Seeing What's Not There - Day 28

Shadows on Spring Grass  

Shadows Across the Lawn 

-  where the grass is starting to show green       

Just a few hours ago, this area of lawn was covered with snow - now as the snow is melting away, the grass is coming to life after the winter, old blades greening up with fresh chlorophyll to feed itself and start new growth.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 26

Shadow Stripes on Spring Leaves  

Shadows Enhance the Textures of Dried Spring Leaves 

-  which covered the ground during the winter       

When these trees block the light from striking the ground, their shadows give information about the size and shape of the trees, the intensity of the sunshine, and the texture of the ground where the shadows are falling.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 24

A Shadow Box For Alder Cones  

A Twig of Alder Nestled 

-  into its own custom display case       

Heat from the daytime sunshine collected by the dark brown twig was enough to melt the surrounding snow and fit the cone into its own cozy chamber. Freezing temperatures at night added the protective cover of ice.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 19

Shadows Over Mixed Ground  

Shadows Tell Your Eyes About The Ground They Cover

-  and give information about surface and texture       

These are shadows cast by a cluster of trees. They lie across a melting snowbank as well as the dried leaves covering the ground the snow has melted away from. The surfaces have different forms and different textures, and the cast shadows reveal this.

Seeing What's Not There - Day 18

Shadows on Melting Snow  

The Shape of a Melting Snowbank

-  is defined by the shadows cast across it         

Spring's daily temperature fluctuations melt the surface of a snowbank into ripples and bumps, and freezes the skin of snow into a detritus-filled crust. Cast shadows from a stand of birches show these textures.

Seeing What's Not There - Day 17

Silhouettes in a Spruce 

Silhouettes and Shadows

-  in a small spruce tree         

At what point do shadows turn into silhouettes? The filagree of a screen of spruce boughs catches the light in places and creates a prickly shadow pattern in others. 

Seeing What's Not There - Day 15

Shadows from an Alderbush

Alder Bushes in Sunshine

-  create a tangle of shadows on the snow.         

Alders are tough grow-anywhere plants that curve and wiggle their way into whatever patches of sunshine they can grow into. On a white snow background, the branches and cones of a wintertime alder bush make a complex shadow design.    

Seeing What's Not There - Day 14

Shadows on the Opposite Shoreline

Shadows Along the Riverbank

-  define the shore of the island.         

The river runs through sand and the islands dotted through it do not have much elevation above the water. The shadows from the trees define the height of the land against the level of the river ice.  

Seeing What's Not There - Day 13

School Window Reflections

Reflections on School Windows

-  on a sunny Spring afternoon.         

This was not the school I went to, but I think of the many pairs of eyes that have looked out longingly from these windows onto a sunny day in spring, their owners battling Spring Fever, or else succumbing to it. 

Seeing What's Not There - Day 11

Shadows on a Melting Snowbank II

Reflections and Shadows 

- on the ridges of a melting snowbank, from another angle.         

The snow is melting in the daytime and crystalizing into ice in the night time cold. In the daytime the snowbanks melt into ridges, and the cast shadows from the trees pick out the ups and downs of the surface. Meanwhile, the ice crystals sparkle as the sunlight reflects off them.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 10

Shadows on a Melting Snowbank   

Reflections and Shadows 

- on the ridges of a melting snowbank.         

The snow is melting in the daytime and crystalizing into ice in the night time cold. In the daytime the snowbanks melt into ridges, and the cast shadows from the trees pick out the ups and downs of the surface. Meanwhile, the ice crystals sparkle as the sunlight reflects off them.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 8

Morning Shadows in the Snow  

Stripes on the Snow

- early in the morning on a sunny day.         

One of the things I enjoy about snow is how it makes a great backdrop for shadows. In the low-angle sunlight of early morning, tree trunks make stripes of purple-blue across the bank of fresh snow.   

Seeing What's Not There - Day 6

The Face in the Snowbank    

Shovel marks along the edge of a snowbank 

- set up two snowy profiles, one in sunlight and one in shadow, sporting eye, nose, mouth and chin.         

Some days you can search and search and not find what you are looking for, and then you get out of the car in the driveway - and there it is!  

Seeing What's Not There - Day 2

Broken Window and Snowbank    

Shadows and Reflections  

- are tricks of the light     

Reflections show us objects in places where we know they are not. Reflections are images produced by light bouncing back to us from a surface which does not absorb that light. Here, the outer pane of plexiglass is broken, but the inner plateglass is still intact - notice the difference between the reflections on the left and the reflections on the right, inside the circle.    

Seeing What's Not There - Day 1

Shadows of Birches on Snow    

Shadows and Reflections  

- aren't really there, but we do see them.    

How can we see what isn't there? By paying attention to what is there. Shadows exist where the light is blocked off by an object. Shadow is the absence of light. Shadows are there, and they are not there. 

Take It To The Streets - Day 31

Parking Lot Splash    

"[in Just-]  spring... 

- ...when the world is puddle-wonderful..."    

For little kids, splashing in a spring-time puddle is natural fun, for cars, the splashing is mostly unavoidable, but for pedestrians, it represents a real problem. Unless the pedestrian is a kid at heart and loves the anticipation of a spray of water! 

quotation from the poem 

[in Just-]

by ee cummings

.      

Take It To The Streets - Day 30

Spring Melt    

Droplets of Water  

- drip from melting icicles    

Cool overnight temperatures froze yesterday's melting snow into icicles on the eaves, and the afternoon sun is melting it, drop by drop. By late afternoon, all these icicles were gone.      

Take It To The Streets - Day 29

For Rent in a Boom Town    

For Rent Signs Spring Up  

- as office space become hard to find     

With a large construction project underway, people in our town are finding it difficult, and increasingly expensive, to get good locations for offices . For Rent signs go up and come down rapidly.     

Take It To The Streets - Day 28

Cemetery Gate in Winter    

The Old Town Cemetery 

- is now being restored as an historic site     

This cemetery honors the lives of the people who made our town what it is. It is no longer an active burial site, and it is being recognized for what it always was - a place of memory.    

Take It To The Streets - Day 27

Two Kinds of Snowfall    

It's Still Stormy But There's Too Much Snow On That Roof 

- raking the snow off in chunks     

"It ain't over 'til it's over," said the baseball legend Yogi Berra. And neither is Winter, judging by the amount of snow that fell here in the past day and a half. Standing on the snowbank extends the reach of the long-handled snow rake.