Seasonal

Flowering Trees at a Cemetary

Kevin

I love the season of flowering trees; sadly, in the northeast, the season only lasts maybe six weeks.

Ornamental flowering trees are commonly planted in many different spaces ranging from residential gardens to corporate office parks. One category that commonly hosts plantings of beautiful trees is cemeteries. While it may seem odd to some people, I’ve seen people of all sorts and ages strolling through cemeteries, even having a picnic. Last weekend, I visited a cemetery in Wakefield. Although the crabapple trees had all dropped their colorful petals, I counted more than two dozen dogwood trees in bloom.

From that short excursion, I wanted to share a comparison of two images of the same tree but photographed with wide-angle lens and a telephoto lens. There are a few reasons why you might choose to use one or the other. When in doubt, shoot them both.

The first reason you might choose a telephoto lens is because you can’t get close enough to your subject. I personally encountered that scenario a couple weeks ago, stopping to photograph cherry trees in bloom at a cemetery where the gates were locked. I photographed from outside the fence using a 100mm lens.

The second reason you might choose to use a telephoto lens is to control the background. The narrow field of view may enable you to exclude elements from the background. And a wide-angle lens can include more background, for more environmental context. In the two photos I’ve shared here, both the telephoto and the wide-angle image do show the environment context, but a telephoto also allowed me to exclude the tombstones entirely.

A third reason to choose either telephoto or wide-angle is depth perception. Wide-angle lenses commonly exaggerate distance; multiple subjects in the photograph appear to be farther apart, compared to using a longer/telephoto focal length. Conversely, telephoto lenses tend to compress distance, making multiple subjects (at different distances from the camera) appear closer together.

Lastly, when you have multiple subjects at very different distances, a telephoto lens combined with a small aperture may allow blurring the background – if that’s the effect you’re seeking to create. Both the images here employ an aperture about f\4.5.

2021 Cherry Blossom Watch : Boston MA

2021 Cherry Blossom Watch : Boston MA

Kevin

For some folks, the annual blooms of flowering trees are highly treasured. While other trees – magnolias, crabapple, etc – are spectacular, ornamental cherry trees are commonly deemed to be the pinnacle of flowering trees. In Japan, the word Hanami means the viewing enjoyment of flowers (hana), but specifically the blossoms of cherry trees.

In Tokyo Japan, the reported peak blooming occurred around March 22. In Washington D.C., it was March 28 this year. But here in the northeast USA, the blooming is just starting.

Here are a few samples from Boston this past weekend. The first photo is of a Saucer Magnolia in full bloom. The squirrel sits upon a Yoshino Cherry tree that has not yet bloomed at all. The close-ups are both Sargeant Cherry as it was just beginning to bloom.

Winter Light (photography)

Winter Light (photography)

Kevin

The grey season.  In the northeast, wintertime without snow is a drag, particularly for outdoor photographers.  I need some snow here.  Not just on the ground – we need snow sticking to tree branches.

This winter has brought a fair amount of precipitation, but it’s been rain rather than snow.  What little snow we’ve seen has quickly washed away as snow turned into rain. So here are a few shots from last winter.

Old grist mill, in winter
Old grist mill, in winter

 

The first is an old grist mill. It is pretty – I hope that much is obvious. However, the light may not be obvious. The orientation of the mill and surrounding trees doesn’t catch much direct sunlight. The sun is setting on the other side of those trees. The light is what it is and there’s no changing it.

In photography, we have to be aware of the orientation of the subject with regard to the light.   When the light on the subject is not what we would prefer, you can sometimes move the subject, but not if the subject is a building.  You can sometimes move the light, but not if the light happens to be the sun.  You might come back at a different time of day, when the sun is in a different position.  However, I believe this mill is in shadow of the trees both morning and evening.

Church at sunset
Church at sunset

Sometimes, in outdoor photography, using only available light, there’s nothing you can do to change the light on the subject. But you might find a different subject to photograph. Across the street, a church was catching the light of the setting sun. So, I photographed the church. And next to the church is a historic one-room schoolhouse. Nice light, eh?

