The campus previously lay fallow under a winter break snow crust, but we once again (just as in August) successfully managed to safely return the students to campus for another semester at St. Lawrence University.
Tag: Winter
Six Views of Payson and Piskor
As I did in the past, I captured a time sequence of views of St. Lawrence University’s Payson and Piskor Halls (with the ultimate goal of making a dynamic desktop for macOS.) A steady tripod and a very large lens skirt made this possible.
I: Morning
II: Late Afternoon
III: Sunset
IV: Blue Hour
V: Night
VI: Dawn
Sykes in the Winter
Unlike the generally empty dorms of St. Lawrence over winter break, Sykes is home to many of our international students who remain on campus. The traditional architecture seems natural under a crust of ice, with a sort of “Harry Potter staying at Hogwarts” vibe.
Sky for a New Semester
Though St. Lawrence’s students are arriving to campus in a safety-mandated trickle over the next few weeks instead of a single-day flood, there’s still a sense of the snow-blanketed halls coming back to life. I love the energy of a college campus in full swing.
North Country Farmscape
After days of rain, show finally settled over the North Country on Christmas afternoon. With little bits of grass poking above the snowy hillsides, I’m reminded of a sort of low-rent English countryside equivalent.
Night Square I & II
The gradual shift from sodium vapor lamps to white LEDs as the primary light source for public places means that this transitional period produced odd night images with dominant oranges and blues produced from trying to balance the color temperatures.
That color contrast makes every scene look a bit like a movie poster.
Canal Through Suburbs
Chicagoland’s nearly 2D topography and nineteenth-century population boom conspired to make for a remarkably uniform grid of structures and roads. Even the water that might “go rogue” in another setting is often confined to the grid.
Ganglion
Passing this tree on the way home from work each evening, I can’t help but be reminded of the intersections among nerve cells called ganglia.
Photographing Prague Castle
It turned out that, after a week of bland gray skies, I wasn’t the only person attracted to Prague Castle on a beautiful afternoon.
Stairs Beyond Prague Castle
While Prague Castle’s position on a hilltop is apparent from the south side, the opposite side of the fortress is equally isolated from its surroundings by a steep and wooded hillside.
Castle Yard and Modern Prague
I’ve long looked to capture gradients from nature to civilization in my images, but I think this one captures a gradient, instead, through time. The foreground, among the Royal Gardens of Prague Castle, seems so ancient in contrast with Old Town in the middle-distance and the twentieth-century additions to the city on the horizon.
Lake Michigan Coast
Where Illinois meets Lake Michigan, a sunny winter afternoon makes a natural instance of the “classic” orange and teal look.
Preparing in Prague
This corner of Prague Castle is in an area historically home to women of the castle; I can’t imagine the experience, a couple of hundred of years ago, of dressing in the morning with the view of Old Town across the river.
Sodium Emission vs. Rayleigh Scattering
We’re not far from the ninth anniversary of the founding of Decaseconds, and I came upon this arresting image of Berkeley Marina, the Marin Headlands, and the Golden Gate Bridge (never before published here) while searching for just the right anniversary shot. I’m fascinated by the way the orange emission of sodium vapor lamps lighting Berkeley (I’m sure now all swapped for white LEDs) matches the Rayleigh-scattered oranges of the winter sunset. The same wavelengths of light, coming from completely different mechanisms.
Finally Daylight in Prague
After a week of overcast November days, the emergence of Rayleigh-scattered blue in the skies above Prague meant I hurried to the top of St. Vitus Cathedral to get the pictures of Old Town of which I’d been dreaming.
Decaseconds 