Autumn leaves

"Each golden day was cherished to the full, for one had the feeling that each must be the last.  Tomorrow it would be winter."

Elizabeth Enright

"Indian summer"

"Each day the sun shone, the birds lingered, though the trees were turning, purely out of habit, and their rose and yellow and rust looked strange and beautiful above the brilliant green grass." 

Elizabeth Enright.

Black and White

Black and white photography is not easy for me to "see", but something I'm hoping to practice.  We are so used to seeing everything in colour, that purposely taking a shot in black and white is difficult.  Everything I read says to take the photo in colour and convert to grayscale in post-processing.  But I shot these in black and white because I was experimenting and wanted immediate results.

"A camera teaches you how to see without a camera."  Dorothea Lange

Morning

 



The greatest danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it but that it is too low and we reach it.

Michelanglo

Nests

Empty nests revealed by barren trees and the clearest blue skies are some of fall's pleasures.

Huge wasp nest

Empty robin's nest.













"Notice that autumn is more a season of the soul than of nature."

Friedrich Nietzsche

Frosty morning

Calendula

The first frost of the fall always seems colder than it really is.  Capturing the beauty of it with a camera makes it a little more tolerable.  The colour of plants tinged with frost is worth freezing my fingers.

Lavatera

"Is not this a true autumn day?  Just the still melancholy that I love - that makes life and nature harmonize."  

George Eliot

 

Little things

Photography came to me almost 2 years ago and has taught me to see the world differently.  There is an incredibly beautiful and diverse world out there that most of us never see.  Sometimes it’s because our eyes are not (or no longer) able to see the intimate details that a lens can see.  We see the beauty of the mountains, waterfalls, trees, city lights, etc., but we fail to appreciate the intricate beauty of small things.  Often, we just don’t slow down enough to see what’s right in front of us.  That is the greatest gift of photography for me - making me slow down and and really see the beauty around me.  I don’t know if my photos are really any good … it doesn’t matter.  What matters is the joy that overcomes me when I’m outdoors with my camera.  These are some of the photos I would not have “seen” a short time ago.  All were taken within 100 yards of my house.

 
This little frog was only about an inch long.  He did not move, and I thought he had literally died of fright.  I turned away for a few minutes and when I looked back he had turned around and was still watching me.  As I swung the camera around I was glad he hopped away.  I think he was just as curious about me as I was about him.

This particular day was not warm, so little creatures were not too mobile.  Had it been a warm afternoon, this grasshopper would have been long gone.

This is a common brown weed that grows everywhere.  My eyes see a brown weed: the lens captures the beauty.

Photographing dandelions in the morning dew is the best way to start the day.

Photographing golden leaves as the sun sets is the best way to end the day.

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."  Ralph Waldo Emerson

Small town morning

A "prairie giant"

What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?

E. M. Forster

Ladybug

So pleased - my first ladybug photo! 


Ladybug Ladybug fly away home
Your house is on fire and your children are all gone.
All except one, and that's little Ann
For she crept under the frying pan.

October woods

But in October what a feast to the eye our woods and groves present!  The whole body of the air seems enriched by their calm, slow radiance.  They are giving back the light they have been absorbing from the sun all summer.

John Burroughs "The Falling Leaves"