Swollen Streams and Plenty of Rain…
Hmmm….nearly two weeks of rain. Straight. Literally have seen the sun once in this time frame. Photosensitive flowers have given up…my lilac bush never really opened, just budded, and waited, and waited, and browned. But the forests have greened. Very green…the colors have become incredibly saturated, and I’ve been enjoying shooting this color while dodging the rain drops. A perfect example…here’s a small falls on a brook at Pulpit Rock Reservation in Bedford, NH. Love that color!
Spring Green at Pulpit Rock
This past weekend, I took a trip up to Franconia Notch to capture spring green and swelled streams in one of the most beautiful locations in the White Mountains. I focused on the Pemi River proper, as though the floor of the notch had seen spring, the mountain walls were a bit behind. And finally this year, I timed things right!
One of the more showy flowers in the White Mountains is the oft hated hobblebush. Hated, as it grows quickly, chokes trails, and is the bane of bushwhackers bagging remote peaks. But in the spring, it displays an impressive white flower cluster, in the fall it turns a kaleidoscope of colors, and in winter, it feeds the moose. So I like the plant. And it lines the Pemi through the notch!
Shooting it though, on yet another misty, drizzly, humid day, poses certain challenges. Wading in the slowly warming river, I can attest that the mountain streams are still cold. And the channel proper is about 10 to 20 degrees cooler than the surrounding bank. And when the camera cooled down, and was brought back out of the channel, the lens looked like your sodie can in summer…covered in condensation. Most of my shots were ruined by water drops from rainfall or incompletely cleared condensation.
Condensation on the Lens
Patience and perseverance did rule the day, and I cane away with a few that I like. Though even the first one has a big drop conspicuously inconspicuously hidden over a foreground rock. The other works only after cropping the top and the bottom. But they do capture the essence of the spring so far, damp, wet, green and beautiful!
Bridge at the Basin
Hobblebush Along the Pemi
