A Foggy Morning in Taunton Town

There was a nice fog this morning and my grandson and I went out to take some pictures of landscapes and other subjects in the fog.

Fog acts as a natural soft box and diffuses the light and if you shoot without adding some plus exposure compensation, the picture will come out dark.  When I have the scene focused in my camera, I take one shot and look at the histogram.  I want to expose to the right to give me the greatest amount of information, so that I can adjust the picture in post-processing.  In shootings scenic, I use the lowest ISO, a sturdy tripod with a good head, single shot mode, mirror up and a shutter release.  If I am doing single pictures of the scene, I utilize Aperture Priority.  But, if I am doing a panorama, in order to keep the same settings I would use Manual Mode.

This screen capture is of the first picture at the top of the blog before I did any postprocessing and shows the histogram exposed to the right.

Vegetation at the edge of the lake in the fog

A marsh in the fog

Panoramic of the marsh in the fog

A different marsh in the fog

Spider Webs

Sunday Foggy Morning

Field In the Fog

This Sunday morning, I woke up again to fog. No wind, temperature in the low 40s and the humidity is high. So, first I made my coffee read my email and then went to see what the landscapes would look like in the fog. I checked out some fields, Lake Rico, Ocean Spray headquarters with its cranberry bogs, and Tamarac Park. The fog range from light to heavy depending where I was. I think after you see the photographs you agree it was worth the trip.

Lake Rico

Cranberry Bog

Marsh in Bleached Black and White

Marsh in the Fog

Sunrise in Bad Weather

The weather forecast for Sunday January 6 was for snow showers, so I decided I would get up before sunrise had tried to catch how the land and seascape at Allens Pond would look in bad weather.

Allens Pond Beach Loop in the Snow

Driving was a little slow due to the weather but the roads were not bad. I packed at the beginning of the beach loop and as it became lighter toward sunrise (no there was no sun present) obtained a series of photographs to try to show the mood of the landscape.

The closer we got to the actual time is sunrise, the snow slowly turn to some sleet then stopped. My series of pictures I've try to convey some of the different feelings that I had with the weather, from cold to the drama of the sky.

Allens Pond Beach Loop in the Snow

Rocks, Cobbles, Sean and Sky with Clouds

On the way home, we stopped in the state forest where I obtained some photographs of the marsh and snow and of a little stream running through the woods.

Marsh in B&W

Running Stream and Snow

Tree Swallows at Allens Pond

On a post

The ubiquitous tree swallow (Tachycineta bicolor) who, in the fall migration form large flocks that can number up into the thousands, as I wrote about in a previous blog http://photobee1.blogspot.com/2011/08/tree-swallow-swarming.html.

Bluebird Box



"I Won"



Argument

In the spring, the tree swallow arrives earlier than the other swallows occurring in mid March to early April.  They do not show up in the large flock numbers as they did in the fall.  On arrival , they start by picking out nesting areas, which could be tree cavities are nest boxes, utilizing  bluebird boxes.  Then it is time to pick out mates and battle other tree swallows for those mates.

"Welcome"

Boxes in the field

Boxes by the Marsh

Flying around a Box

View from the field to the marsh

They like open areas, near water, and that includes marshes, fields and swamps.  At Allens Pond Massachusetts Audubon Sanctuary, there are a large number of tree swallows that are present because the sanctuary has such a large diversity of habitats, marshes, ponds, grasslands and swamps.
Once there are younger eggs in the nest, adults will frequently dive-bomb intruders to drive them from the area.  A big difficulty for both the tree swallows, and the Eastern bluebird are house sparrows.  They also will take over the nesting boxes and even destroy the eggs all young of the other birds.  The sanctuary staff will trap the house sparrows and removal from the area, hopefully they won't return and find another area to nest.

Launch

Landing