 

(To see a larger view, click on any image. )

One-room schoolhouse
One-room schoolhouse

I included this last image (schoolhouse) in a recent 2015 wall calendar.

Cherry Blossoms in Washington D.C.

Kevin

2012 is the 100th anniversary of a gift.  The Mayor of Tokyo Japan gave 3000 cherry trees to the people of Washingington DC. That’s a lot of trees. And as they bloom (all at the same time), that’s a riot of pink color that draws a pretty big crowd. But this year, if you did not come to this party early, you missed most of the show.

Normally, the magnificent flowers of these cherry trees begin to bloom around March 24 and peak during first week of April.  This year, the warm weather in March caused the trees to bloom far earlier.  And the show was over on March 25.

The first photo here is from March 23.  The second was shot this morning, March 27.  You can see what happened due to rain and wind over the weekend.

The crowd of people on Friday was crazy.  Almost like the Esplanade in Boston on the Fourth of July (almost). 

Not all is lost.   These cherry trees here are the famoush Yoshino cherry trees.  But there are a few other species that are still blooming nicely, for example the Kwanzan cherry trees are stunning (though there are not nearly as many).  The area around the Jefferson Memorial is quite nice.  And D.C. is looking quite green these days as deciduous trees are beginning to leaf out.

Backyard Bird Photography

Kevin

In 2011,  wildlife photographer Jeff Wendoff told me that I must add wildlife to my photography portfolio.  Got some tips on basic backyard bird photography from Jeff and photographer David Middleton.  The wheels of my progress may move slowly, but they do move.

( Click on any image to see a larger view )

By end of 2011, I had prepared a place to hang bird feeders within clear view of my home windows and I hung my first bird feeder. Within two weeks, the birds began to find the new feeders.  However, having created natural perches for the birds in precise locations where I wanted them to land,  they were not perching here.


A few days ago, I saw the birds begin to perch in the places I had prepared.  When I awoke this morning, there were many birds and they were perching in the right locations.  So I photographed backyard birds for the first time.  It just so happened that snow was falling, which added an extra special touch of beauty.

Sitting next to a window and photographing from the comfort of my home, these birds are perhaps 35-ft away. I found that my telephoto lens did not have quite enough reach.  The birds appear quite small in the original images; so the photos attached here are cropped about 50% from original size.

I used a class of camera known as Micro Four-Thirds (MFT) with a 45-200mm lens at maximum telephoto (200mm).  If I had used my Full-Frame DSLR, I would have needed a 400mm lens to capture the same field of view.  That’s because the image sensor on any MFT camera is 1/2 the size of Full-Frame  (for you Nikonians out there, that means “FX” format).  To get a tighter shot, I will need big glass.

 

St.Patricks Day Parade in Southie

Kevin

From California to Georgia, there are a dozen notable St.Patrick’s Day parades that are staged annually in the United States.  But the mac daddy of them all occurs in South Boston.  In 1737 the Irish Society of Boston hosted the first parade to honor St. Patrick’s Day.  Today, this parade can draw a crowd of spectators numbering more than 800,000.  You won’t find big expensive floats like the Rose Bowl Parade or Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade, but come on now … the Irish are bit more down to earth.  This parade is a casual affair.  People have fun.

Above all else, anyone thinking of attending this event should be aware of one thing … don’t expect to find a parking space!  Take public transportation.  Parking in Southie is a scarce on normal days; but when the parade route is cleared of all parked vehicles, those displaced vehicles (belonging to local residents) fill every available nook and crany.

 The light was a bit challenging this year … bright sun and deep shadows.  In such situations, a little fill-flash is often the solution to reducing unwanted facial shadows.  Though I had a flash in my bag, I neglected to use it because it has been quite some time since I have done a shoot in this light.   This means a lot more work in post-processing to recover the shadow details (not something I really want to do if I can avoid it.)

(click on an image to see a larger view)

http://www.saintpatricksdayparade.com/boston/boston.htm