On the road again ...

I'm quite fond of driving and don't find it a daunting task to spend a couple of days on the road. I'm the one behind the wheel on our road trips because (according to my wife) I make a bad passenger. I consider a road trip successful if it's uneventful i.e. no traffic surprises, no weather surprises, and no bedbugs ! And I'm always thankful that our guardian angel flies as fast as we do.

We were again blessed with beautiful fall scenery as we travelled south through the country from New York State to Florida. Here and there my trusty Canon was able to slow (most of) the pixels down from 120kph / 75mph to give you a glimpse.

(I used an 18-55mm lens, kept the aperture at f5.6 and ISO at 200 with various shutter speeds)

At journey's end

After 2,519km / 1,565mi and a few days of settling in and getting things ship shape, we were ready to take in a quiet evening at the waterfront.

(I did manage to capture a few images of our journey down here, although the pixels were flying by at 120kph / 75mph - I'll include a few in an upcoming post).

To satisfy my own curiosity, I tested our internet download speed here (www.speedtest.net). Turns out it's 433 times faster than our connection back home ! I think I'll be able to start catching up on visits :-)

Guest photographer

As some of you may already know, I'm not a (voluntary) morning person. I think that my better work is done once the day is well under way. My wife awakened me a few days ago with a bad news/good news story. The bad news was that I had missed a most glorious sunrise (which I do, of course, on most occasions). I mentioned to her that if it was glorious enough to wake me up early, then I could certainly make the supreme sacrifice and get some shots. That's where the good news came in - she had obviously heard me mention 'ABC' in the past - and she had grabbed my camera and captured the sunrise.

It was just left to me to put a collage together. So, from today's guest photographer, I present a glorious sunrise.

Internet update: first I'd like to again thank everyone for their visits and comments - you daily sustain me with them, and I read your comments with much pleasure ! As our intermittently fair/extremely poor internet connection permits, I've been making some visits to see your work. When it's very poor (e.g. tonight), it's almost impossible to load blogs, and to post on my own. The expectation is that our current connection will be replaced in 5-6 months (oh that I may be granted patience !). The good news is that we'll be down south next week where we have an excellent connection and I'll be able to resume visits.

 

Coming to an end

There's a trite but true saying that all good things must come to an end, and so it is with the spectacle of autumn's magnificent colours. I'm sure that there are still places where the rain and strong winds haven't left barren limbs reaching for a gray sky, but those are disappearing quickly. I had a last opportunity to load up a memory card with autumn memories this past weekend. Accompanied by one of my daughters, who has recently taken up photography, and 3 canine friends, we braved sullen skies and a steady drizzle to make a trek into the woods.

The leaves will continue to fall and carpet the ground until a hard frost is followed by the first snowfall which in turn will cover everything under a soft blanket. Then life will slow down and rest for several months, until the cycle begins again. And we can be as assured of that as of His faithfulness.

Perishable moments

Perishability in a photograph is important in a picture.  If a photograph looks perishable we say, "Gee, I'm glad I have that moment."  John Loengard

(HDR - 3 shots - 10-22mm  f22  1/6 - 1/100 sec  ISO200)

(SOOC -no editing - 10-22mm  f16  3.2 sec  ISO200; same place 35 min. later)

Reflective moments

The weather folks have forecasted 4 days of rain, starting tomorrow. While I'm not opposed to making photos in rainy weather (in fact rainy days can present excellent and interesting photo ops), I had a specific spot in mind early this evening that would be much less inviting if the chest-high grass was dripping wet.

And so, Sasha and I spent a quiet hour and a half watching the sun set and the full moon rise, during which time I tripped the shutter on a few occasions. Oh, yes, I did capture the sunset - which would be difficult over the next four days - but I'll save it for Sunset Sunday.

Note: I've been making some visits to you kind folks who leave comments here when my internet connection permits; I haven't been able to visit all of you (yet) but I'm plodding along. Within a few weeks I hope to be down south where I'll get to enjoy blinding (well, by comparison) internet speed :-)

(images for these 2 shots were made with an 18-55mm lens, at f16, ISO200 and shutter speeds ranging from 1/2 to 13 secs; Photomatix was used to render the HDR images)

The world through rose-coloured glasses

First off, a Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow bloggers here in Canada. May we never take for granted all that we're blessed with in this great country.

Today I had the opportunity to see first hand what the world might look like when seen through rose-coloured glasses. A few of us went for a walk down a small dirt road which wanders through the woods just a few miles from our home. As I was remarking on the fall colours (first photo), one of my daughters suggested I look at them through her sunglasses. After recovering from optic overload I decided to shoot the same scene through her sunglasses (second photo).

(both photos made with an 18-55mm lens at f8.0, ISO200 and shutter speeds of 1/50 and 1/25 sec respectively)

Time out

"Even if something is left undone, everyone must take time to sit still and watch the leaves turn."  (Elizabeth Lawrence)

So we went out early this evening to a part of the picturesque Rideau Canal to do just that. We met a young lad out for a stroll with his dog, and both of them were obviously enjoying one of the few remaining warm evenings of this beautiful Indian summer. A short while later we came across a father who'd taken his young son and daughter to go fishing off a bridge across the nearby Rideau River (coincidentally I was on this bridge exactly a year ago). It seemed like we each had left something much less important undone.

(18-55mm  f9.0  1/5 sec  ISO200)

click on image for a better view

Savour the season

"Come said the wind to
the leaves one day,
Come o'er the meadows
and we will play.
Put on your dresses
scarlet and gold,
For summer is gone
and the days grow cold."
(A Childrens' Song of the 1880's)

"A tangerine and russet cascade
Of kaleidoscopic leaves
Creates a tapestry of autumn magic
Upon the emerald carpet of fading summer."
(Judith A. Lindberg, Shades of Autumn)

You might want to listen to this while you view the photos ...

click on images for a better view

Back to the future

My plan to go out and shoot some more autumn colours has been temporarily shelved. Our weather has taken on a decidedly autumn character - cold, blustery winds, rain, and sullen gray skies. So I decided to peruse my archives and came across this shot to mark Sunset Sunday, taken on the other side of summer.

(10-22mm  f8.0 1/30 sec  ISO200)

For more marvelous sunsets, visit Scott's blog.