Birches and their Neighbors - Day 31

Janus in the Birches  

Looking Ahead and Looking Behind    

- Much can be observed by looking backwards at a sunrise     

Janus, the Roman god of transitions, and especially the god of the New Year, is depicted as a two-headed figure who is able to look in two directions: to where we have come from - the past - and also to where we are going - the future. Janus is able to act appropriately in the present - now - because of being able to see both ahead and behind.
Similarly, I think, while I can get lovely sunrise photos by shooting in the direction of the sun, sometimes I can make even more telling photographs by observing the effects of that sunrise on my surroundings. These effects include capturing opposites like complementary colors in shadows, and revealing objects not in the image by the absence of the light they are blocking, and by enjoying the overall glow of the atmosphere.

And so with the New Year. Here's to Janus in the Birches, looking backwards at 2013, and looking forward to 2014. Best wishes from here for a Happy New Year!

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 30

Sunrise Light and Color 

This is the jpg - 99KB

This is the png8 - 204KB

Testing Blogger's Color Rendition   

- checking out the differences   

I wanted to check again the differences between Blogger's rendition of a jpg version of a photograph and the png version. This photo was taken at the same time as Day 15's photograph, which lost its intense darks to some rather pretty blue-violet tones, when it showed up in the blog.
I anticipate similar color-shifting on the jpg, and none on the png. Let's see!

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 26

Sunrise Contrasting Colors

WHAAA'  ???  Here's the photo as an optimized .jpg.  Changes that happened after importing to Blogger included pixelization and color shifts.

Here's the same photo saved as a .png-8. It's almost identical to original. Blogger, what happened? 

Lights at Sunrise 

- and the colors they produce 

There are two light sources in this photo - one, the rising sun bouncing through the clouds in the eastern sky, and the other, the artificial light on the building behind the trees.
To our eyes, the areas where the light does not strike show up as complementary colors to the light - in this case intense blue-violet against intense orange-yellow.
The artificial light merely serves as an accent to the colors the sun produces.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 23

Striped Clouds at Sunrise

Striped Bands of Clouds  

- and vertical bands of trees  

What's not to like about the colors of a sunrise through bands of clouds, back-lighting the vertical stateliness of birches and aspens and the elegant tendrils of last summer's tree flowers?

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 21

Solstice Sunset

Solstice Sunset  

- a golden winter glow on the shortest day of the year

It's the shortest day of the year, the angle of the sun is low in the sky, the air is crisp and cold and the sunset light is pure molten gold through the trees.
Solstice - it means "the sun stands still" - is the point at which, to a viewer on earth, the sun appears to change the direction of its movement in the sky. Many people around the world celebrate the winter Solstice as the time when the light comes back.
From here on the days get longer, and as the sun tilts higher and higher in the sky, the winter season changes to spring, and when the sun hits its highest point in mid-June, it's summer. And the solar cycle continues through autumn and back to winter again.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 18

Winter Dawn Spectrum

Sunrise Spectrum  

- a full range of colors from a prism of clouds  

This morning there was a full range of color in the sunrise - deep blue in the unlit sky, then pinks, violets, a brief intense red-orange, a suggestion of yellow, and a rather rare occurrence, several stripes of green in the clouds above and to the side of the rising sun.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 16

Moon and Birches

Almost-Full-Moon-Rise Through Winter Birches  

- with a diffuse glow of color through clouds 

Watching the moon rise majestically and slowly above the horizon is such a relaxing thing to do.
In the summer, these birches are in full leaf and they block the lower sky. It's only through the bare branches of these trees in the winter that the moon can be seen at such a low angle.
And the light, yes, it is bright enough to read by.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 15

Branches in Winter Dawn

Sunrise through Branches  

- directing the viewer's eye through a blur of color 

Different camera settings will give wildly varying results in a photograph.
A twist of a dial on a camera lens could have put sharp focus on all the trees in this scene, right back to the rising sun. A different twist of the dial allows the viewer's eye to contemplate just the branching structure of the twigs in the foreground, leaving the wonder of the early morning color as an unfocused blur in the background.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 13

Winter Dawn

Sunrise through Trees  

- brilliant color to start the day

There is a drama in watching a sunrise. From the full darkness of night the sky gets paler, gradually brighter, and then, more intense light starts to show. It may be a colorful sunrise, or the sun may present itself in a neutral gray light.
But actually, the light from the sun is always the same. The color effects of a sunrise or a sunset are due, in fact, to clouds at different levels in the atmosphere and from particles of dust or moisture suspended in the air, and to how the sun's light is refracted and reflected through them.
So, a glorious "sunrise" is actually the colors a viewer sees in the clouds between him or her and the sun.
Somehow it's nicer to think that it's the sun giving us a brilliant start to the day.  

