This is a somewhat random collection of photos taken during the middle weeks of July. All were shot with a camera I got for Christmas and has become my main “non-serious” camera, a Sony RX10 IV. It is great for hiking and just walking around. Its large focal length range is great, it has a decent size sensor, its controls are well placed, and it has an amazing number of features. It focuses well for a mirrorless camera, but not nearly as fast or as reliably as my Nikon DSLRs.
Four of us hiked from Orford to Lyme over Smarts Mountain. Driving to the Orford trailhead we spotted a bear with a cub. You might be able to spot the cub peeking over a tree stump near the right edge of one of the photos here. The cub knew to climb a tree. I got a poor photo of it up a tree, mostly hidden by leaves and branches, so I inserted a substitute from Sunapee in the slide show below.
I took this photo at the ranger’s cabin near the summit of Smarts.
We climbed the fire tower, but unfortunately the broken windows had been repaired and photographing through the reflective glass just didn’t work. So I had to climb a bit down in order to make the 5-photo panorama shown below.
You can click the above image to get to a site where I have inserted a version of this photo with the mountains and lakes labeled. You can zoom into the image and then pan around. When you get to the site, which will open in a new tab, click the double arrow above the image on the right to see it full frame. Please wait for the resolution to download. You can use the + and – keys to zoom and the arrow keys to scroll. Or use the scroll wheel to zoom and the left mouse to drag.
On the long hike down, we got a nice view of the summit from Lambert Ridge …
… as well as a view of Mount Kearsarge and Black Mountain through the haze.
After a cool, wet spring, July was quite warm, at times downright hot. But this made for some interesting clouds from time to time. In the last two photos of the slide show below you can see some cloud iridescence.
I photographed Least Bitterns, the subject of a blog you can read if you CLICK HERE. I also photographed a turkey vulture, mammals, a brass insect, and a strange shadow.
We spent some time in the Sunapee area. Here are photos from Sunapee, Sutton, Wilmot, and New London.
I spent some time working to photograph ruby-throated hummingbirds. I was only able to get photos of females.
Here are a few flowers and wildflowers I found in my travels. The tall brown plant is Dock, a common and tasty edible weed in spring. The brown seeds are apparently also edible, though I would not eat them.
A group of us hiked up and over Mount Kearsarge. We ascended the long way on the Link and Lincoln Trails from Sutton and then descended the Barlow Trail in Wilmot. Along the Link Trail were some amazing glacial erratics.
There were some beautiful ferns near where the Lincoln Trail meets the easy trail from Rollins State Park.
In the photo below, we have just climbed the short, but very steep, part of the Lincoln Trail. Black Mountain is in the background.
The fire tower was being rebuilt. This apparently has messed up the normally easy Rollins Trail, which we did not take.
Finally, here is a barn in Haverhill that I simplified to minimize detail.
