Season of Color

Deb and I went for an autumn walk at Whitehall Reservoir in Hopkinton. We'd done paddle boarding there, and thought we'd check out the path around the reservoir. While we didn't have time or energy to go around the entire body of water, we did go partway, and I took some photos. Deb took a few of these as well, but we're not entirely certain exactly which ones.

I took the last few shots in this collection at the Ashland High School.

Reflecting on Fall

Floating Expanse

Stick in the Water

We encountered another hiker/walker with his dog. He said he was okay with me photographing Baxter, who seemed polite enough around us, even if he half hid behind a tree. Baxter has a certain charm, don't you think?

Baxter

Dancing Green

Center Stage

We sat down on a dock, warming in the sun, and took several pictures from that vantage point. Deb took it, and I post-processed it.

Floaties

We think Deb took this one as well, maybe by accident. The camera movement may not have been intentional, but the result is quite satisfying.

Fire Down Below

Half and Half

My zoom lens allowed me to get in close - not nearly as close as this photo would suggest - as this dedicated kayaker went paddling by. His identity is unknown. He seems very engaged in the task at hand.

Paddling Dedication

A Simple Peace

Communicating Kayaks

As mentioned earlier, these next two photos were taken at the high school. This fall color is seen immediately adjacent to the brick building, which is a nice plus for the students.

Bursting on to the Scene

Color Toppers

 All photos © 2021, all rights reserved.  Contact phil@philslens.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Pacifica

Continuing our California adventure, we met up with my son and daughter-in-law in Pacifica. We enjoyed some coastal views as well as a lovely hike in Pacifica's San Pedro Valley Park.

Ravens and crows are hard to tell apart; I'm going to guess this is a Raven. Raven's usually travel in pairs, and this one had a pal on another branch. Crows travel in crowds. Their tail feathers differ, but I missed seeing the tail feathers' shape when this one flew away.

Coastal Raven

Coastline Looking North

Near the end of our hike at San Pedro Valley Park we came across a deer family grazing off our path in the late afternoon sun. They were strongly backlit, so it made for a slight but overall rewarding photographic challenge to capture some shots at 300mm (600mm equivalent). These are all handheld 1/1000 second exposures at ISO 1600, except for "Looking My Way", which was at ISO 1000.

Young Deer

Deer in Sunlight

Questioning Deer

Looking My Way

Older and Wiser Version

All photos © 2018, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Pinnacles Visit

We visited Northern California to get a break from the New England winter weather. Not only was it considerably warmer than our home climate this time of year, we got to visit with my son and daughter-in-law as well; they live in San Francisco. In the first part of the trip, we stayed in Aptos at the northern edge of Monterey Bay, just south of Santa Cruz. We visited Pinnacles National Park on our first full day after arrival. I'm pretty sure I was there once before, but it was many decades ago. Other guests at the B&B where we were staying suggested we go to the east entrance, and we decided to follow their advice. Pinnacles has a west and an east side; there are no direct roads connecting the two sides.

After parking in the Bear Gulch parking lot, we hiked the Overlook Trail (yellow) and the Bear Gulch Cave Trail (green).

Our Pinnacles Hikes

While the Outlook Trail was pleasant, it wasn't as interesting as the hike up to the Bear Gulch Reservoir via the Bear Gulch Cave. There was a light rain shower twice during the Outlook Trail hike, but it didn't bother us too much.

We enjoyed the striking smooth red bark of some of the trees on the trails. After returning home, and doing a bit of googling, I've decided this is a Manzanita tree. I've seen them before when I lived in California, but had forgotten what a unique and colorful appearance they have.

Manzanita Tree

 View of some "pinnacle" formations towering over Bear Gulch.

Monoliths in the Distance

High Silhouette

The remaining photos are from the Bear Gulch Cave trail loop.

Rock Wall

Here's Deb demonstrating her massive strength to keep these rocks from colliding. This gap occurs right before the entrance to the cave.

