stina's post

I picked up some quick shots at the Maple Fest Sunday afternoon while taking a brief break from the gallery. What a busy weekend! As usual the festival provided a lot of "colorful" opportunities, but I was in a good mood so I only shot the nice ones…Yay for the weather we had!

…that it's MOTORCYCLE SEASON. Yay!

I have to say that one of my all-time favorite sounds in the world is the peepers in spring. To me that is the sound of the world awakened at last after struggling to keep my toes toasty the whole damn winter. I love sitting out at night (preferably by a fire pit) and just soaking in that sound. And yesterday marked their Northeast arrival.

I stopped on the way home last night to take this pic of the osprey pair that has a new roost atop an electric pole platform in the swamp in Fairfield. I'm thinking it will make a good addition to my power-line series. And as I shot from the side of the road, I was serenaded by the peepers.

Most of the year I grumble a little about where I live. It's far out and isolated and a long enough (and twisty) drive that it can get tedious. But once spring hits I'm a little happier about our location because of the sounds and smells. On the drive last night I caught the ospreys at sunset, the beaver in the creek, and a heron gliding over the house.

So glad spring is here!

I just got a new lens and after trying it out last night, I am in love. I've been reading on the OSP forum about a lot of people using "primes" which I found out meant fixed focal length (no zoom). They are typically cheaper and you can get them with apertures that go down to 1.2. I had always thought that I was missing something in not being able to acheive that sweet shallow depth of field even in a lens that stops at 2.8, but holy cow what a difference it makes! I got just a standar 50mm 1.4 that I plan to use for portraits and weddings. I think I'm going to be using flash a LOT less now (which I don't like the look of anyway) and loving my pictures more. The ones above I shot last night during a reception at the gallery and I'm really stoked!

I almost forgot to mention that I have a new website! Well, same site, stinaplant.com, but I've upgraded to a flash site so I'm hoping this is an improvement. If anyone notices any kinks, feel free to let me know!

Literally, the air is sweet this time of year as all the sugar shacks spring into action to churn out some maple syrup. I've been working on a series of sugarhouses shot at night for a few years now and above is one of my most recent additions. Someday, I'll pull them all together!