Tag: photography

Eirk Townland View Three

Across the far mountains is Black Valley

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Here we are still standing in Moll’s Gap, looking a bit farther northwest into Black Valley than for View Two. Across the far mountains is Black Valley, a place so remote it was among the last, on the island itself (“mainland”) to be electrified or connected to telephone networks. Today Black Valley is a southerly route to the Gap of Dunloe well known to certain hikers and cyclists.

I am struggling here to deal with the vast range of light intensity from the glow of a westering sun, to the shadows cast by surrounding heights.

Beneath our feet are the slopes of Derrygarriff (in Irish Doire Gharbh) of the Mangerton range. Across the way is Crossderry peak of the Dunkerron mountains, the townland is named for the peak (or vice versa).

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Here is a second try, a bit more successful as the clouds opened to shine on distant land. I did work in Photoshop to manage the brightest clouds.

Here are all three versions of the Black Valley view from Moll’s Gap. Enjoy

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Afterglow, Saguaro National Park

The Flag Forms

MichaelStephenWills20 Comments

Here is a postscript for my retrospective diary of the day I created my print “Ocotillo Sunset.” You can visit “Ocotillo Sunset” in my Online Gallery by clicking on any photograph .

In near total darkness, the last sunlight only enough for the far western sky, these are the last shots of this series.

Click photograph to view Ocotillo Sunset in my Online Gallery
Afterglow I

Click photograph to view Ocotillo Sunset in my Online Gallery
Afterglow II

The final result of the day’s work, “Ocotillo Sunset.”

Click photograph to view Ocotillo Sunset in my Online Gallery
Ocotillo Sunset — flag on ocotillo cane poles
Click me for the first blog in this series.

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Finger Lakes National Forest 3

compare portrait vs. landscape orientation.

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In the long history of this forested ridge two Iroquois tribes relied on this land for tree nuts and hunting, the soil did not support agriculture. After the Revolutionary War, the British siding Iroquois tribes were driven away and the land given as one mile square blocks to soldiers, in payment for service. During the Depression era, many of these farms were abandoned and others sold to the Federal government.

Today, there is a patchwork of private land and National Forest. This line of color marks the forest boundary on the eastern ridge side.

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I positioned the tripod against the barbed wire fence marking the posted property. A few barbs and sear goldenrod flowers just visible in the lower right corner.

Click me for another Finger Lakes Autumn post.

Ocotillo Sunset from Saguaro National Park, a diary Part 7

The Flag Forms

MichaelStephenWills16 Comments

The penultimate posting of my retrospective diary of the day I created my print “Octillo Sunset.” You can see a large version of “Ocotillo Sunset” by clicking on any of my blog photographs.

The Flag in Formation and Realization

Then, for reasons I can only speculate about, a spectacular shape came together in the clouds. In the following photograph I have yet to recognize, to see, this cloud sculpture. Do you see part of “Ocotillo Sunset” coming into shape? As far as I remember, at the time I had only a dim realization of what was forming in my view finder and in front of me.

The Flag Forms

Then, I changed camera orientation and shifted the view a few degrees to the left and there it was: a coherent shape of something. Here it is in full, untethered.

Unanchored, a Flag or Ship

The final result of the day’s work, “Ocotillo Sunset.”

Ocotillo Sunset — flag on ocotillo cane poles
Click me for the next post in this series.

Click me for the first post in this series.

Finger Lakes National Forest 2

compare portrait vs. landscape orientation.

MichaelStephenWills5 Comments

An open road, autumn morning, a hiking trail under a setting moon. Thirty miles of hiking trails thread these 16,212 acres. Some, like the Backbone trail, traverse farmland reverted to forest and meadow, popular for horseback riding.

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Click me for another Finger Lakes Autumn post.

Eirk Townland View Two

Black Valley

MichaelStephenWills6 Comments

Here we are standing in Moll’s Gap, looking northwest into Black Valley, a place so remote it was among the last, on the island itself (“mainland”) to be electrified or connected to telephone networks.

Beneath our feet are the slopes of Derrygarriff (in Irish Doire Gharbh) of the Mangerton range. Across the way is Crossderry peak of the Dunkerron mountains, the townland is named for the peak. Black Valley, now a southerly route to the Gap of Dunloe well known to certain hikers and cyclists, is beyond the far mountains.

Click pic for larger view in a new browser tab. If you are in WordPress Reader, open the post to use this feature.

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

Finger Lakes National Forest 1

compare portrait vs. landscape orientation.

MichaelStephenWills11 Comments

The only National Forest in New York State, this land is visible as a ridge to the west of our home. Here we are on the west side, the ridge of Seneca Lake in the distance.

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Click me for another Finger Lakes Autumn post.

Ocotillo Sunset from Saguaro National Park, a diary Part 6

Shooting As The World Turns

MichaelStephenWills7 Comments

This is a retrospective diary of the day I created my print “Ocotillo Sunset.” You can see a large version of “Ocotillo Sunset” by clicking on any of my blog photographs.

Shooting as the World Turns

In Part 5, we enter the final phase of this day’s work with darkening of the land while in the sky sunlight reflects off high clouds. The length of this moment when twilight is over, just before night falls, varies with latitude and time of year. Near the poles (high latitude) this light can last for days while here, at about 32 degrees north, it is less than 15 minutes. As I wrote in Part 4, after this light, the desert is absolutely dark. This is why I chose to set up by the roadside.

In the following two photographs I experimented with camera placement and foreground elements. Starting in Part 4 I became aware of Ocotillo branches, using them for the effect of reaching for and, here, anchoring the clouds.

Saguaro Sunset II

Lead Around by an Ocotillo

These earth-bound Ocotillo branches lead me to the darkened earth. How much to include in the shot? I searched for a balance between the vastness and complete blackness and needed a point of interest. Time was running out.

Saguaro Sunset III

Click me for the next post in this series.

Click me for the first post in this series.

Eirk Townland View One

Here we are in Moll’s Gap, also known in the Irish language as Céim an Daimh (meaning, Gap of the Ox)

MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

Here we are, on the road from Kenmare to Killarney, N71, part of the Ring of Kerry around the Iveragh Peninsula. The spot is the mountain pass Moll’s Gap, also known in the Irish language as Céim an Daimh (meaning, Gap of the Ox). In the Nineteenth Century a woman named Moll Kissane ran a public house here, operating illegally.

The mountain of this townland, named Eirk (also known as Adhard) , is composed of a fine grained sandstone found in a wide swath from North America’s northeastern coast, Greenland, Ireland, Great Britain — lands formerly part of the same ancient continent.

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Iveragh Peninsula, Eirk townland, County Kerry, Republic of Ireland.

Copyright 2021 Michael Stephen Wills All Rights Reserved

On the River Cong, County Mayo, Ireland

A parent swan and cygnet feeding on the River Cong outside the front door of Ashford Castle in County Mayo, in the west of Ireland. Click this link to read another Ireland story “The Cloigtheach of Glendalough.” Enter your email to receive notification of future postings. I will not sell or share your email address. […]

MichaelStephenWills21 Comments

A parent swan and cygnet feeding on the River Cong outside the front door of Ashford Castle in County Mayo, in the west of Ireland.

Click this link to read another Ireland story “The Cloigtheach of Glendalough.”

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