Drenched in Light

Deb's indoor plant arrangements just inside our kitchen window were glowing in the morning sunlight. In these photos I had some fun capturing the strong morning light as it passed through the glasses and water. While the flowers themselves are lovely, these photos highlight other aspects of the arrangement.

These are all taken with my macro lens.

Water Plant

Bubbles

Floating

Petals Up

Refraction

All photos © 2020, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Signs of Life

As winter draws to an end, new growth begins. While spring doesn't officially commence until March 19, the crocuses are blooming.

Here are some photos taken with my macro lens.

Enjoy!

Bloomin' Crocii

Upshot

See Through

As a slight departure, this next photo is clearly not a crocus. It is spirea. The new growth captured is less than an inch across.

Mini-Life

I grabbed this shot just as this little fellow was leaving:

BeeLeaving

Lightbulb

Before the Planet

Double Flash

Behold

Two days after taking the above photos, we got some early morning snow.

Snow Effect

Floating Island

All photos © 2020, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Winter Res

One of the challenges for mid-winter photography is taking pictures on a gray day. In some respects, cloudy days can be beneficial for photos, reducing the harsh contrast that a sunny day might force. On this particular outing, the sun did manage to make a very subdued showing towards the end of my route.

As ice melts, the reservoir surface is constantly changing due to the ice patterns and the different ways winter light hits the surface.

Here a few glimpses of the res from this day.

Tree Reveal

Ice Melt

Res on Ice

All photos © 2020, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Farm Pond and Cushing

Cushing Memorial Park's perimeter walking loop is a favorite among locals, I suppose for its convenience and simplicity. It is paved, which is normally a detriment, in my view, being less "natural." Yet in the winter, the town seems to plow most of it after storms, so the paved feature provides a place to walk when other more woodsy trails require extra dedication to be able to access.

Just across the street from Cushing is an area called Farm Pond. One can walk along the edge of Farm Pond using a portion of the "Aqueduct" trail system, which is a cooperative between the Massachusetts Water Resource Authority (MWRA), City of Framingham, and MassTrails. It is not paved, and though it is currently winter, I took these photos when the snow had melted just to the point where the edge path was passable wearing ordinary hiking boots.

In this first photo, I'm looking across Farm pond, at the ice, the ducks and other birds, the freight train, and the urban skyline.

The Scene Across Farm Pond

Here's a slightly different view. Notice the ducks have a relatively circular pool of water within the ice in which to swim and fish.

Duck Pool

The next several shots are taken slightly further away from the water's edge within the strip of land between Cushing Memorial Park and Farm Pond.

This small stream is completely filled with green plant material.

Green River

There's a very healthy grove of trees that always seems to pull me in and encourage me to look skyward.

Shadows in the Sky

Here are some patterns in the bark of those trees:

Bark Chips

Try to find the tiny dark sideways (virtually perfectly formed) heart in this next one. Then look slightly above and to the left. You may see people.

Bark Islands

These next two photos are near a small church within Cushing Memorial Park.

Winter Respite

For those that like red and blue...

Red Globes

Finally, this is a window on the back of that church. I'm not exactly sure why there's a green patch near the bottom of the glass. I don't think it's a plant. The photo shows exactly the way it looked. It sets off nicely against the glowing gold.

Mottled Glass

All photos © 2020, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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A Cape Cod Beach

We spent a few mid-December days on the Cape as a mini-vacation. The weather turned quite cold and rainy for a good portion of our visit. After a mid-storm walk on the beach one day, we enjoyed a second walk along the same (Dennis) beach the next day, after the wet weather broke but the wind had picked up. That's when I took these photos.

This is my last post of 2019.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Beach Rocks

Long Shadows

Long Shadows 2

Storm Mostly Over

True Grit

Toward the Dunes

Heading Home on a Cold Windy Beach Day

All photos © 2019, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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Fritz Glass

When we recently visited the Cape, we went to Fritz Glass, which is a glass blowing shop in Dennis Port. We met Fritz himself, who was busy making colorful candy dishes for the holiday season. His shop allows visitors to watch the glass blowing process, and that is what we did. Fritz has been blowing glass for many years. It was great to see someone so skilled at his profession. His glass is beautiful.

Here are some photos I took, both of Fritz making the glass, and of some of the finished product. See fritzglass.com to learn more.

All photos © 2019, all rights reserved.  Contact philslens@gmail.com for licensing or to order prints.

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