Autumn is the season of beauty in New England, as color abounds across the landscape and cool days provide a reprieve from the Summer heat. Skies bring restorative rains, as the final bit of growth occurs in the fields that are readying for harvest time.
The Yoga Tree is not one for garish displays, as she prefers the subtle muted tones that she is beginning to display here. Over the following weeks, she will shed her remaining leaves and retreat into the inner strength that servers her well for the upcoming season of Winter.
Hope you enjoy this final image in the set of seasons.
During the hot days of Summer, this proud Lady of the Fields stands coolly among the verdant landscape that surrounds her. The fields are full of vibrant energy, as the corn is beginning to come up, and the trees in the distance are full of green life.
The Yoga Tree may disguise her form during these months, as she uses the abundance of the Sun’s energy to replenish her stores for the upcoming seasons, but her spirit radiates from every fiber of her being. She stands as a proud protectress of the fields, where the farmers toil to produce the season’s crop.
As the best shot of this week was Doane’s Falls featured frozen in the Winter in New England post, I thought that it might be interesting to take something from the archives.
Today’s image is ‘Searching for Answers’, which was created in 2014 during a workshop held by Brooke Shaden in Yonkers, NY. As I mentioned in an earlier post, taking a workshop with Brooke is truly inspirational and truly energizing! Please check out Brooke’s blog Promoting Passion, where she shares a lot of detail about her process and approach to creating her stunning images.
About The Image
We were shooting in a wonderful, old mansion that is undergoing a slow, thoughtful renovation. When I walked into the library and saw the curtains and beautiful woodwork, I immediately had the idea of an ethereal being coming from the past to look for understanding of what happened during her life, which is the source for the title.
As luck would have it, we did have access to a wonderful red dress that looked great on Steph, the model in this shot. Next steps were to make her float in the right location in front of the bookshelves and to ensure that the rest of the room played along just right.
The planning made the post-processing a breeze; only about 4 hours’ work to get that done.
Hope you like this image, and, if there’s interest, I would be happy to do a post that talks in more detail about the entire process.
Spring is the season of renewal, when Nature returns to her full glory from the long sleep that is Winter.
The Yoga Tree shows the beginnings of a season of growth and rebirth, readying to put on her best Summer dress. The field around her is also showing the first signs of growth, as the grasses are recovering and soon the corn field will be planted.
She stretches out beautifully, while she prepares for the next dance, a round to Le Quatro Stagioni, as she cycles through the years with unending grace.
When I saw this week’s photo challenge, my decision was easy! Four different views of the one constant in my photography: Yoga Tree!
Winter’s Beauty
In Winter, she truly shows her inner beauty, stretching to the sky in a majestic pose. She stands strong against against the elements, radiating the energy that she contains, awaiting the command to regenerate for Spring.
You cannot travel the path
until you have become the path itself.
*****
Gautama Buddha
Technical Details
This is a scene in Baxter State Park in northern Maine that I captured back in 2006 during a weekend filled with moose! The weather was pouring rain most of the time and densely overcast on this day. I wound up shooting this at 1/40 sec, f/5.6 at 800 ISO (handheld).
The camera was a Canon EOS 1D MkII with a Sigma 50-500mm lens attached (it’s a beast!).
Last year, I went to visit my mother for her birthday; of course, we took the opportunity to go see some of the old sights! Here’s one…
Volendam Fishing Boats
Volendam is a picturesque town in the province of North Holland on the shore of the IJsselmeer, which used to be a sea, named the Zuiderzee. It originally was the harbor for Edam (well-known for its cheese), but in 1357 the inhabitants of Edam dug a more direct canal route to the Zuiderzee, so the harbor’s dam was used as a starting point for filling in the land, on which the new town of Volendam was settled.
These days, the town of Volendam is popular with tourists, as the houses have their own, inimitable style and many locals dress in traditional clothing to give the feel of being transported into a past several centuries ago.
It’s a great place to visit and when I noticed these fishing boats lined up in this fashion I couldn’t resist getting a shot of the scene.
Technical Data
This was shot with a Canon EOS 5D MkIII, using the in-camera HDR option. One fine day, I will actually catch up with image editing and processing and do a proper job, but, in the mean time, I still like this one.
This week, I am going back to one of my many agility photos and am picking one of my favorite obstacles to photograph, the A-frame.
Whoooaaa!
This image was taken in October, 2010, at the Cape Cod Kennel Club AKC agility trial in Falmouth, Massachusetts. It was a beautiful day with great light and a pretty good breeze, so the dogs were ready to run!
Clearly, this pug had a good head of steam, when cresting the A-frame, which, for this jump height, stands at 5’0″ (apps. 1.52 m). For a small dog, that is quite a height; if we’d scale this for the average human, it would be 4-5 times as high! Luckily, these dogs are well-trained and quite used to it, but it is still a feat of courage for them to fly over this A-frame at speed.
Out of curiosity, have any of you run your dogs in agility or other competitions?
“Whether you succeed or not is irrelevant, there is no such thing. Making your unknown known is the important thing–and keeping the unknown always beyond you.”
– Georgia O’Keeffe
Arbor Fugit
Bringing the unknown into the light, exploring what might lie hidden, changing our view of the world around us, these are all aspect of the Kryptomorphaics series.
Here, in Arbor Fugit, I explore the energies that are stored in this powerful weeping willow, its ability to filter and re-radiate the light that it accepts from the Sun. One of the surprising aspects to me was the variety in color cast that came from this wondrous tree.
What do you sense in this image? Does it call out certain things?
Dutch goes the Photo! 