Seeing What's Not There - Day 29

Multiple Reflections in a Window  

Multiple Layers of Glass in a Window 

-  give multiple reflections        

Reflections are what we see when light rays hit off a shiny surface and bounce back to our eyes. In an insulated window, multiple layers of glass provide many surfaces for bright light to reflect the scene behind the viewer, and provide ghostly triple and quadruple images.    

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 27

Springtime Reflections from Outdoors  

It's Cozy Inside 

-  but there is work to do outdoors on a sunny day       

Bright sunlight shows up the places where raking needs to be done and things stored for the winter need to be put back into place. Springtime sunshine wakes up plants and people alike.   

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 25

Curved Reflections  

Reflections in an Automobile Window

-  show the curvature of the glass       

Even without being polished to a high gloss, car windows reflect their surroundings in a distorted mirror image. Because the window is also transparent, you can see some objects through the glass as well, depending on how your eye adjusts to light and dark and to the focusing distance.    

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 23

Reflections on a Wooden Deck  

A Series of Reflections in Tiny Pools of Rainwater

-  on the wooden planks of a backyard deck       

The focusing distance of the reflection is much farther away from the camera than the focusing distance of the wooden deck at my feet. This sets up a strange in-focus and out-of-focus conflict for a viewer's eyes, which is only resolved when the viewer's brain says: "We are looking at the trees." 

Seeing What's Not There - Day 21

Reflections in a Light Breeze  

Rippled Reflections of Riverbank Trees 

-  in a light spring breeze       

It is the wind that causes the water surface to have tiny ripples in the surface. It is the reflection of the trees on the riverbank that shows the ripples. And if I wasn't standing where I was, at just the right angle to the water, I wouldn't have caught this scene at all. 

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 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 16

Spring Melt

Reflections in a Vernal Pool

-  life waking up in shallow pools of melting water         

In pools and puddles where spring melt water collects, under a mat of floating seeds and dried grasses, you will likely find signs of plants and animals coming to life again after the winter. Insects, salamanders, frogs and toads may refresh themselves here and as the pool dries up, they will move on to seek a more permanent home. 

Ice on the Churchill River

Ice on the Churchill River

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Graphite on paper, 11" x 15"
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Graphite HB pencil, on Rising Stonehenge watercolor paper. The graphite deposited well without a lot of pressure onto the soft thick paper, giving a lot of tonal variation.
From the lookout at Dome Mountain, the Churchill River is still covered with ice, and there is still snow and ice on the streams in the woods.
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Open Water - Tonal Variations on Rice Paper - 4

Open Water - Spring on the Churchill River

Tonal Variations on Rice Paper - 4

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Graphite on rice paper, 7" x 9"

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This is HB pencil on the shinier side of the rice paper. The dark tones laid down fairly easily, but the paper was very unforgiving when I attempted to create a very light shade.

Spring is here, the ice is breaking up and there are ducks in the open water. The reflection of the sun on the snow gives a brilliant overall light to the landscape that you don't see any other time of the year.

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