Tag Archives: Monochrome

Monochrome Photos Challenge – Day 1

April 13, 2015 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography 3 Comments

When John Etheridge, Book Of Bokeh , invited me to participate in a monochrome challenge I replied ‘yes’ immediately. Like most everything else I do in life I just charged straight ahead.

A short time later it struck me. Good grief, these are real photographers, they even know how to write. To steal from Ansel Adams; they make pictures. I take them.

I like what I take. I hope there are times I place my own stamp on some. But I take them, and that’s what I do. I just want to share what I see.

That said what I chose for day 1 is a photograph that at any other time is deleted. Glare on water, a dark subject, and trash.

Trash is the point here. I typically shoot wildlife….and the sad damage we as people are doing to the tiny little world as they know it.

I guess there’s a reason I didn’t delete this one.

Landscape

I Prefer My Mansions Haunted

March 30, 2015 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography

The Harkness Mansion in Connecticut is an incredibly beautiful building. There are also large Victorian style gardens, open fields, marsh lands, and it’s topped off with rolling waves on a rocky beach. Something for everyone. This is all part of the Harkness state park we photographed a few months ago.

I visited this time on a bright and sunny winter day. However there were a few shots that just seemed to need a different presentation. So here I have tried to have a ‘haunted’ mansion feel.

Harkness Mansion Connecticut — Click To Enlarge

Harkness Mansion Connecticut

Lately I’ve been slowly adding the short lens back into my photography. Like the shots here, it is back to the basics. Compose the picture, set the camera, use multiple shots and exposure, then process back in the office.

Typically I have myself set up with a long telephoto lens, mounted on a monopod, and a sling pack of misc. stuff. I photograph anything that blinks!

Part of me likes how much more territory is available in the view finder. How lightweight everything is and there is no mad rush to get the shot right.

Still I am positive a once in a life time wildlife picture, say an Eagle in a top hat riding a Moose in pajamas, will present itself and I will not be ready.

Wildlife

Geese Of A Different Color

March 7, 2015 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography

Winter is a challenge to photograph. Color is lost with light glaring on the snow and ice. Add water to the mix and a camera will see things very different than your eyes.

A flock of fast moving geese with little color becomes a different subject entirely when done in black and white.

Black and White Geese

Landscape

Winter Hike Black and White

March 1, 2015 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography

We found a new place in the northeast part of Connecticut to explore by chance. Driving along small local roads has been the source of several great finds. The Joshua land trust is one.

The Joshua’s Trust land trust has over 4,000 acres of protected land in Connecticut. This non-profit organization protects the land, maintains trails for the public, and offers educational outreach programs. Connecticut has over 130 land trust organizations, 3rd highest in the US.

Joshua was the son of the famous Mohegan chief Uncas (see James Fennimore Cooper’s book ‘The Last Of The Mohegans’). Land grants of the early settlers were provided by Uncas and his heirs in this area of Connecticut. The trust was named in honor of Joshua. Attawanhood was his Mohegan name. He died in 1676.

As usual it was cold, deep snow, and this day some wind. Nothing moved around the lake or woods. In the distance a large woodpecker beat on a hollow tree. Absolute quite otherwise.

Black and White seems appropriate here.

Lake at Joshua Trust

Path at Joshua Trust

Landscape

Connecticut Foundry, Rocky Hill

December 19, 2014 Ted Jennings - TPJ Photography

Follow the old river side rail road tracks, or the road to the Rocky Hill ferry, and you will find the last remains of the Connecticut Foundry Co.

Several industrial buildings stood here beside the Connecticut River from 1835 to 1881, when a huge foundry was built.

After a fire in 1918 a new foundry was built and remained until 1983. The company made a wide variety of items of cast iron, from range oil burners, piston-ring moldings and lawn mower parts to bookends and decorative plaques. Much has been torn down now, the last buildings and rails are to be demolished in 2015.

Side foundry road.

Silo hidden entrance

Foundry rail spur

Side loading door

Side rail road tracks

Foundry manufacturing building

It seemed appropriate to shoot here using black and white.