Splashes of Color

11/1/2003

Large chunks of silence have prompted me to re-think some of the way that I approach this journal experience. Since I like the combination of photos and words, I sometimes leave the words until a project is finished with the photos.

And then there are large gaps in the writing.

I've decided that words and pictures are fine, but when I look back over a period of several weeks, I wonder where did the time go. Then I think of the things I could have committed to paper (as it were) and then I say to myself, well, after week or so, it does not take on the importance that it had at the time.

So I wonder, is anything missed by the delay? If, after 2 weeks, the ebb and flow of life do not seem significat, have I not saved some time for another pursuit such as documenting the colors of fall?

The other day we took a walk at one of the local parks, and one of the projects over the last week has been to combine the images of that day with ones taken over the next week into a rework of the fall color gallery. Larger images can be found on that page.

Lately, I've taken quite a liking to the stitching together of several images into a panorama, even in circumstances when you might not think of doing so. I mean, generally, I would have reserved the panorama for a wide open vista, and not of a single tree, or a forest trail. I purchased an inexpensive software package from Panorama Factory and I've been quite happy with the results.

I expanded my horizons by seeing different images from the digital photo contest site that has frustrated me so much. But even though I've never won a photo of the day (and I've given up submitting), I find the site is good for ideas.

Shooting fall colors can be really difficult, especially when you see a large vista of color and you take the shot, only to be disappointed by washed out colors.

I try to get images of an individual tree, or like the one here, a telephoto shot into a group of trees because that was the best way to gather all the color into one image.

Sometimes it's the play of light that will catch my eye, other times it's best to get right down to the color on one leaf.

Unless shooting across water, I seem to have made a preferential swing to some kind of either back-lit or side lit subject, as a wide wash of sunlight sometimes seems just a bit too harsh for the camera to record accurately.

 

 

This particular sunday walk finds a trail that wanders around a small lake, first through the woods, then on the lakeshore, and finally across a long boardwalk through the shallow waters on the east side.

Just before we left the house I grabbed a small bag of bird seed, and this time, didn't have to try and take the shot one-handed.

A larger image of the swan is now my computer background for several different machines.

And finally, a couple more images of the swans before we head on home.

And yes, it's true, the best ones are here, the drab and mundane and discards of life, well, those are tucked away, perhaps to be remembered, but more than likely, not.