Washington, Connecticut
Here at the outset of the era of social distancing, I'm lucky to be located pretty far from urban congestion, about 90 miles north of Manhattan. There are multiple forest preserves and parks nearby. They are open for hiking, bird watching, whatever people want to do out in the open air in the early spring forest. There are new signs posted at the trail heads urging people to enjoy the preserve while maintaining safe practices. Wednesday it had rained all night but by about nine in the morning it had tapered off to a light mist, so I grabbed a camera bag and drove up to the main section of Steep Rock Preserve. I've been making pictures there since moving to this area in 1975, so I'm familiar with many miles of the trails.
When the sky is still heavily overcast, still raining a little, and everything is wet, the combination of soft light and richly saturated colors is visually rewarding (the moisture makes for extra rich tonality in black and white as well). At this point in the year, the forest floor is a variegated carpet of browns and yellows. Most tree branches are still bare, though a few are beginning to show buds.
There are low growing trees—they hardly ever seem to get bigger than shrubs—that keep most of their autumn leaves all winter. They may be black birch but I haven't researched it yet. They bring those brown/yellow spots of color up off the ground. At the same time there are mosses that are an intense, almost artificial looking vivid green, especially right after a rain. The forest along the Shepaug River is a split of various hardwoods with an equal number of spruce and pine. The moss seems to prefer the softwoods, and really goes to town on fallen trees. Over the winter I'd experimented with making pictures dealing with these combinations of greens and browns and felt ready to take advantage of the ideal (if chilly at about 40°F) conditions.
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