Deb Keeps the Rocks from Colliding

The cave was quite a joy to climb through. It had steps inside, and one could stand up most of the way except in a few places. Parts of it were extremely dark; we had to use our cell phone flashlights to see where we were going. The next two cave pictures are of a particularly colorful section using two different aspect ratios. These were at ISO 5000 at 1/20 and 1/25 seconds respectively. I do not recall seeing the color on the rock with my eye. Nice that the camera reveals it.

Cave Color

Shining Through

After exiting the cave, we had an adventure figuring out which piles of rocks to crawl though to find the stunning Bear Gulch Reservoir.

Reservoir Peak

Boulders and Trees

Enjoying the High Res

Late Day Reservoir Blue

High Terrain

On the way back down, after the lovely reservoir visit, Deb used her great hiking boots with good grip to take a detour out onto a steep outcropping to see a magnificent view of the valley below. Here she is standing atop big rocks. Did I say these were BIG rocks?

Feeling Small

The Pinnacles terrain is unique and impressive!

Trailside View

All photos © 2018, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Quoddy and Western Heads

On day two of our Maine trip we visited Quoddy Head with its lighthouse and beach. We also had a great hike at Western Head, which is south of Lubec, in Cutler. Maine has a lot of "Heads" I guess. From what I can tell a Head is simply the outermost piece of land or rock in an area. Something for ships to avoid hitting. The dictionary has many definitions for head; the one that seems closest is "promontory". A promontory is "a point of high land that juts out into a large body of water; a headland".

We enjoyed these colors on the rocks at West Quoddy Head beach.

Stone Palette

Stair Steps

The West Quoddy Head Lighthouse has a small visitor center that was open. One amusing thing we learned is that the number of red and white stripes on the lighthouse sometimes changes when it gets repainted. We're not sure if Deb or I took the next photo.

West Quoddy Head Lighthouse

We also learned that the Bay of Fundy tide changes are even more pronounced the further north one goes; it's about 20-25 feet in this area, and 50 feet at the northern tip. This next poster explains in more detail.

High Tides Explained

Looking out at sea from near the lighthouse:

Wisps

We thought this was an "island". Turns out the tide went down dramatically while we were there, and we were later able to walk to it.

Temporary Island

Watching the Tide Roll Out

Birds of a Feather

Red Squirrel Dinnertime

Sharp Rocks Before the Mist

Green Undertow

In honor of the name of this blog:

Cormorant Pose

Seagull Pondering

Gold Coast

Hmmm, can you see where Debra is in this photo? She's hiding.

Where's Debra Now?

There she is!

Deb Walks on the Ocean Floor

Tidal pools! Yay!
For these next shots I used my polarizing filter to "see" under the water with as few reflections as possible.

Tidal Pool

Underwater Color

Tidal Pool Rocks

Quoddy Head Shoreline

Tidal Design

We stopped at Hamilton Cove on our way to our next hike at Western Head. This view was along the short path to the beach there.

Blowin' in the Wind

This is the view near the start of the Western Head hike in Cutler.

Island Above Wildflowers

Beach House

Many of the hikes we went on had structures like these to protect the environment. This next photo shows chicken wire atop boards to give one sure footing.

Bog Protection

We came across an "interactive" sculpture on the Western Head beach. It didn't take us long to figure out that many other hikers had placed rocks within this long dead tree. Naturally, we opted to do the same. Mine is the blond colored rock on the left and Deb's is the spotted one next to it in the center.

Love Rocks

As an artist, Deb thoroughly enjoyed this natural crowd-sourced sculpture, and took many photos of it. She got a good laugh when she saw this next photo.

Bending Backward to Improve the Photo

This is the island at the tip of Western Head:

Layers

I took many tripod stabilized photos of waves in an attempt to make them look silky smooth with a long exposure, but that also requires a good neutral density filter, which I don't have. I use my polarizing filter as a makeshift ND filter to provide the equivalent of 2 or 3 f-stops of reduced light. This is 1/5 second at f/22.

Fundy Waves

All photos © 2017, all rights reserved.  Contact me for licensing or to order prints.

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