“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” — Elliott Erwitt
Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.
Sunday, 10/20/2024: Posted photo — Past Foliage.
The foliage has past in my area. We do not have bright, vibrant colors. We have the browns of fall. The sky was a great color blue and the contract between the leaves was amazing, especially with the brightness of the sun.
Monday, 10/21/2024: Posted photo — Comet.
If you look closely to the middle of this photo, you can see the comet that I posted last week. The comet is very hard to see with the naked eye tonight. You can see it very clearly when using binoculars and I was lucky to capture it with my phone.
Tuesday, 10/22/2024: Posted photo — Full Moon.
Last week I experimented with new software to stack my photos of the harvest moon. This is a second attempt at it. I am much happier with tonight’s photo. I also used my “moon” lens tonight, getting better starting photos of the moon prior to stacking.
Wednesday, 10/23/2024: Posted photo — Milky Way.
Used a different software tonight to take a photo of the Milky Way. The moon is my primary photography subject. I would like the Milky Way to be my second subject, except I live in an area with many trees so it is a difficult subject.
Unlike moon photos that I have been taken for years, I have only been taking Milky Way photos for a few years.
Thursday, 10/24/2024: Posted photo — Lightning.
I took this photo a few years ago. I was looking at old photos this week, saw this one, and wanted to share it again.
Friday, 10/25/2024: Post photo —Fenway Park.
The baseball championship started today with the best team winning game one.
I that honor, I posted one of my favorite photos from the oldest ballpark in MLB, America’s Most Beloved Ballpark, Fenway Park.
Saturday, 10/26/2024: Post photo — Acorn Cleanup.
Last week I posted about all the acorns in our yard, today I started to clean the up.
“The whole point of taking pictures is so that you don’t have to explain things with words.” — Elliott Erwitt
Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.
Sunday, 10/13/2024: Posted photo — Fall Arrangement.
This is a fall flower arrangement. Fall flower arrangements contain items such as holly, ornamental grasses and eucalyptus. I see many arrangements that contain gourd and mums, such as the one in this photo.
Orange represents positive emotions, such as joy and happiness, as it combines the stimulation of red and the cheerfulness of yellow. These colors are needed this time of year when the daylight dwindles, and people are starting to get emotionally drained.
Monday, 10/14/2024: Posted photo — Wood.
Time to stack wood for the winter. This is the first of two loads of wood that will be delivered to our house. This pile contains three of the five cords of wood that I purchase every year. Some years we burn through it all, other years we have some left over.
We have a little over a cord of wood left over from the last burning season. I have other wood in our yard that has been sitting outside too long. That wood will be brought to the cottage to burn for outdoor fires or to be burnt in the wood stove. The cottage is only a three-season cottage, so burning wood will keep up warm.
A standard, full cord of wood is a volume of 128 cubic feet, measured as a pile 8 feet long, 4 feet high and 4 feet wide. A full cord can weigh up to 5,000 pounds. We have a four cord woodshed in which we can put in a little more than four cords. The blue tarp you see in the photo covers the remaining wood. We burn the wood outside of the woodshed first.
Tuesday, 10/15/2024: Posted photo — Echo Lake, Wachusett Mountain.
This is Echo Lake on Wachusett Mountain. The foliage’s reflection on the lake was the reason for this photo. This photo was taken during last night’s hike. I am a day behind because I wanted to post a photo of the wood at our house for yesterday’s photo and still wanted to post this photo. The lower elevations were clear, and the upper elevations were fogged in. As we were hiking in the fog, there were a few hikers that jokingly asked us if we were going to the summit to see the comet.
Lake or pond, what is the difference? Lakes are normally much deeper than ponds and have a larger surface area. All the water in a pond is in the photic zone, meaning ponds are shallow enough to allow sunlight to reach the bottom. This causes plants (sometimes too many) to grow at the bottom of ponds as well as on their surface. However, sunlight can’t reach the bottom of all areas of lakes. Lakes have aphotic zones, which are deep areas of water that receive no sunlight, preventing plants from growing.
Echo Lake is This 2-acre lake was created in the late 1800’s. It is considered a reservoir since it was created by a dam. According to the Princeton Historical Society, Echo Lake was used in the late 1800’s as an icehouse during the winter. The water from Echo Lake was also pumped up to one of the summit houses as its water supply. The last of three summit houses on Wachusett Mountain burnt in 1970.
This is a composite photo of the comet taken from my phone and my DSLR. It was windy on the summit, and I am happy with my capture of the comet.
Comet Tsuchinshan (C/2023 A3 ATLAS) has an 80,000 year orbit and that it is now approaching its closest pass to Earth. The comet is massive in size and length. Its head currently measures a whopping two miles in diameter. The tail, which is largely comprised of tiny pieces of ice and dust, is believed to be as long as 18 million miles.
Last night’s hike was to see the comet. Monday night’s hike was also to see the comet, but as noted in yesterday’s information, the summit was fogged in so you could not see much in front of you. This one was a little hard to see at first since we arrived at the summit about a half hour after sunset and the sky was still bright in the direction of the comet. As the sky darkened, we were able to see it with the naked eye.
