Wednesday, April 29, 2009

More Star Island Eye-Candy

I'm writing this post on the weekend and hoping I've set it so it will automatically post in the middle of the week. Just thought I'd share some more images from my first week on Star Island. As I mentioned before, I've become interested in lichens and moss, and exploring the smaller plant communities on the island (though I'm not sure lichens qualify as plants. Do mosses?). I'm reading a book called The Granite Landscape by Tom Wessels, which had a chapter on mosses and lichens and spotlights various areas of the Northeast with granite features. It's really fascinating for some reason I can't explain - learning the geology of granite and glaciers and the juxtaposition of tiny organisms thriving in such huge, barren places. My interest is always pulled in so many directions, I haven't been able to find a way to combine or tie everything together - I also really enjoyed shooting some candid portraits of people on the island last week, and I love fiber arts, felting, and sewing, and feel the need to create tangible objects. How do I get this to all work together? Or find enough time to pursue everything?

That's a big conversation, and obviously a tangent, so for now, here are more pictures.

From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009

I believe the white lichen here is reindeer lichen, which is a fruiticose lichen. Fruiticose lichens are the most plant-like in form, and are the most advanced form of lichen. In order for this reindeer lichen to exist, three other types of lichen had to come and go. I'm sure most of you know lichens take a very long time to grow, since they are most common in barren, extreme environments. It's amazing to think that this tiny organism has probably taken centuries to come into existence, and that could so easily be destroyed by a careless step. (By the way, it's called reindeer lichen because it is a food source for reindeer in the Arctic).

From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009

First rainbow of the season!

From Star Island 2009

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Star Island 4/20-4/24

Here's a few images from my first week on Star. I still have a ton of images to process, but it's a start.

From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009

From Star Island 2009


From Star Island 2009

Spring Flowers

I've been really into my macro lens lately - I've been on the island for a week and I've become fascinated by all the lichens and mosses out there. Before going to the island, I started shooting a lot of rocks and seaweed up close (something I'm still interested in). Star Island is beautiful and really needs to be examined on many different levels, but I see myself sticking with the macro lens mostly for now. I shoot some portraits this week too, but haven't processed any photos from the island yet, so instead, here are some flowers I shot today at the Pawtuckaway Nursery in Lee, NH.

From Pawtuckaway Nursery


From Pawtuckaway Nursery

I find dominantly yellow images really hard to edit, the yellow seems to overwhelm the camera. Reds and magentas do it sometimes to. Makes it hard to figure out white balance vs. saturation.

From Pawtuckaway Nursery


From Pawtuckaway Nursery


From Pawtuckaway Nursery


From Pawtuckaway Nursery

Friday, April 17, 2009

What I want to know, where does the time go?

Ok, I know it's been a while - I've never been good at keeping up with blogging, and I'm leaving for the island in a few days so posting will continue to be scarce. I think I'll be taking a lot of photos on the island though, so I'll try to update on the weekends.

I've gone to the beach several times in the last couple of weeks, which has provided some great photo opportunities. I'm way behind in editing photos, as usual, but here's a few images from Wallis Sands beach, near Rye, NH.

From Beaches

If you look at the larger version of this one, you can see Appledore, Star, and White Islands in the distance.

From Beaches


From Beaches


From Beaches


From Beaches


From Beaches