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Lobsters

On my way home from work yesterday, this sight caught my eye. That's the point obviously. The woman/owner in the photo told me that the giant lobster makes a big difference in the amount of people that stop and buy. She pull out the monster lobster every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and parks the stand on the main road into downtown.

Hovering

Yesterday evening two neighbors came down to play with my girls. The four girls were running, playing and just being kids outdoors. That was until one of the girls started to hover about 6 inches above the grass. None of us could believe it! We all stared as she floated above the green grass for what seemed like minutes. It was actually about 30 seconds in full hovering mode. At this point I am guessing some of you might believe what i am saying. I am totally making this up, but the concept of feet hovering above the grass is exactly what I was going for here. One sister held up the other off the ground as a snapped a few frames.

Bees and Pollen

I am on a run now! 7 days and counting riding the 365 train. These were shot this weekend at Sebago Lake. The bee kindly perched himself on a dead oak leaf and let me snap a few frames of his pollen covered body. The pollen was insane. Probably the worst we have ever seen it. The motion of the water on Sebago pushed and trapped the pollen in our cove for an entire day. It looked like bright yellow paint was covering the entire surface. It was thick and coated anything in its path. The other frame is one of my daughters kicking her feet, from the dock, through the yellow allergy producing tree pollen.

Agua

Summer is Maine means water is constantly on the brain. I do all I can to surround myself and my family with water. This includes the ocean, lakes, creeks and our pool. These were shot last night on "daddy daughter night." After work, me and my girls started by taking a short ocean excursion a few miles from where we live and spent about an hour wading through the water catching horseshoe crabs and watching how they move through the shallows. We then departed back home for another swim sesh in the pool. It was great watching them race each other from end to end, giggling along the way.

I am not trying to be trendy, on this post, but wanted to suggest a few ways to reduce our overconsumption of water and reduce our footprint on earth just a tad. My philosophy is that you don't have to "go big" in the recycling/conservation mode to make an impact. In fact, small changes by many can make a huge difference. I am certainly not the poster boy for reducing our carbon footprint, but here are a few things I have initiated lately that might make a difference. All are water related.

1. Recycle your De-humidifier water: A friend and work colleague of mine named Andrew gave me this tid bit which I though was awesome. I had already been recycling the couple of gallons of water collected via the air into the container by watering plants in the garden. But recently on this creative recycling recommendation, I am taking the water collected and dumping it into the washing machine to reduce the water needed for laundry.

2. Brushing teeth and shaving: When brushing your teeth or shaving, only run the water when cleaning the razor or your brush. Don't let it run throughout.

3. Showers: Attempt to shorten your stay in the shower. Bust a move, get it done and get out to more important things. Or, try not showering every day, skip a day here and there.

Slug

This might seem uninteresting to some, but consider this fact. The hole that is open on the side of the slug is their breathing hole. As I was taking it's picture, that hole would completely close down and become part of the body and then reopen like a mouth to breathe.

Beetle

The strange thing about this macro stuff, is that it had been a long time that this lens gathered dust on a shelf in my office. It fits my personality though when I really think about it. I tend to full dive into things such as this for a short time and then move on. Maybe not a very balanced approach, but my theory is that it all balances out in the end and allows me to really wrap my hands around the nuances of a specific theme, style, ect.

Here's a little glimpse into how the Dennen mornings start, how this shot unfolded and how it impacted the day as it ran its course. My wife generally takes a hour stint around 5am to run while I do all I can to distract the kids from wanting to invade her time alone. One thing that has worked really well, is immediately bringing them outdoors into the backyard and fetching critters from the pool. It's amazing what we find swimming around each morning. This morning, which was actually yesterday, the biggest insect we found was this beetle. Once we locate the critters collectively, the girls really want me to fetch it out and examine and interact with it. Of course, this is all part of the exercise, clean the pool, engage the girls in nature while distracting them from the morning magnetic draw to mommy, capture an image for an ongoing backyard series and 365 and ultimately launch the girls into a positive space to begin the day. After capturing the beetle, we placed it on a monster hosta leaf for a portrait. After that, my oldest daughter wanted to bring it to school for a show and tell. We created a comfortable short term habitat for it made of grass and leaves and she was able transport the beetle comfortably. Once we arrived at school, she opened the lid to the container and as I was saying goodbye, she was surrounded by 10 other children fully immersed at what was crawling around in her possession. The beetle stayed with the children all day and upon picking her up at the end of the day, together we released it back into the garden to continue it's life.

