5/18/20 Sudbury Reservoir

As usual for these quarantine times, I was itching to get out and move around. I could tell there were some thin clouds, so I headed over to the trails along the Sudbury Reservoir in hopes that I could catch a view of a good sunset. Boy did it live up to expectations. After a few minutes walk I made my way down to the edge of the water and watched the sun sink below the horizon.

The sunset itself was nice, but just afterwards it got even better as the light softened and the clouds overhead all began to glow in shades of pink and purple. I had a great time capturing various angles of it, then headed down along the shore as the last light faded away.

Because the trail was so wide and easy to follow I never ended up pulling out my headlamp. As I was walking back along the path, I stopped to have a drink of water and saw a dark shape moving around in front of me. I quietly pulled out the camera to take a picture to see if it could see things any better than I could.

After taking one look at the skunk on the back of the camera, I decided it was best to make a little more noise to be sure it knew I was there. Fortunately, it quickly decided it wanted as little to do with me as I did with it, and scurried off into the woods.

5/15/20 Frogs in the Yard

During a recent afternoon break from the “office” I wandered around the yard a bit. As it turns out my timing was perfect, and I happened to spot this friendly lady relaxing on the leaf of our irises. She was quite cooperative as I captured a few photos of her, and even after I scared her a bit he sat on the leaves and struck a pose for me. The green coloration was really incredible to see up close, especially with the bright sunlight.

The very next day I came across her brown friend on a nearby rhododendron. He was not as willing to take photos, but I still managed to get a pretty good shot. Despite keeping an eye out for the two of them I have not seen them again.

5/14/20 Sudbury River

Today I have a short one, a few photos from a recent kayaking trip on the Sudbury River. I went out in the evening to catch the sunset and get away from the house for a little while. Though the sunset didn’t turn out to be anything special, it was still a beautifully peaceful evening.

5/8/20 Hop Brook Sunset Walk

After our experience with the Hop Brook Marsh Conservation Area the week before, I decided to set out for a sunset walk near another portion of the local creek. This time I entered through the Gray Reservation trailhead. Much like the week before, it was a nice little parking lot with some beautifully maintained trails.

After a short section through fairly dense woods, I came across the brook itself, with beautiful views of the setting sun. It was a fun place to take some pictures given that everywhere I pointed the camera it looked great. The little bridge over the brook added an extra touch to the pictures as well.

As I continued along the brook there were a few more overlooks, some more perfect trails, and also very few people. I was pleasantly surprised that I only ran into a couple people with their dogs on the entire walk, and had no trouble at all with social distancing. I ended up stopping at a viewpoint looking out over one of the marsh sections. Though the trail kept going, I decided to simply watch the sunset from there, and then made my way back to the car as it started to get dark.

5/8/20 Flowers and Ants

Today I have a simple collection of photos to share, even if it is an unusual combination. Up first we have a special request from my nephew, some pictures of some ants from our yard. Then to round it out, some photos of the flowers we have seen around the neighborhood on our walks. As you can see, our neighbors’ yards and gardens are really starting to shine. I just wish our grass would keep up.

5/2/20 Hopbrook Marsh Conservation Land

Well we made it to through another week in isolation and emerged into a beautiful weekend to kick of the month of May. We decided to take advantage of it and explore some new trails in the area that we have not been to before. Our walk began at a small parking lot with just a couple of other cars. The trail wound its way into the woods and through the marshes passing a number of houses. Pretty quickly though, we were well away from signs of civilization, and the wildlife appeared.

We eventually found ourselves walking around a small pond that was quite overrun with turtles. There were easily hundreds of them on every tiny island, and log. In addition there was a heron doing some fishing, and a family of geese eating from the grass in the sun.

With all of the wildlife and beautiful views came more people as well. After we got back I found out that there was a second entrance much closer to this pond, so it seems that a number of people we coming in from there. We wound our way back towards the car, and saw a couple more critters along the way, including this beautiful snake.

All told it was a great spot, a beautiful day, and a great way to relax a little. I would highly recommend this spot to others.

5/1/20 Neighborhood Flowers

Spring has definitely arrived and our walks around the neighborhood have become more and more colorful. A pair of robins were also hard at work building a nest behind the house. As usual, I’ve been doing my best to capture it all here.

4/24/20 Macro at Home

Another day in isolation, another set of photos of things around the yard and the house. As you can see I have continued to play with the small subjects I can find nearby. This time I did a little more with the lighting and setting up a scene. Other than that though, there is not much to explain about these. Enjoy!

4/19/20 Nobscot Reservation Hike

To complete the crazy New England weather cycle, our snowfall from the day before was immediately followed by a warm sunny day. I jumped on the opportunity and headed out to check out the Nobscot Scout Reservation and the adjoining preservation land. The walk turned out to be the most solitary outing I have had since the start of the epidemic. I spent a couple hours wandering along the beautifully maintained trails and what I thought were some nice images, including another curious looking spider (click to view) .

I also returned later in the week on my mountain bike to explore some of the single track here, and it delivered some wonderfully smooth and flowy descents mixed in with some challenging but manageable climbs. I’ll definitely back more often.

4/18/20 Spring Snow

The morning of the 18th of April featured a bit of a surprise this year: A coat of snow on the ground. It was particularly strange given how little snow we had during the actual winter. Of course given all of the hints of spring we had been seeing, it made for some interesting pictures that I really wanted to capture.

In addition to the snow pictures I also had another chance to work on my macro photography skills when we found a stinkbug hanging out on a chair. He or she was nice enough to model for a few photos before we released it back outside.