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| Bunelleschi's Dome, Duomo, Florence |
In
this third edition of my 2017 retrospective, I am picking up a few less
dramatic loose ends of the year’s activities.
Loose, but nevertheless important parts of my photographic year. Finally, I will touch on the most exciting
part of 2017, both personally and photographically, our family trip to Italy.
Fenway Park
On
a good year we will get to Fenway to see the Red Sox several times. This year it was only once, but we had good
seats and a chance to join our daughter Abigail and her boyfriend, now
fiancée!!, Grayson. Before the game, we
enjoyed seeing all the team’s kids frolicing on the grass. It still takes my breath away when I first glimpse the brilliant Fenway green
We
had beautiful July weather and, although the sox were not victorious, it was a
great time. Photographically I had a chance to use my little Canon SX50HS with
its ridiculous 1200mm zoom. At sporting events, I am never sure that my monster
DSLR will be allowed into the venue, but my little SX50HS is unobtrusive, and
still has that great reach. Also, its
tiny sensor provides a wider depth of field for the action shots.
Full Moon Rising
Full
Moons provide great opportunities for exposing for the detail in the cratered
surface while there is still light in the evening sky. It is the one time when the bright moon and
dark sky do not create impossibly stark contrast. This year I only got out for one full
moonrise. I planned to catch the early
December super moon rising behind the holiday decorated Nubble Lighthouse in York
Maine.
Using
Photographer’s Ephemeris, I was in the perfect position along the beach south
of the light. Unfortunately, the clouds
did not cooperate. I was only able to see a momentary
sliver of moon as it first peaked above the horizon. It was not yet in
the perfect location over the lighthouse, but, zooming in, the reflected sunset
light made the moon appear like a golden sunrise.
It
was not the perfect result for which I had hoped, but it was still a dramatic
shot and a nice trip to the coast, and Susan actually came along for the shoot!
Learning
Lightroom
The
last couple of years has been all about Adobe’s Lightroom. Lightroom is an amazingly powerful program for
managing editing and sharing digital images. Its database image management system makes it
a choice for many professional. Although
Its editing tools are not as robust as those in Photoshop, it is capable enough
to meet the needs of most amateurs, and its intuitive workflow makes it much
less intimidating to master.
I
am now finishing up the fourth offering of my Introduction to Lightroom Course. The course has been a lot of work, but it is also
great fun to share my understanding with so many enthusiastic
participants. Each session has been an
opportunity for me to discover more about Lightroom, especially since the
program keeps evolving. Part of the my
learning, has been to write blog articles about special aspects of the program,
and this year, I have published eight blogs, from the mysteries of the
Lightroom Catalog to what’s new in Lightroom CC Classic.
Check out
more links to image editing articles in my Blog Index.
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| Our Villa in Tuscany |
Adventures
in Italy
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| Piazza del Campo, Siena |
Last
autumn, Susan and I explored Italy for a three-week celebration of her
birthday. We traveled to Rome, Florence,
Bologna, Lake Como and Venice, but the most magical part was nearly a week
sharing a villa with our children and their significant others in the Tuscan
countryside. Beautiful landscapes, great
food and even better wine. It was amazing.
After Tuscany the kids followed their own itineraries but still joined
us for parts of our explorations of Florence and Bologna.
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| Gina and Jeremy Florence |
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| Best Family Lunch, Montalcino |
Of
course, I did bring my camera along and I am only beginning to wade through the
4,000 images. You can see some in the
blog articles and the Italian gallery, but there will be more to see and to
write about whenever I can get to it.
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| Bologna Market |
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| Grande Canal Venice |
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| January 2018 Storm |
That
should be sufficient looking back for now.
When it comes time to review, I am always surprised by how much we have
done in a year. I still have thousands
of pictures calling for my attention, but now we must look forward to 2018. The winter is beautiful and pristine, and Spring is coming!
Jeffrey
Newcomer
Over
the last four years I have been privileged to have my own pair of nesting bald
eagles, returning every year to hunt and breed across the Connecticut River, from
my town of Chesterfield New Hampshire. They nested at the top of an old
snag at the edge of the river, from which they could swoop down on food and
eject their young for their first perilous flights. I found a spot across
the river on the New Hampshire side, from which I could watch the early season
nest building and the appearance of one or two fledglings. 
This
spring I was saddened to discover that the dead snag with the nest on top had
fallen into the river. As we get into the breeding season, I have been
scouting up and down the river hoping that my eagles will build a new nest
close to home, but, so far, I have no eagles or nests. I will continue to
patrol the river, but my loss has encouraged me to recall all the majestic
beauty that I have been privileged to observe over the last four years. I
have covered this in my article for this week’s New England Photography Blog, but here I would like to show some of
the pictures of “my eagles” that didn’t fit in the NEPG article.
Photographing
Bald Eagles, much like all birds, takes a great deal of patience. Long
periods of quiet nest sitting are punctuated every 40-50 minutes by the split-second
excitement of a bird landing or taking off. It is always fun to catch the
eagles bringing nesting material or a morsel of food for the checks, but any
excuse for them to spread their dramatic wings is exciting.
Enjoy
the pictures in this gallery and those in my NEPG blog. Also check out
the links to other articles in my “Getting it Right in the Digital Camera Blog.
And, of course, join with me in calling my eagles home!