Wing

As I dive into critter land in my yard, I sometimes think that this project is best suited for kids in a class environment. Bringing them up close to the amazing details of insects, bugs, and really anything in nature. Take this dragonfly wing for example. Check out the shapes in the design. 4 swooping arches that stretch from top to bottom, two of which are filled with horizontal lines and the others are a mix of horizontal lines and honeycomb patterns. Maybe that is not entirely exact, but the more you look at it the more you see new shapes and patterns. I guess that's my point. The fun is in the details.

Dragonfly

Hello Again. Last friday I signed a new photographer onto the roster at Aurora. This guy, although very different from myself in the way we have led our lives, had one very common similarity...we were both shooting photos of creatures in our backyards. We are at opposite ends of the coast line, but there was an immediate connection between us because of this approach to shooting what is in our immediate surrounding. Our approached were slightly different. He was capturing the animals and bringing them into the studio which yields very different imagery, where as i am shooting outside in their natural environment. Anyway, he inspired me to pick up the camera again and continue on with my backyard series. This dragonfly let my daughters and I handle him gently. He/she would fly around us, land on us, giving me time to get up close and personal with the little critter.

Stone Me

i am back, at least temporarily. man, the 365 streak of daily shots has been broken and broken hard. i think it's been a couple weeks. i am sorry to those who were in the zone with me with the daily uploads. i had a tough time sucking up the reality that i was not able to keep it going throughout the year as planned, but then realized there was not point on crying over spilled milk and that the more reasonable approach was to simply do the best i can to pick up the ball and run with it again. so last night, i did just that. i was planting some new ornamental grasses and took a 5 minute break to grab my camera and shoot some snaps of the stone wall i just completed in the backyard. it's a retaining wall that sits on a small hill which has transplanted and ornamental grasses as a backdrop behind. the wall is also a comfortable sitting wall with large flat stones that help anchor it all together for stability. the majority of these randomly shaped stones were donated by my kind neighbor who wanted to get rid of them in order to build a new stone wall that is tightly fitted with a different type of stone. i gladly removed stone by stone from his old wall and wheelbarrowed them onto my land and began the puzzle of fitting them together to create something pleasing to my eye.

Toads and Hosta

well, i must have wildlife on the brain. it seems to be everywhere around me. this image was shot at 6am this morning while watering a massive amount of fresh transplanted hostas on a path leading into the woods behind my house. my youngest daughter and i were gathering water from the creek and watering the hostas and ferns as they establish themselves and as we approached one of the hostas this toad was comfortably resting on one of the leaves. he was awake and looking at us, not bothered in the least. my lens was about 2 inches away from his eyes in this shot and he never budged. the accommodations must have been mighty comfortable for the toad.

Ants and Peony

for those of you who have peony growing in your garden, you might have noticed that every spring ants gather and crawl over the buds. until just a moment ago, i thought these ants were necessary to initiate the opening of the flower. well, looks like that was a myth after a little research. the ants are attracted to peony buds because they have a sweet nectar resin on them that ants seem to enjoy tasting. there you have it. in one of the images, you can see the ant actually sampling some of the sweetness.

Fern Study

ferns are unraveling now and slowly beginning to fan out. this variety, in which i have no idea of the actual name, is very short to the ground and less then a foot in height when fully grown.

see green, think green, be green

Juggling, Circus Smirkus

a neighbor of mine asked me to photograph her son for a press release on his joining the circus. the circus is called circus smirkus and they tour around new england for 2 months in the summer performing 70 shows in 14 towns. it's all kids and the outfit is based out of vermont. here's a couple of frames of new comber to the circus doing his thing.

Frog Eggs

here's something a little different. one of the reasons i respect my older daughters pre-school is because they are constantly being introduced to things such as this. the kids will witness the growth cycle from egg to tadpole to frog. the kids love it. they watch the process unfold daily and this is solid grounding to keep their attention to things in nature. this photo is frog eggs in their jelly-like protective ball.

Alpaca Shearing

this was a great experience i have never witnessed before, alpaca shearing. my friend pam invited me along to document the shearing of her many alpacas yesterday, somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 of them. i usually post only one or two to each day of 365, but thought some might find it interesting to see a few more on this round. during the couple hours i shot in the barn, i attempted to capture a slice of the story. a lot goes into this process. many hands are needed to make sure it goes smoothly. there is one main person actually shearing the fleece, others hold down the alpaca, there is a person dedicated to giving shots, someone cuts the toenails, people gather the fleece then weigh it, package it and store and label it. there are other details i am sure, but these are the main jobs i witnessed.

