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Seeing Things–One Eye Blind
Caliente, Nevada
2023

This building reminded me of two things. One is dogs with one blue eye and one usually dark eye. The other is the face of a Kachina doll, e.g. this one:

Canyon Evening
Kershaw-Ryan State Park, Nevada
2023

Down the Road
Kershaw-Ryan State Park, Nevada
2023

Creepy Crawly Things
Bozeman, Montana
2023

I was cleaning the nozzle on a can of spray paint when this creature appeared on the cardboard I was using as a backdrop.

Shy Guy
Bozeman, Montana
2023

Same window, same bird feeder, same camera setup–but a different day with different lighting so there were no noticeable reflection issues compared to yesterday’s post.

Reflecting on Self
Bozeman, Montana
2023

On occasion I will take some time and photograph the crows and ravens that come to feed on bread chunks etc. placed out for them in this hanging feeder on our balcony. For various reasons (e.g. convenience, laziness, desire for warmth) I will set up my camera inside the house and photograph through the double pane window. This is not an ideal situation for clarity and other reasons, one of which I found out when I just happened to photograph when the lighting, both inside and outside the house, was just right (or wrong).

It took me a bit to figure out how, given the configuration I set up, I managed to get an overlapping partial double image of this crow.  The key of course is that this was a double pane window. Looking through a single pane of glass, you can often see your own reflection on the surface of the glass itself, again if the light is coming from the right (or wrong) angle–another reason why you shouldn’t photograph through a closed window in the first place if you’re looking for the best results. In this case the double pane window just compounded the simple reflection issue. I believe the light coming off the crow came in through the outer glass pane and mostly through the inner pane, entering the camera lens as expected. But it was also partially reflected back from the outside facing surface of the inside glass pane, never getting through to the camera; instead bouncing back towards the crow itself.

When that light reflected back towards the crow hit the inside facing surface of the outside glass pane, some of that light passed through the glass out towards the crow, but some also reflected back through the inside glass pane into the camera lens. (Are you confused yet?) If there had only been one pane of glass, the light from the crow would have still reflected off the outside surface of the glass, but not been further reflected back through the window into the camera. (For you sticklers for detail out there, I have to point that there there would actually be an ignorable amount of light that would have been reflected back off the crow itself). Also, the reason you don’t see a total reflected image of the the crow, instead just the part that overlapped the crow itself, is because the background around the crow was too light for the reflection to show up even though it is actually there. And finally I believe that this whole issue was compounded to a degree because the window was comprised of low-e glass, which is designed to reflect light of certain frequencies, mostly in the UV range, but inadvertently affecting the visible spectrum to a degree as well I imagine.

If the physics of this image was obvious to you without all the commentary, my apologies for the long explanation. The same applies if your reaction to all this is “who cares.” But, personally, besides providing me with an entertaining light and optics puzzle, it did result in a kind of interesting image as well I think. I probably should have named it “Double Take” because that’s what I did when I first saw it and it is of course a double taken image.

The Pond–Sunset
Bozeman, Montana
2023

I’ve told this story before at least once, with a different photo every time, but it’s worth repeating I think (at least for me). Every time I happen to glance out across the pond from our mountain house at just the right time of evening and see the reflection of the trees across the way, I am pleasantly reminded of Edward Steichen’s 1904 photograph titled The Pond–Moonlight, one of my favorite historic photographs. Occasionally, I will give in to photographing the reflections I am seeing in our pond, in tribute to Steichen if for no other reason. This is one of my favorite photos of our own pond as I like the way the reflected tree trunks are tightly framed by the over hanging branches and dried cattails and grasses growing around the edge of the pond.

Marmot Memory
Bozeman, Montana
2023

Dynamic Stillness
Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming
2023

Dead and dry sedges poking up through the ice on the edge of a frozen pond project a feeling of movement even in their stillness. Like sparks from a cold fire.

Bare Tree #124
American Prairie, Montana
2023

Well, Happy New Year to you all. At least I’m hopeful you will each find your own happiness on a personal level in this year 2024. I’m confident I’ll remain blissfully happy when I’m able to stay in my own little world. However as far as the future of the national and international situations go (which are “desperate as usual” to quote Tom Robbins), I’m pretty sure I’d like to follow Alice down this rabbit hole and spend some time in Wonderland rather than read the news every day for the next year.