This was not the first comet I have seen, but for a few members of the group it was the first. It is very special to me to see the expressions and joy others have when they see a natural wonder for the first time.
The moon this month is called the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the Full Moon nearest the autumnal (fall) equinox. Took these in the morning on my way to work without my tripod.
I am trying out a new to me moon stacking program called AutoStakkert. I downloaded and installed it today and this is the first photo that I used it on. AutoStakkert has received some great reviews and seems to be one of the go-to programs for astrophotography.
The photos I stacked were taken handheld. Next time I will put my camera tripod. More practice is needed with this new software, so I am off to view YouTube videos and other tutorials.
Friday, 10/18/2024: Post photo —Acorns.
The years that many acorns fall are called “mast years,” and they occur every 2-5 years, with smaller acorn crops in between. A mast year is not a predictor of a severe winter. More acorns may mean more deer and mice.
This is a mast year at my house and in the area. It makes it difficult to hike with all the acorns being covered with the fallen leaves. Sometimes I think it is easier to hike on ice since you know the danger is present. Acorns and wet leaves are very dangerous!
Saturday, 10/19/2024: Post photo — Goose.
Went to the Old Mill today. It has been a very long time since I have taken a photo of the ducks and geese in the duck pond. It might have been the time of day, or the water level, but I remember more ducks and geese in the pond.
“Photograph: a picture painted by the sun without instruction in art.” — Ambrose Bierce
Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.
Sunday, 10/06/2024: Posted photo — Foliage.
Foliage time of year. The leaves are not at peak yet in this area.
A color palette needs pigments, and there are three types that are involved in autumn color:
Carotenoids: Produces yellow, orange, and brown colors in such things as corn, carrots, and daffodils, as well as rutabagas, buttercups, and bananas.
Anthocyanin: Gives color to such familiar things as cranberries, red apples, concord grapes, blueberries, cherries, strawberries, and plums. They are water soluble and appear in the watery liquid of leaf cells.
Chlorophyll: Gives leaves a basic green color. It is necessary for photosynthesis, the chemical reaction that enables plants to use sunlight to manufacture sugars for food.
Monday, 10/07/2024: Posted photo — Mums.
Mums symbolize joy, life, friendship, luck, and rebirth. Part of its beauty is its resilience in the face of a sudden drop in temperatures.
Tuesday, 10/08/2024: Posted photo — Blue Sky.
I took this photo to show the contrast between the blue sky and the leaves starting to change.
Wednesday, 10/09/2024: Posted photo — More Foliage.
Some of the trees in the area are at peak colors. The light off the red caught my eyes, so I took this photo.
There was a surprise tonight when I went out to my car to get something – the Northern Lights. This is a composite photo of the lights. It looks like a heart to me.
This is a photo of what the Northern Lights looked like from my yard. I have many trees on my property so I did not get the full light show until I went up the road a little.
Friday, 10/11/2024: Post photo —Northern Lights Colors.
Second day of the Lights. At the beginning of this year, I have never seen them. So far I have seen them three times.
The Northern Light and a full solar eclipse in one year!
Saturday, 10/12/2024: Post photo — Sunrise near Boston.
I did a sunrise hike this morning. I wanted to do this last week, but I was too tired to do so.
“Taking pictures is savoring life intensely, every hundredth of a second.” — Marc Riboud
Thank you for all the new views and likes from last week, it helps keep me inspired.
Sunday, 09/29/2024: Posted photo — Red Sky.
This photo does not do justice to the view. I did take this photo near the end of the sunrise, but I still liked the colors. I have been using my cellphone to take photos more and more, so I am not always happy with my photos. I have been taken a photo a day since January 1, 2010 and have been attempting new tools. I think I need to go back to take more photos with my camera.
Monday, 09/30/2024: Posted photo — Gazebo.
This is the gazebo in out town common. I did a rookie mistake, taking a photo into the sun. I attempted to fix this photo, but since I took it with my cellphone, I had no luck.
Tuesday, 10/01/2024: Posted photo — View from the Trail.
Why do I hike? For views like this one. Hiking also clears my mind and energies me. This is a view from the Midstate Trail in the Crow Hill area in Leominster State Forest.
Wednesday, 10/02/2024: Posted photo — Sunset.
The group that I was hiking with made it to the summit during sunset. I took this photo as I approached the summit so that I did not loose the colors of sunset.
Thursday, 10/03/2024: Posted photo — Mushrooms.
Rain and moisture breeds mushrooms. Here area some on some logs in our yard,
Friday, 10/04/2024: Post photo —Windmill.
Another hike, another wonderful sunset. This time of year, we are starting our hikes around the time of sunset. It will not be long until we do all our hiking in the dark.
Saturday, 10/05/2024: Post photo — Wachusett.
I wanted to get out of the house on this wonderful day. I took an eight mile hike on the Midstate Trail. I did not want to hike Wachusett today because I anticipated large crowds on the summit and on the trails.
Photo by Joseph Ciras 