At Hall's Pond

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!

At Jamaica Pond

Since the first time I saw this tree in the middle of Jamaica Pond I have been fascinated by it. My wife Helen and I sometimes walk around the pond for a stroll and I often think about how to capture this tree at its most beautiful. I never succeeded or even really tried since the shoreline behind is covered with the boat house and residential buildings. Last year though, on a foggy morning, I decided to make my way over to the Boston Arnold Arboretum for a photo excursion. When I turned the keys to start up my car that morning I already knew that I was in for a special treat. When driving up the road leading to Jamaica Pond I saw heavy fog across the pond. Excitement immediately rose and a smile crossed my lips. When I finally turned around the corner to the main pond road the perfect picture arose out of fog. Best of all there was no distracting background. I instantly made a u-turn to park the car, pulled out my tripod from the trunk and walked down to the shoreline and followed the dirt path around the pond looking for the best composition. I didn't need to walk far and only a few joggers passed me I set-up the tripod, composed my image a little bit off center and included the tree reflection. The focal length was zoomed to about 80mm and the aperture setting was f/5.6 resulting in a shutter speed of 1/13 sec. Once I knew I had my image I took a deep breath of joy and moved on to my original destination, the Boston Arnold Arboretum.

Monthly Photo Tip - December 2009

Silky and velvety water effects are best photographed with a tripod for optimal image quality and minimum blurriness of the surrounding landscape during the desired longer exposure times. The polarizer filter not only reduces image brightness and provides longer exposure times but also eliminates reflections from wet surfaces and increases color saturation.
Shutter speeds at around 1/2 through 1/15 of a second produce velvety and silky effects for streams, rivers and cascading water. A good starting point for waves and surfs are shutter speeds up to 1 second or more. Freezing action starts with shutter speeds of 1/30 of a second or faster depending on your focal length.

In Cambridge

A couple of weekends ago, Helen and I took a long walk from Brookline to Cambridge along the Charles river. It was one of these windy beautiful fall mornings in Boston. When she called home to check in, I got my camera ready for shooting leaves blowing in the wind. The leaves were swirling all over the place and I thought it might make for an interesting photograph. I actually had this on my mind for quite some time now but never got around to capturing anything close. I went down on the ground to get a different perspective, zoomed all out to set the lens to its widest wide angle setting, focused on the leaves in front of me and waited for the next wind gust to blow the leaves across the field. Then I waited again and captured the next round of images. At one point the camera view was half covered by a single leaf which made for an interesting capture as well. The one shown here is my favorite photograph of the series because of the minimum depth of field; it is closest what I was hoping to capture with my camera.

In Brookline

New England Landscape photography is on display in the solo exhibit New England Landscapes. The exhibition features 11 New England landscape photographs from the Boston Arnold Arboretum to Acadia National Park. The exhibit runs from November 20, 2009 through January 15, 2010 and is organized by the Brookline Commission for the Arts. Photographs are on display in the gallery of the Selectmen's Hearing room of the Brookline Town Hall, 333 Washington Street.

In Cambridge

Cape Cod Solitude on display in the group exhibit "Red It's more than a color" at the University Place Gallery in Cambridge, MA. All artwork was juried by Carl Belz, Director Emeritus of the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University. The exhibition features many artists and runs from November 10, 2009 through January 14, 2010 in the Kathryn Schultz gallery and University Place gallery. The Kathryn Schultz gallery is located at 25 Lowell St. in Cambridge, MA 02138 and is open to the public Tuesday through Saturday, 11am to 5pm. University Place gallery is only a block away at 124 Mt. Auburn St. in Cambridge, MA 02138 and is open Monday through Friday from 9am to 6pm and Saturday 9am to 1pm.

At Boston Arnold Arboretum

People often ask me about my locations and are surprised that most of my images are taken locally. The snow covered evergreens are pften assumed to be from Vermont. Never been there for the snow season. These evergreens are actually in the Boston Arnold Arboretum which is located the middle of Boston. It was a mostly cloudy day after a heavy snowfall and most of New England was under a beautiful white snow blanket. I went out early in the morning and walked through the snow looking for great photo opportunities. It was not the great photography adventure I had expected but when I was about to leave the sun came out for a brief moment spotlighting the evergreen near one of the main entrances. The magic moment I was hoping for finally unfolded in front of me. The dark clouds in the background provided more dramatic appeal to the image and benefited the overall composition. I quickly opened my tripod, with the camera already mounted on it, composed a pleasing composition and captured a round of images. The moment only lasted for seconds until the sun disappeared again behind the clouds. With 3 to 5 inches in the forecast for tonight I am thinking of going back to the Boston Arnold Arboretum tomorrow morning to give it another try. The forecast predicts snowfall over night and a partially cloudy morning. Perfect conditions!

Photo of the Month at 20% Off - December

new york city skyline photo prints
waterfall photos
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waterfall photo prints