Still Learning To See

A 1,000,000 points of light

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I just never know what a day will bring. Snow clinging to the trees one day and the next much of it had melted and turned into ice clinging to the tips of the branches. Add sun, snowshoes, some Beech leaves, and friends: the magic of a million points of light in the woods.

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This entry was published on January 10, 2020 at 10:56 pm. It’s filed under Ice, John Snell, John Snell Photographer, Leaves, Photograph, Trees, Vermont, Winter, www.johnsnell.photography and tagged , , , , . Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.

7 thoughts on “A 1,000,000 points of light

  1. carolenaquin on said:

    Nice eye. You caught some beauties. The winter landscape is beautiful. Here’s a pastel from our NEK cabin

    Sent from my iPhone

    >

  2. Thank you! The pastel won’t show up on this messageboard unfortunately.

  3. Veer Frost on said:

    John, can I ask re the larger image of single beech leaf backgrounded with mysterious droplets? each bisected by ? I am wondering 1 if those are twig shadows or what??!! (doing the bisecting). The result is like seeing into crystal! Very beautiful, thank you, Veer

    • Yes! I love this technique, one I discovered accidentally and nearly went blind experimenting with. Basically, using either a macro or long telephoto lens, I focus on an object (the leaf in this case) that is midway in distance with the points of light in the background. Then I put something, in this case a branch, between the leaf and the camera. It is out of focus but basically the points of light project it onto the image. Hard to explain but try it and you will quickly see how it works. Even slight movements sideways or up and down cause the whole “projection” to change. This is often easiest to try along a stream with the sun twinkling on the water as the light source and some brush along the bank as the projection.

      • Veer Frost on said:

        A true art to it, I thought so! and a fascinating explanation. An amazing, complex effect, deeply layered yet made of light … I don’t even own a camera (but love photography), but to me both painting and poetry share in this complexity at the heart of seeing. Thanks again!

  4. Dianne Shullenberger on said:

    So beautiful. Of course I love the pictures with the beech leaves, especially the last image with ice crystals. Dianne

  5. The magic of a million points of light in the woods. That is the phrase I will be thinking upon the next time I walk my dog and see the sun shining through the trees with snow and ice twinkling in amidst a thaw.

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