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 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 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 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 3

Birches in the Slush    

Shadows and Reflections  

- of blue sky and birches      

Reflections make our eyes focus on different planes at the same time. This sets up a puzzle: do you look at the melting ice crystals, or do you look at the reflections of the birch trees?     

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. 

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.

Art Every Day Month - Nov 10 -

Sunrise Through Snowy Trees

Sunrise Through Snowy Trees  

- backlighting from early morning sunlight through trees with snow

Source photo

I took this photograph on the same early morning shoot as the images in the previous two posts. Here the golden early morning sunlight silhouettes the trunks of a mixed grove of birch, poplar, alder, willow, spruce and red osier dogwood. The snow clinging to the branches and the trunks of the trees holds a brilliant incandescent light, just briefly, until the sun's angle changes and the magic is gone.

Looking Through the Trees

A page out of my sketchbook, looking through the trees at a building covered in snow and, of course, more trees.
Every day a new image for the month of April.

Birch Trunks in Snow

Every day a new image for the month of April.