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 12

Winter Dawn Silhouette

Birch Branches in Early Morning Light  

- against a bright dawn sky

What can I say?
All I could do was sit back, catch my breath and enjoy the scene as I got ready for the day.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 11

Light Snow on a Field

A Field of Winter Trees  

- with a light overnight accumulation of snow

There's a path that runs just behind this cluster of trees, and a slow-running creek just beyond the path.
The creek is frozen over, there is no wind, and no-one has ventured outside yet this morning on the path, so the overnight blanket of light snow lies undisturbed.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 10

Light Snow on Fir Branches

A Fir Tree Twig 

- with a light dusting of snow

You might walk past this young fir tree with the spines of its branches mounded with fine powdery snow. And then, suddenly, if you step back to look again, the whole tree comes a festive structure of stripes in light and dark.

This is the entire fir tree, it looks rather unremarkable in its setting at the corner of the driveway, dwarfed by more substantial trees.
And closeup, what an impressive sight! 

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 8

Birch Catkins

Birch Catkins

- gone to seed 

Catkins. Such a cute word. The origin of the word is, yes, exactly what you think... cats.
Catkins are the flowers, male and female, of the birch tree and its relatives. They are called "catkins" because they do look like a tiny feline tail. On a birch tree, in spring and early summer, the female flowers stand upright on their stems, and the male flowers hang down heavy with pollen. Even before the trees are in full leaf, the female flowers have been pollinated by the wind, and by late summer a crop of tiny triangular birch seeds come whirling to the ground.

Birches and their Neighbours - Day 6

Birch With Drifted Snow

Windblown Snow   

- caught in the roughness of birch bark

Black and White version

We are building up an accumulation of snow, a few inches at a time.
The wind blows the tiny snow crystals away from exposed areas, and the particles get caught and build up on rough surfaces like tangled grasses, weathered rocks and in this case, heavily textured birch bark.

Birches and their Neighbours - Day 5

Fir With Birches

Fir Tree Growing Tall  

- in the shadow of birch trees

I've been watching this fir tree for a while, wondering if it will take on the shape of a good Christmas tree.
It is growing tall and nicely spread out in the shadow and under the protection of a cluster of birches.
But the birches look like they don't want to let this particular fir tree go any time soon.

Birches and their Neighbours - Day 4

What Grows on an old Birch Tree?

Lichens on a Birch Tree Trunk  

- texture upon texture

As if the glory of weathered birch bark peeling off in strips of parchment and tissue paper isn't enough, older birch trees accumulate colonies of lichens as well. Lichens are interesting - neither plant nor animal, they are a symbiotic blend of algae and fungi. Lichens are able to make their own food by photosynthesis, so they aren't parasites and don't harm the tree. And the textures!

Birches and their Neighbours - Day 3

Winter Branches

Red Osier Dogwood Branches  

- bright red lines in the wintertime

The red color of these branches stands out in the morning sunshine, and it looks especially bright against the sky and trees on the hill behind. The abstract composition of forked lines is minimalist, and compelling in its simplicity.

Birches and their Neighbors - Day 2

Frost on Birch Tree Trunk

I love birch trees.

I love the solid cylindrical form of a birch tree trunk when I touch it and the fluttery sound of its dry papery shreds. I love the subtle colors of birch bark and the mottled dark and light patterns of the scars where branches have detached from the trunk.

I love the play of sunlight through the leaves of a birch in summer and through the complicated filagree of the branches in winter. I love the warmth from birch logs burning in a fireplace, and I love the taste of bitter-sweet birch syrup. 

And I love the look of a stand of tall birches swaying in the wind. I love birch trees.

Apples 7

Apples 7

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"

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Apples sliced horizontally, across their equators, show the core of the apple as a star. The star is a group of pods gripping the apple seeds in place with just a tiny bit of room for expansion when they sprout.

With daylight from the window raking across the flat cut surface, you can see the structural details of the apple, too, reinforcing the pentagon geometry of this fruit, and you can also see the lights and darks of the paper underneath the apple.

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Apples 6

Apples 6

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Graphite on paper, 6.5" x 10"
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The surface of the apple has dappled color markings, as well as tonal gradations from the apple's spherical shape. It also has highlights and shadows from lighting, and more lights and darks from reflections.

Graphite leaves a grey mark on paper, and the softer the grade of graphite, the darker grey the mark is. The trick to drawing with graphite is to use different grades of graphite in order to achieve a complete tonal range that can represent all the lights and darks needed in the drawing.
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