The last two weeks of October, 2021
We started the last two weeks of October walking close to home in Etna. I decided I would make a pair of photos to illustrate a photography concept I had a “debate” about with a friend.
Does a long lens compress the scene compared with a wide angle lens. Well, most people would certainly say yes. But if you take a photo with a wide angle lens and a telephoto lens from the same spot, you get the same compression. All the telephoto lens does is crop the scene. In order to create the feeling of expansion and compression in a pair of photos you have to move your feet — a long way typically.
Consider the pair of photos below, taken from the same spot. Did the telephoto focal length in the left photo compress the distance between the telephone poles?
The answer is NO.
I cropped the right hand photo to show the poles in both photos about the same size. The result is lower in quality because of the large crop, but you can see the compression is the same with the wide angle lens and telephoto lens photos taken from the same spot. If you want to change perspective (the size relationship of objects in a photo), you must move your feet.
Still in Hanover, this time a walk in Pine Park. Here is the entrance from the now-departed Hanover Golf Course. I love S-curves in photos.
In Pine Park we found an interesting group of mushrooms. I feel the genus is appropriately named, Phallus. The common name for this mushroom is Ravenel’s Stinkhorn.
Here is the view as we left Pine Park and headed to our car.
We hiked the Rail Trail from Ice House Road. Along the way we found a Yellow American Blusher, in the Amanita genus.
Along the way I made this photo of the hillside across Lake Mascoma.
That evening there was a very colorful sunset over Vermont. Here is Ascutney.
And here is Killington.
Not much to report from this day. Just a walk in Etna with Jann and a nice colorful tree along Three Mile Road. Why is it named Three Mile Road? And why is the Etna Road sometimes called the Two Mile Road? You should be able to figure that out. If not and it is really bugging you, send me an email and I’ll tell you.
We decide to try the trails at Alice Peck Day Hospital this day. We very much enjoyed the two we hiked and will definitely go back. Easy walking for Jann and nice glacial erratics. Near the start we found some Shaggy Inky Cap Mushrooms, commonly known as Shaggy Mane. They are beautiful when young.
The trail was mostly wide and easy.
And there were glacial erratics.
We headed to Norwich to drop off a few quilts Jann has made, and pick up a few more, from a great quilter in the Pompy area. Then we decided to hike Stevens Road in Thetford. It is a beautiful spot where I have photographed many unusual species of birds. And a great farm with wonderful scenes.
Even a view of Smarts Mountain. It is the hard mound in the rear center.
And some good looking cattle enjoying a warm day with puffy clouds and lush green grass.
The feed containers made a nice leading line back to the foliage and sky.
The foliage still had some color when I took a pair of early afternoon photos of Killington (top) and Ascutney (bottom).
Later that afternoon during a walk with Jann, I did a motion blur of some foliage. This is a 1/3 second exposure moving the camera while the shutter is open.
The back road in Hanover we hiked had no traffic and still come colorful leaves.
That evening, shortly after sunset, we had a pair of black bears move through our yard. I was only able to get a few marginal photos through windows.
During a short but hilly walk, we were greeted by this creature hanging around for Halloween.
During a hike in the the UVLT Mill Road Floodplain Preserve, we found this clump of mushrooms.
My friend, Marc, and I decided to spend the morning wandering around southeast of the Upper Valley. The forecast indicated clearing clouds around sunrise which is often a good indicator of a nice sunrise. So we were set up on Dewey Beach in Sunapee before 7 AM when I took this photo.
Sunrises can often be best 30 minutes before the sun comes up. Similarly many people give up on a sunset as soon as the sun drops below the horizon. Marc and I normally wait 20 to 30 minutes more for a possible light show.
I liked how the C-shaped curve in the sand mirrored other curves in this image taken at 7 AM, twenty minutes before sunrise.
The sky changed quickly before the sun rose. Once the sun broke the horizon the show was over. Below is a different angle on that C-shaped curve at 7:10 AM. This image is composed of ten individual photos.
Below are four more photos of this beautiful sunrise as it progressed and morphed.
As the sun was just making its appearance, I photographed two boathouses in the early mist on the lake.
We headed south on Route 10 and stopped in Gilsum at an impressive bridge, one of the highest stone arch bridges in the state. We elected to not hike down the wet and steep trail to the water’s edge to photograph the bridge. Instead I took a photo of a huge mass of red berries along the top of the stonework.
And a view through the trees to the Ashuelot River.
Our next stop was Harrisville, a charming lakeside village that I had not visited for many years. Here are three of the photos I took.
The church is the Harrisville Community Church. The buildings are some of the former mill buildings that benefitted from the extended hill below the lake for water-powered woolen mills that became the lifeblood of the community.
In Antrim we stopped along the North Branch River, formally the North Branch of the Contoocook River, to take some photos of moving water.
Marc had never been to the Eccardt Farm so we stopped in East Washington for a visit. Sadly, most of the non-cattle mammals and birds that gave this farm an unusual character were no longer there. But a few of the barns do have interesting displays.
On a nearby hillside a pair of trees stood tall before the sky.
The sky was blue overhead in Etna when I left home early on the coldest morning so far this fall. As I approached Enfield, I ran into very heavy fog — too heavy for photography. I climbed George Hill and took a photo of a lone tree as the sun was starting to penetrate the fog shortly after rising.
Farther south, in Springfield, I found some interesting cattle in a field.
And a barn nearby.
Back in Enfield at the WMA, I photographed the sun behind fog, some colorful winterberries, and frost on vegetation making an interesting pattern.
Not sure what to expect, I wandered around Hanover and took some photos of fog in the Connecticut River Valley and locally. Here is Mount Ascutney with a piece of Hayes Hill just below it in the fog.
Heading home I spotted a nice scene, stopped, and walked a short distance into a field for these two photos.
Walking into another field I took a photo of a mostly-collapsed barn with a very red tree nearby.
After a day, night, and morning of rain, I headed to Lower Slade Brook, a Hanover Conservancy site, for some photos of the small waterfalls and cascades.
Near a log bench is a tree with a sign saying “WATERFALL” pointing to a waterfall a few yards away. The water comes down and takes a hard left.
Walking a bit downstream, carefully, the leaves and mud were wet and slippery from the rain that had just stopped, the waterfall looked less steep.
Heading back toward my car I photographed a nice cascade.
Here is another view of the same cascade.
I finish with three motion blur images I made during a mid-afternoon walk with Jann in Etna.