Backyard Series, Day 5

fresh chive coming up in the garden. tired of the color green yet? not me, but my next posting will be brown white and very fluffy.

Backyard Series, Day 4

another morning of getting down into the nitty gritty of what is starting to come up in the back woods.

Backyard Series, Day 3

this is fun. getting into the details at ground level with what is coming up daily in my backyard and woods. ferns are creeping open, hostas are opening slowly, mosses are greening and all sorts of other stuff is coming to life. one of the reasons i like to photograph macro details of nature is because everything else around you fades to silence and the connection between me and whatever i am photographing is acute and uninterrupted. silence, light, texture, color and earthiness is what these moments are all about.

Backyard series, spring bloom

to keep me on track with 365 i have decided to pick a theme for this week. i have chosen to focus on natural objects as they bloom in the backyard. i will be shooting mostly with a macro lens and getting in real close to the details of what is popping out of the ground at the moment. among other things, i will be shooting the different stages of how a fern blooms. kinda scientific, kinda artsy. here are the images from the last two days. they were both shot in the woods behind my house in a very wet and flooded area from all the rain we have had over the last 24 hours.

365, back in action with fiddleheads

i can't tell a lie, the 365 chain of continuum was broken. i took the entire last week off from the camera. why? good question. it was certainly not my intention or desire. here is my hypothesis. with spring rolling around with amazing weather in maine over the last couple weeks, my attention has turned back to working the landscape. i love getting home from work and spending some time outdoors and getting my hands dirty. last week i built a dry-stacked stone wall in the front yard and shifted around the feng shui around a bit to come more inline with how i want to to engage with my property when entering from the street. i could have easily called it quits for 365, but no, that would be way to easy and the complete wrong thing for me to do. so as of this morning i am started up the engines again and created an image for the day. this is a fiddlehead fern in my backyard that is preparing to unfold its fronds into a beautiful flowing fan of green. off we go, again.....

Sebago Lake, Maine

i am going to combine three days of shooting here since i was gone from friday to sunday opening up the hogan at sebago. these images were shot pre-sunrise, sunrise and moonrise at sunset. all were shot from the same spot, the deck on the water in front of the hogan. i have been watching this nature scene unfold for my entire life from the exact spot and it's my favorite place to be on this earth. friday, saturday, sunday were spectacular weather wise at the lake. the sun shined throughout and the temps were in the 60's and 70's. we put kingfisher, our rowboat in the water and spent much time combing the shoreline and hopping off at our favorite beaches and coves. loons were everywhere in large groups and not only in the morning, but visible at a close distance all day long. i can't wait top get up there again in 5 days!

AIGA Gathering

technology limitations and blunders keep raising bumps in the road, but they also keep getting solved as i go. basically i maxed out the bandwidth of my site and blog due to the heavy stream of image uploads. got it fixed now and am making adjustments to solve the problem moving forward. i am learning as i go.

this image was captured while attending a local AIGA monthly meeting of creatives at the highest bar in portland. it's a pretty cool place, amazing 360 degree views of portland and the surrounding bodies of water. i was attending as a guest to see some past folks i have worked with and it was great to meet some new people in the creative community as well. as i was sipping on a martini as the sun went down and looking out beyond the city limits a slew of UFO's came flying over the horizon and evenly situated themselves in the skyline over p'town and before i could call this event to the attention of others around me, they disappeared as quickly as they arrived. i just continued to sip my tasty tini and went on with the evening as usual.

Last Child in the Woods

yesterday my wife called me on the way to work and said "pete, you are ahead of your time". i had no idea what she was saying until she started to describe a book review she had just listened to on the radio. the book is called Last Child in the Woods and the concept struck a deep chord with both of us. i immediately bolted out the door and bought the book at a little shop down the street from where i work. the book is authored by Richard Louv and the tag line below the title is: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. I just started to read the book last night, but the overall theme is about the major disconnect between kids growing up in our country these days and the outdoors. i could go on and on about this. what i will say, is that i grew up spending tons of time exploring the outdoors, even if it was around the neighborhood and i make conscious efforts to bring my children up the same way. it was the main reason we moved to our current home. we are backed by woods, streams and places to experience nature up close and personal. after picking up this book yesterday, this shot seemed only natural to include as the 365 shot of the day.