WHERE MY CAMERA TAKES ME – II

It would be a cliche to refer to my camera as my flying carpet so pay no attention to this sentence.  My camera, however, does, indeed, travel with me, and I gather scenes along the way.  Typically there aren’t enough to justify a post so once in a while I thumb through that hamper and find some scenes to speak with you about.

A few weeks ago we drove down to Winterthur, always a pleasant trip.  We were early or the March bank was late so most of the daffodils and blue scilla were just watching the weather channel and waiting.  The hillsides, nevertheless, were handsome and there were lots of flowers here and there including crocuses such as these.

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I liked the image but it wasn’t a great scene so I “enhanced” it with Topaz’s Impression software filter.  I like it better, now.

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I also liked this Winterthur scene below.  Some of the blue scilla can be seen but mostly snow drops (Galanthus).  What struck me, however, were the tall trees against the dark sky, with last year’s leaves still in place, lit by cross-lighting which is always a more dramatic light (thanks to Kurt Budliger for teaching me that a couple years ago).

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We’ve also been to the beach a couple of times, in fact to a couple of beaches.  I wanted to revisit the Foxes of Island Beach (a good name for a novel?).  My colleagues and friends have enjoyed many excellent captures there this winter and I had meant to get down before the snow melted but life got in the way.  Anyway, a nice visit and here’s one of the results.  I was pleased with this uncropped image taken with my lens at 105mm.

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On yet another day we visited the place where summer lives.  It was a glorious yes-spring-is-coming day.  This scene is from the beach at Holgate.  Please no letters and phone calls about the specular light reflections.  I did use my polarizer but I love this kind of light and I refuse to dampen it all away.  Also, yes, Atlantic City’s casinos should be in the background but it didn’t fit my artistic intent.  Let them get their own photographers.

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Now, what else has happened?  Oh, yeah, spring seems to have arrived here on campus.  I enjoyed this scene this past week as the cherry blossoms emerged.

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Walking on the red trail behind my apartment I found this tree in beautiful bloom.  This was more into the woods and so didn’t have an arboretum name plate.  My best guess is wild cherry but I’m consulting others more knowledgeable.  Regardless of its name it was lovely.

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 Finally for this post, Barbara and I attended a party at Basking Ridge and then elected to drive home through Frenchtown, a pleasant little community on the Delaware River with a bridge over to Pennsylvania.  We’ve enjoyed a visit here before.  One crosses over a small river when entering Frenchtown which continues on to the nearby Delaware.  It takes almost as long to say the name of the river, the Nishisakawick, as it does to drive through town.  It’s a quirky little village with some fun shops and good eating places.

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Just down Route 29 from the village center we found an eclectic shop owned by Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, a search for everything across Italy, India and Indonesia.  My daughter, Sigrid, knew of it and suggested we visit it.  The shop, more a warehouse, is filled with statuary from those countries, numerous other goodies, and a free fresh popcorn.  On the way out I photographed this Dancing Shiva in silhouette, a symbolic end to a lovely weekend.

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