12-25-16 Into the Woods

By Scott Shephard

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This is an example of one of the tens of thousands of photos I have that sit in my figurative "photo closet." I took it a few years ago while exploring rural Maryland. The sun was going down and I was drawn by the way the leaves were being backlit by the strong sunlight. In another 20 minutes this would have been an entirely different scene.

When I approached this grove of trees along the road, I thought of the line from Macbeth:

Light thickens, and the crow

Makes wing to th' rooky wood.

Good things of day begin to droop and drowse;

Whiles night’s black agents to their preys do rouse.

It's an ominous statement made by Macbeth about a pending murder in a play that brilliantly plays evil against good and uses light and darkness to help do this.

Good photography uses light and shadow, too, of course, and this photo may demonstrate that. Macbeth's night was a thing to be feared but the coming night in Maryland wasn't. It seemed like a safe and civilized place. :-)

Canon 5DIII 1/160s f/7.1 ISO250 75mm 

04-27-16 A View from Our Porch

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By Scott Shephard

Deb and I have re-located for a few days and our first stop is a small house above Cane Garden Bay on the island of Tortola in the British Virgin Islands. It gets up to 85 degrees pretty regularly here and at night it dips down to 83. Pretty boring, I guess.

I hear that snow is forecast for parts of our home state. Unless climate change takes a bizarre turn, we won't see any snow here. :-)

Canon 5DIII 1/10s f/8.0 ISO200 27mm (3 frame HDR)