Tree – Page 5 – Decaseconds

Winter Comes to the Adirondacks

2013-Oct-282013-Oct-28 adohertyh4 Comments

On my way back from my conference in Connecticut, I drove through the Adirondacks, where winter is arriving fast. The hills were dusted with snow and all but the most tenacious leaves were carpeting the forest floor. I pulled off the road for this shot in Tupper Lake, where the grasses, placid waters, and stubbly hills matched perfectly with the dense clouds and the random distribution of sunlight. The moment felt chaotic, strange—just a bit primeval. I had a chance to do landscape photography that truly excluded any human intrusion (save the eye of the photographer himself.)

Saturday Morning in the North Country

2013-Oct-23 adohertyh1 Comment

When I have to be up early to shoot a horse show, I make certain to take advantage of the occasion. In looking across the autumn North Country fields, I was amused by the “chronological asymmetry” between the looming living tree and the stump of “tree-past.”

Vancouver Towers

2013-Sep-16 adohertyhLeave a comment

Vancouver can be a bit of an alien place at times. Gazing across the water, I don’t know that any image better represents the combination of dense urbanity, maritime connection, and epic nature than this one does. With the last warm hues of sunlight reflecting from the water and the windows, the blues of the forest (and night) beyond begin to dominate.

Nitobe Tree

2013-Aug-26 adohertyh2 Comments

While I’m on the trend of remembering summers past (and mourning the end of our own summer), I’m also going to reminisce about our trip to the University of British Columbia’s Nitobe Memorial Garden last summer. Look at that lushness. Foliage everywhere. And, as I like to joking call it, the “enormous bonsai tree” framing the soft scene.

Tree Tunnel

2013-Jun-03 adohertyh2 Comments

Driving into the canopy of trees on the way to Grizzly Peak means relief from all of the stress of work and life, and a moment with the beautiful roads of northern California. Today is my last day in Berkeley, and so I can’t think of a more fitting metaphor for finishing graduate school and moving away. On the Rimway, as in life, adventure is ahead.

Alpine Brew

2013-Apr-032013-Apr-02 adohertyhLeave a comment

I only spent two nights in the surreal alpine mountainscape of Oregon’s Timberline Lodge. Though my previous photos were either in the dark of night or far-off scenes, I’m quite enamored of this morning shot. The mountaintop and the slopes stand in the distance, the morning light is casting long shadows, and the shiny carafes of coffee promise a sharp start.

Sinister Ginko

2013-Jan-112013-Jan-11 adohertyhLeave a comment

The days just after Thanksgiving hold still, quiet moments; the early morning fog was thick, viscous, and sinister as the fairy tale stuff. The poisonous-looking red berries, the gnarled tree limbs, and the mysterious lamposts all seem plucked from the forests of Fillory. The somewhat shallow depth of field makes it particularly surreal.

Port in a (Snow) Storm

2012-Dec-28 adohertyh3 Comments

This week, a massive snow and ice storm smashed the Northeast. As night fell, so did the snow. Across the street, with the wind blasting the fresh snow into weird drifts, this home looked particularly inviting.

Duchess Sunset

2012-Dec-26 adohertyhLeave a comment

Sunset over New York’s Duchess County (as seen from the northwestern edge of Connecticut) glazed the land with an epic but bucolic light. The fields stretched out under a dusting of snow and Christmas lights glinted in the distant houses. The icing on the cake was the smell of woodsmoke on the evening air.
This is what New England is all about.

Decorate the Tree

2012-Dec-242012-Dec-24 adohertyhLeave a comment

Christmas time is here again, and Decaseconds is over a year old now. Looking back on the Christmas tree from a year ago, this year’s is off to a good start. The Charlie Brown Christmas Special Soundtrack was playing, the lights were turned down low, and we had just gotten the first strings of lights on the tree when I snapped this shot.

Mighty Limbs

2012-Nov-212012-Nov-21 adohertyh1 Comment

Though shots of tree branches are a bit cliche, I was really taken by the massive ginko tree on Berkeley’s campus. On a rainy day, when the leaves are turning to a bright yellow and the bark has that perfect texture, the tree looks like a panel from a Calvin and Hobbes Sunday strip.

Cyberdojo

2012-Oct-262012-Oct-26 adohertyh1 Comment

The University of British Columbia’s campus has the odd quality that many modern campuses do. The vast majority of the buildings are post-war additions, and carry the strong characteristics and visions of each of their respective architects. This particular building caught my eye for the way it integrates a Japanese-style bridge, pool, and island into the courtyard of what could otherwise be a glossy but unremarkable structure.

The combination makes me think of the entrance to some sort of futuristic dojo in a cyberpunk novel. No wonder William Gibson calls Vancouver home.

After Christmas

2012-Jun-292013-Jun-12 adohertyhLeave a comment

One of my earliest posts displayed the surreal beauty of Christmastime in the frigid suburbs of Chicago; given that much of the country is experiencing the balmy joy of summer, I thought a wee reminder of chillier times might be appropriate. (This photograph also continues what has apparently become a series, “Trees Next to Buildings.”)

Rain on the Plaza

2012-Jun-27 adohertyh1 Comment

Today’s image is the result of a little experiment I did, in which I limited myself to shooting only with a simple prime lens. This is perhaps my favorite image that stemmed from the experience: Berkeley’s historic Lewis Hall on a rainy afternoon. The reflections from the wet concrete buildings, the grid of the plaza’s brick pattern, and the intricate array of the hall’s windows combine to produce such a strong sense of place. In contrast with these hard, angular, man-made structures are the curves of the redwood trees. Would the picture have been better, had I taken it with a wide-angle zoom lens? I’m really not sure.

Broad Tree

2012-May-14 adohertyh1 Comment

Berkeley really does have some truly gorgeous vignettes, both on- and off-campus. This shot of a tree on Hearst Ave. last fall is so conveniently lit to accentuate the broad reach of its branches and their solidity relative to the leaves in the stiff breeze.