Nature – Page 14 – Decaseconds

Edge of the Big Forest

2015-Apr-13 adohertyhLeave a comment

In this particular corner of Connecticut in early spring, the rain and snow combined to make the perfect storybook fog. This image is so quaint and charming, I could swear I’d seen it somewhere before.

But this brings me to another idea: those particular locations in landscape photography so scenic that they are literally ubiquitous. Take the tunnel view in Yosemite, or shots of the Golden Gate Bridge from the Marin Headlands, or downtown Manhattan as seen from the top of Rockafeller Center as examples: is it even possible to make an original composition from such a photographically saturated place? But these places are also photographically saturated for a reason: they’re really, really pretty. Where does that trade-off between originality and beauty fall?

Eden Rain

2015-Mar-13 adohertyh2 Comments

Safari is South Africa is already a lovely experience, but the sense of interacting with Nature one feels on an afternoon, just after a rainstorm with the air filled with petrichor, is superlative.

I felt like a single image couldn’t capture the feeling; the damp darkness of a rainy day is better conveyed in this acacia.

Into the woods

2015-Feb-12 emceehammrLeave a comment

West Seattle’s Lincoln park is a magical place.

Two Trails

2015-Feb-09 adohertyhLeave a comment

I present to you a pair of photographs:

The first is from Muir Woods on the Marin Peninsula of California. That morning was rainy and the colors are rich and dark and the setting is some natural/romantic variety of Baroque. Practically overwhelming.

The second is from Stone Valley this weekend, dry and crunchy with snow, the river mostly frozen at the surface, with currents of dark water beneath. More minimal, more quiet, more subdued. But is this trail any less beautiful than the first?

Fallfire

2014-Oct-17 adohertyh1 Comment

When red leaves are backlit, they seem to glow so unbelievably. HDR photography can turn this setting from charming to almost overwhelming.

Chromatic Beach

2014-Oct-102014-Oct-10 adohertyh1 Comment

On the tiny, summer-camp-esque beach beneath Lampson Falls, the detritus of the falls washes up on the sand and makes for the most pleasing geometry alongside the stratified rock and the “pointy” trees.

Zen at Lampson

2014-Sep-08 adohertyh4 Comments

The arrangement of tiny plants and epic trees and enormous boulders that makes up a Japanese garden is calm and beautiful, but to see the inspirations for those geometries “in the wild,” so to speak, is so much more impressive. Big falls and gnarly roots and little streams make the “real” world just as poetic.

Multnomah Bridge

2014-Aug-29 adohertyh3 Comments

Traveling across America, I can’t help but be astonished by the difference in scale between the East and West Coasts. The Northeast has waterfalls, sure—but nothing like Multnomah falls. (Well, not many.) The majesty must become almost pedestrian after a while when living adjacent to such a place. I particularly like this image two two reasons: the tiny hikers clustered on the bridge add a sense of impossible scale, and cropping out the top of the falls lends the setting a feeling that the falls must continue on forever. In my own tiny way, as well, I really love the tiny insertion of man-made concrete into the otherwise natural scene.

Great Wader

2014-Aug-28 emceehammrLeave a comment

I was amazed at how long I could follow this Blue Heron (I believe?) as it waded through a creek in a park near Kingsport, TN.

Flood Alignment

2014-Aug-06 adohertyhLeave a comment

When the waters come loose from the dam above and run through the trees, the fallen limbs and detritus arrange and align.

Water’s-Eye View

2014-Jul-30 adohertyh1 Comment

Hiking the Raquette River made me constantly aware of the water that produced these geometries—and that was a bit intimidating. When the dam upstream opens, I would imagine that this is just about the “view” of that the enormous surge.

Torrent

2014-Jul-23 adohertyh4 Comments

This torrent of water is, if you can believe it, the Raquette river at a low point. (The gates of the dam up-river would be opened a week or so later, burying this area under an extra blast.) The primal force of a waterfall just calls for you to stick your hand in it—if you’re brave enough.

Camouflage?

2014-Jul-11 adohertyhLeave a comment

I know camouflage is situational, but this is ridiculous.

Morning Rain, Delicate Color

2014-Jul-07 adohertyhLeave a comment

Up early in the morning (to photograph a horse show, naturally), I watched a storm brew over St. Lawrence’s fields. The model-railroad trees and fences and the morning colors scattered through the clouds made it worth being up at such an hour (almost).

African Buffalo

2014-Jul-02 adohertyhLeave a comment

During my safari in Zulu Nyala, I came face-to-face with this Cape buffalo. They’re apparently unpredictable, and have never been domesticated. I appreciate the idea of the “rogue cow cousin,” like the Wolverine of cattle.