Everything Looks Different at Night - Day 13

Moonlight Through The Pines    

Silhouettes of Pine Boughs   

- against brilliant white moonlight    

The song "Georgia On My Mind" may be running through my head, but the moon and the trees are universal. On a fine spring night, it's a pleasure to take a deep breath of cool air, and just look around.    

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 20

Silhouettes in Black and White  

Silhouettes and Shadows of a Flock of Redpolls

-  are emphasized in a grayscale image       

The birds that stayed for the winter are joined by more coming for the breeding season. The trees have been busy with birds flying in waves through the trees, calling for territory and mates, and stripping the ground of any remaining seeds. 

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.    

Close Up and Personal - Day 28

Snowy Fir Branches at Dawn  

Light and Translucence and Darkness   

- Early Morning Silhouettes    

This morning I was struck by an abrupt physical sensation, seeing an orange glow around the edges of the snowy trees near the house. By the time I got outside with the camera, the glow was yellow-gold, and in another few minutes the effect was totally gone.
The camera didn't catch it, but I can still remember that jolt of intense colored light against the darkness.    

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 29

Red-polls and Catkins 

Acrobatics in the Branches   

- and it's all out in the open   

In the winter, without the leaves in the way, you can see a lot of what goes on in the branches of trees.
All day today, a flock of red-polls has been making its way through these trees - fifteen or twenty tiny acrobats perching right-side up and hanging up-side down and pecking out seeds and insects as they go.
Spend some time to watch it now, because in another few months, all this activity and entertainment will be hidden from view by spring greenery.

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 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!