MorseBlog

 I recently was laid up for a week with what I would guess is Covid. Almost three years dodging it and it seemed to finally catch up with me.  It was with great relief to get out and about the past couple of days for my morning walks through Sandpoint. I always bring my camera just in case and sometimes I get some nice images though that is never my intent. One must be cognizant that even the most familiar or mundane surroundings can lead to some excellent images.  This morning it was very cold (-13C) so a brisk walk well bundled-up was called for. My walk usually takes in the City Beach area and a view of the lake. Yesterday a good breeze was blowing up off the water for some extra chill. This morning however the air was still with mist rising off the water and small flakes of snow precipitating from the moisture in the air as there were no heavy clouds overhead. This light snow seemed to increase as I got close to the lake so I surmised the moisture from the lake was th...

Having arrived back in Sandpoint a little over a week ago, I find the weather much changed from when I left just before Christmas. At that time I drove down to Spokane in sub-freezing conditions but have returned in much warmer weather, often 10 degrees or more above freezing. This has been accompanied by light to moderate rain at times. The mounds of snow are shrinking slowly and the roads are almost entirely free of snow and ice.  Meteorologically, the conditions create a lot of gray skies and swirling masses of fog at all different altitudes. The warm most air (humidity near 100% most days) touches the deep snow fields and there is a ground fog that develops. Higher up great banks of fog eclipse the mountains and then dissipate into thin wisps and skeins of fog.  Overall the palette of colors remains restricted to grays and blues where sometimes a little sun makes its way through the clouds to add a small touch of warmth. It feels generally like black and white weather. I f...

I went out before my father to the lake house to open the place up. He had some chores for me and would follow shortly.  The whole area is different from two months ago when I left in the heat of early September and smoke from local fires. The first snows of winter had fallen a couple of days before and only now was the temperature edging up a degree or two above freezing.  The highway was clear of ice and snow but with white a rime of salt. The road out to the lake was still snowpacked in the shadows under the trees. The lake is also at its lowest level. After the summer recreational season the lake level is lowered about ten feet. Along this shore it extends a rocky beach ten to 20 yards out to the waters edge. The bay is merely its forlorn bottom. Fisherman’s island can now be walked to from the road.  Out on the water are hundreds of Western Grebes paddling around what must be shallows for feeding. The sky is overcast with low hanging thick cloud though small breaks a...

Here on Lake Pend Oreille the lake is lowered at the end of summer by some ten feet. This being my first winter here I have become fascinated by the exposed shoreline. It also means that due to laws regarding access to waterways and lakes that one is able to walk and fish and hunt these low water margins even if the high water shoreline is private property.  Lower Sand Creek runs into the lake here at Sandpoint and the lake in summer backs up a bay over the traditional last reach of the creek. So now the bottom of the bay is exposed and the original creek meanders over a barren frozen mud bottom smelling still of estuary mud and rotting vegetation.  And so I thought I should explore this mudflat with the creek edge in ice. Here it is bordered by houses and business on one shore and highway 97 on the other side. There are also some bridge crossings as well.  It is busy and distinctly urban but also picturesque.  This afternoon did not seem promising with the thermomet...

Fall continues to be interesting here in Cambridgeshire this year. The field maples are out in force with a vibrant yellow I normally attribute to aspen; though perhaps I am merely starved for color. This year feels different with the distinct sense that the very hot summer has led to some stress in the trees and resulted in earlier and brighter color. The evidence for this is my observation that the first areas to turn are the parts most exposed to the sky and sun. The field maple in particular runs from yellow to orange the closer you get to the edge or crown of the foliage. This orange in fact is mostly dried and dead leaves.  The aspen are showing spottily color now though they tend to develop color much later. Perhaps the most prominent is the rare wild serviceberry tree. One of which I have observed trying to get red in the past but not quite getting there. Now I can identify seven of them just by the color of the leaves which at first seems a bright red but is revealed on cl...

I am back in the UK for a while and it is good to be back to see my wife and friends. I took Mollie out today for  long walk in Monk's Wood one of her favorite places. She is going to get spayed tomorrow and I wanted her to have some happy memories before her surgery.  The day was perfect with scattered puffy clouds and a comfortable fall air not hot or cold. I took the camera on a whim as I don't like shooting in the middle of bright sunny days. The camera is my lazy shoot, the digital Fuji GFX 50s ii with the Mamiya 150mm f3.5 lens on a Kipon shift adapter. This is a pretty good setup for intimate landscape. I managed some decent images rather surprisingly. I concentrated on the hints of color mostly in the field maple as they tend to be the first to turn. I also stuck with the open end of the aperture range to strive for some separation with depth of field. The film simulation used is Provia as this gives a nice level of saturation while remaining natural looking.  I l...