Last night, a terrific thunderstorm passed over us. A torrential rain was driven by a fierce wind—something we could not see in the darkness, but could hear. The lightning made the event sublime. We just took this all in from our bedroom window. Click on the image for a larger view.
Tag Archives: Summer in Maine
Midsummer
Pleasant pond, Maine. Click on the image for a larger view.
Out of the Corner of Your Eye…
So much of the life in our forest and field blends in with the environment. It only reveals itself with movement. I probably would have missed this dragonfly had it kept still on this burdock plant, rather than darting out to hunt mosquitoes. The animal itself is amazing. Continue reading
Flight
Two sides of the same Mallard feather. Click on the image for a larger view.
Will of the Wind
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The Color of Summer
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Peach
Walking around the garden in the evening is such a pleasure. Seeing the May blossoms change into fruit by July is amazing. It looks like we will have a good crop of peach this year. Click on the image for a larger view.
Photography: Truth or Fiction?
In short, the absence of truth is an unescapable fact of photographic life.
—Geoffrey Batchen
It has become fashionable in the photo art world to label all photography as fiction. This is tossed out like an undisputed fact. It seems the main claim (and there are many sub arguments for the fictitiousness of photography including the Post Photography movement of Geoffrey Batchen) is that photographs can be manipulated and are subjective.
The manipulation argument is strange as it is seen as something new. Ever since the invention of photography, artist have been using it to create fictitious images (just look for the 1857 photograph The Two Ways of Life by Oscar Gustave Rejlander if you think Photoshop was somehow groundbreaking). But that is a bit like saying ever since the Greeks started writing mythologies, writing can only be fiction. But just like mackerel are not all fish, manipulated photographs do not account for all photography. Continue reading
Art Meets Science
I have a photograph in the MDI Biological Laboratory’s Art Meets Science exhibition that is running from June 20th to September 30th. This is coinciding with the centenary of the founding of Acadia National Park. If you are visiting Mt. Desert Island this summer, stop by this remarkable scientific and educational facility. More on the exhibition and MDI Biological Laboratory can be found here.
Forces in Nature
Along the rocky coast on Maine, you see cobbles, large weathered stones. These granite cobbles are on a basalt dyke on Little Moose Island. They have obviously been rounded by erosion. And they are big—I doubt I could lift the larger rocks in this image. The amazing thing is that these cobbles did not fall onto this spot—there is no place from which to fall—but rather these were cast out of the sea by the force of the tides, currents, and storm swells. If you are thinking these are near the waterline, you would be mistaken. This ledge is about 5 m or 15 ft. above the water, not far below where this picture was taken. Click on the image for a larger view.
