Solstice 2008

G’day Everyone and a joyful, fulfilling, and positively memorable 2009 to all of you.

I read somewhere that the number of Christmas cards one gets every year can portend how many people might attend one’s funeral.  Bah humbug!  Cheryl and I don’t send out Christmas cards and what you sow, so shall you reap.  If the number of cards hanging over our front doorway is any indication of the size of my future funeral, than I’d like to thank that person, in advance, for showing up and would they please make sure that the camera clutched in my cold hands is on aperture priority, ISO 400, and the flash is set to fill flash, -1 stop.  That ought to be about right. 

Sorry, I don’t mean to bring grim tidings but I’m turning 55 tomorrow and, well, mortality is bearing down on me.  Now, when I pick up my guitar and sing Bruce (Utah) Phillips’s plaintive lyrics, “Each year is like a rolling freight train and cold as starlight on the rails.” I can actually feel the rumble of the train in the pit of my stomach.  I trust it’s a distant rumble; I have many miles to cover and goals to reach before the fire in my boiler goes out. 

 
B&O Centennial Slips Through Seal Cove Tunnel
on our ceiling layout.  All but the sky and moon are real.  As for the sleigh and reindeer, that depends on whether you believe.
Canon EOS -1D Mark II N with Canon 300mm f/2.8 L USM lens 
4″ at f/16, ISO 400, 550EX Speedlight on full bounced off white ceiling
evaluative metering, aperture priority
Gitzo G1340 with Wimberley head & cable release

 
Quite frankly, I prefer to stay in touch throughout the year.  I look forward to writing this blog as much as I enjoy planning my field work.  Hearing from of those of you who receive these missives is as fulfilling as getting a good shot.  Really.

I was never very cold hardy but as I get older, I’m becoming downright tropical.  While I don’t ever see myself migrating to a stuccoed bungalow in St. Augustine, Florida, I find I’m hibernating more and more.   That is, I prefer to fill the cold, dark days of winter with indoor projects like updating all of our editors with our new work, writing, making submissions, and, as some of you already know, indulging in my hobby – model railroading.   (I could make the excuse that I’m honing my macro photography skills when I model and photograph my railroad.  We have a ceiling layout in our living room so whenever my dad calls on Sunday and asks what I’m doing, rather than disappoint him by replying that I’m “playing with trains”, I simply say that I’m doing home improvement.)

Now and again, however, a subject comes along that is simply too compelling, even for this winter whimp to pass up.  Like a few years ago when the great grey owls ran out of mice and voles further north and migrated to the U.S./Canadian border and Rob and I were able to photograph several of them in a park in Montreal!  This winter, the pine grosbeaks are back.  Presumably, there was a weak mast (fruiting trees) up in the boreal forest and so the grosbeaks kept winging south until they found sufficient food.  Today, they’re at our feeder enjoying the sunflower seeds.  The photo below shows why I’ll endure frostbite to capture these striking occasional winter migrants with my camera. 

  
Male Pine Grosbeak
Canon EOS3 with Canon 300mm f/2.8 L USM lens 
1/350″ a f/4, Velvia
Gitzo Studex with Manfrotto 4047 head & cable release

We have snowshoe hares on our property but some years they’re more numerous than others.  When Cheryl and I strap on our own showshoes and take “the boys” for a romp in the snow, if I spot a network of hare tracks, I’ll head out by myself with my camera, endure the cold,  and hunt “bunny wabbits”. 

Snowshoe Hare
Canon EOS3 with Canon 300mm f/2.8 L USM lens with 1.4x teleconverter
1/500″ a f/4, Ektachrome 200
Gitzo Studex with Manfrotto 4047 head

During the winter, the full moon sometimes sets right behind Jay Peak though I can grab the shot from my deck in the time it takes to heat yesterday’s leftover coffee in the microwave.  

Moon Over Jay Peak
Nikon FE2 with 200mm Macro Nikkor  f/4 lens and Cokin magenta filter
1/15″ a f/5.6, Velvia
Gitzo Studex with Manfrotto 4047 head & cable release

One of Rob’s “Favorite Places” is a spot called Lake of Two Mountains and some of the best work he’s done (featured in Nature’s Best) are his winter landscapes of the sunsets over the lake.  He’s a better man outdoors in winter than I enduring subzero, bone-cracking cold to get these superb landscape scenes that appear genuinely arctic in their austerity.  When it’s that cold outside, I put on my wool socks, long underwear, and hooded fleece pullover.  That’s just to get out of bed.

Ice Floe Sunset Over Lake of Two Mountains 
Canon EOS 20D with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 USM lens at 17mm
f/16 at 1/6s, ISO 100
Hoya Moose Polarizer with Hitech 3-stop hard-edged GND filter
Gitzo G1340 tripod, Markins M-10 ballhead, cable release, mirror lockup

January Sunset Over Lake of Two Mountains
Canon EOS 20D with Canon EF 17-40mm f/4 USM lens at 17mm
f/22 at .4s, ISO 100
Hoya Moose Polarizer with Hitech 3-stop hard-edged GND filter
Gitzo G2220 tripod, Really Right Stuff  BH-55 ballhead, cable release, mirror lockup 

Now’s the time to seriously start thinking about joining us in the field next year – when it’s warmer.  Visit our “In the Field” page and consider one of the many exciting 2009  photo itineraries to Africa, Newfoundland, New England in Fall, and, of course, the popular primer in professional techniques of nature photography, the Green Mountain Nature Photography Workshop. 

If you want to join us, you’ll need a tripod.  In case you don’t have one yet, I’m selling my G2220.  See the Ebay listing here:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=160306438868&ssPageName=ADME:L:LCA:US:1123

I’ll let you get back to your holiday festivities and, as always, I’ll be looking forward to seeing you in the field next year. 

Me?  I’m going to fix myself some tea with rum, cuddle with the boys on the futon, and watch the Polar Express.

Sojourns In Nature is very proud to announce that we are now sponsored by:

We’ll elaborate on this in our next blog as we are still working on the details, but we are excited to announce that Gary Farber from Hunt’s Photo, Video and Digital has agreed to sponsor Sojourns In Nature.  Gary has generously offered to contribute $125.00 toward the cost of our multimedia presentation, “Sojourns in The Wild – Farther Afield” and all he’s asking in return is an invitation from the club, museum, theatre, campus, or organization hosting the show to attend the presentation and set up his Hunt’s exhibit.  This reduces the cost of the presentation to $225.00!  You get the presentation, a field seminar, and two pros to tap for advice, deals on gear, and otherwise abuse us until you run out of questions or they throw us out of the pub.

 
Love and may the light be with you,

Gustav

Posted by Gustav under Musings,Winter | Comments (7)