitely photography season.  Though actually any season is “photography season” if you play your cards right.  But fall brings with it color.  Our eyes are have been trained by evolution to see green.  That’s where there’s food and where other critters tend to hide.  Being good at seeing green is as such helpful. That’s what we do for a living.  What we really like, however, is color, red and yellow in particular.

These are a few final shots from this past fall.  The image above was taken on a very windy day at Gate 35 in the Quabbin Reservoir.  Below, Silver Cascade in the White Mountains of New Hampshire.

Now we move to a different color palette.  (The Quinapoxet River, West Boylston, MA)

And I get the urge for going.  (Thank you Joni Mitchell.)