At Hall's Pond

Spring colors was created in 2005. I was a little burned out after a long winter when I decided to capture the beauty of Hall's Pond throughout the year. For this project I went to the wildlife sanctuary at least once a week for a complete year to document the changes in my photographs. Wildlife sanctuary Hall's Pond is such an amazing place and provides a diverse flora and fauna in the middle of the city. On this particular early Spring morning I made it out of bed and went to visit the pond; Great Blue Heron was in his usual spot, so was a Black Crowned Night Heron. A Comoran was on the hunt for his breakfast and red winged blackbirds were singing along. I walked along the boardwalk enjoying the place all to myself. Morning light was braking through and started bringing out the colorful bushes and scrubs on the other side of the pond. As often the most difficult parts were to be patient and wait until the light was right and to find an open view across the pond. I tried from the boardwalk but had no luck. I then left the boardwalk and made my way a few yards along a tiny path to the edge of pond. I extended my tripod to eye level and equipped it with my 35 mm camera. 300 mm lens already installed, I zoomed fully in to 300 mm cropping out any disturbing backgrounds. The camera was set at smallest aperture setting to allow for great depth of field throughout the photograph. Camera angle and sunlight were at almost 90 degree for optimal polarization. I rotated the polarizing filter to the point of its greatest impact, bringing out the full glory of the colors and reducing any glare on the leafs. Using the automatic camera timer to minimize camera shaking I captured a handful of photographs and was very delighted once I got the final prints back from my local lab. Spring colors was one of the first images that I sold and until now it remains one of my most favorite images.