cutler state park

Who knew that I would upload two posts in a row that featured cell-phone photography? I was out on a walk in Cutler State Park yesterday, a sunny yet crisp afternoon, and wished I had my camera to capture the bare trees, lonely cattails, and deep blue sky. Image quality is obviously lacking, but here are a few of the images I captured, directly from the phone and unaltered aside from some cropping.


A row of trees sits atop a rocky incline which opens up onto railroad tracks that serve freighters and the commuter rail coming out of Boston. This tree looks so majestic, standing tall against the clear blue sky behind it. Perhaps it's because of its bareness, which separates it from the other trees around it and allows the sky to peek between its extended arms and fingers. Regardless, I have never been so captivated by these trees during the other seasons, when they're fully covered in leaves.


How is it that during this season, when most other forms of plant life wilt and wither away, when animals slow down, some migrating to warmer climes and other retreating into hibernation rather than confront the biting cold each day, do these cattails manage to stand so straight? They do not possess the sturdy trunks that trees do, yet their delicate stalks manage to withstand the elements and to preserve them through the winter months. It was awe-inspiring to look out over fields upon fields (or should I say marsh upon marsh) of these cattails running in all directions around us.


This is the photograph that would benefit from a more formidable lens than the cell phone can offer. The trees in the background lack definition and sharpness, and the loss of contrast between the trees and the sky makes this image a bit less stunning than the actual experience of taking in this scene. Subtract the snow from the bottom of the frame and the vista reminds me of African plains in winter. Flex your imagination hard enough and you can begin to see lions roaming through the tall, brown grass, stalking wildebeest and zebra for their next meal.