3-11-2018

A bleary winter day – doesn’t mean there isn’t beauty around!

Best of 2017

January

January is typically cold, dreary and snowy!  Sometimes, although, you have one great afternoon after work that just rocks.  This is the Narrows Bridge in Buckport, ME

February

February, another month full of storms and cold, sometimes wind that threatens to toss your car into the snow bank.

march

Icy March!  March, downstate, is all about cold, ice, melt, and then more snow!

April

April showers bring May flowers – and a cornucopia of shells with vibrant colors and a super cloudy day on Sand Beach in Stonington, ME

 

May

More shells!  Flowers and ferns.   

JUNE

June was a lean month, save for one lovely day where the skies opened up and the sun shown for this brilliant rainbow and of course, the lupines.

JULY

Shopping at the thrift places in Searsport and 4th of July on the Island were a blast!

AUGUST

Now, the sunsets in Maine are gorgeous, but for some reason, on this lovely island of Deer Isle – they are spectacular! 

 

September

I bought a bunch of cheap magnification filters.  So I spent a lot of time stooping, focusing and looking at the world, again, in a different light. 

OCTOBER

One of the best days of Oct was going to Mt Kat w/my nephew Rhys, the look on his face when he saw the mountain “up close” was priceless. 

NOVEMBER

I didn’t get out much in November – but I did take a wrong turn one evening while chasing the sun and got this stunner of a picture. 

December

And the last month of the year brings the snow BACK to us.  And – that’s a wrap!

12.24.2017–Christmas Time

Echo didn’t not seem  happy that I was leaving that afternoon.  She was giving me those puppy dog eyes.

There was a weird, almost ethereal light on x-mas even – hard to capture at times. 

Berries and snow! 

On the drive up to the lake, that lovely light kept teasing me to take pictures. 

So hard to get that sun flair! 

Deer Isle/Stonington 2/14/2017

The on thing about the coast, is it’s always changing.  One day the ground is clear, the next 24 inch of snow!

 

We got slammed and are waiting on more in the next 24 hours.  Go down south they said, it’s warmer they said!

 

I love these old places, there is so much character here!

When it snows, typically the next day the sky is bright blue and the water is gorgeous as calm. 

The colors just started to come in through the hazy clouds as I drove home today, snapped a few pictures.  I’ve gotten into the habit carrying my camera with me. 

Savage Wintery

There is something savage about winter, the cold, the pure white that blankets us, the weight of snow that can bend trees that stand against the winds of summer, those branches bow in reverence. 

The way the light flickers and reflects off the snow that crystalizes, like the glint in the eye of the devil who, instead of draping you in heat, cloaks you in cold.

The weight of all that frozen, essentially, water presses down into trees, and earth, roofs and anything standing.  Winter brings many pressures: the clean up, the driving through roads unplowed, roofs that need to be up kept, heating our homes during the wicked cold that the freeze brings.

Snow tests us.  How much we can carry, one slim human or branch can hold before breaking.  We can bend, and sweep the ground, but not break.  When the pressures of life, or of the snow, finally dissipates, and our spring emerges, we stand tall once again – unbroken by the savagery of winter. 

 

Chasing The Light

After a long day at work, all I want to do is sit down and relax.  That’s the light at the end of the tunnel, sit, kick back, read, study, relax put on some mindless TV show for a few hours and bask in the light thrown from the pellet stove.

Instead, today I went out in the chill and fading light to snowblow my drive, while my wife prepared supper. 

I took the dog out for a run, and saw that the sun was setting behind the mountain before the house.  Everyone knows I have a love affair with that mountain.

At this point, the wind started to whip and cool and all I wanted to do was go back inside, but I knew that the light, that ever elusive light was changing.  So I ducked back under some trees to get shelter from the wind. 

I was about to give up.  No.  Really.  I knew my lens was going to be peppered with snow but I really wanted to see if the wonderful clouds were going to yield something spectacular to look at and better yet, take a good picture.

Then it started to happen. The golden moment. 

I quickly played with one setting after another.  Trying different things.  My fingers frozen and shivering rather hard, but I was not moving until I got a few more shots. I like the cold anyway  

A camera can never ever catch/capture/save for eternity what the human eye can see. The 3-D technocolored details.  A photo is flat (No 3-D printer here yet!) 

Sometimes sitting in the snow is worth it. 

JMC

This Moment–4.6.2012

 

 

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A photo or photos – no words – capturing a moment. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. Inspired by SouleMama.

If you have a ‘moment’ to share, leave a link to your post in the comments for all to find and see.