Emblems of Autumn

An Autumn Thought
  by: Albert Laighton (1829-1887)
   
They're speeding on--the weary winter hours;
These are thy emblems, thou departing year:
The falling leaves, the fading of the flowers
Laid by fond Autumn on the Summer's bier.

Soon will the song of lingering birds be still,
The streamlets lose the music of their tone;
For hid with pallid brow behind the hill,
stern Winter waits to mount his glittering throne.

Well, let the flowers decay, the dead leaves fall;
Hushed be the birds, and stilled the streamlet's flow;
Let hoary Winter cast a blight o'er all,
And bind his withered brow with wreaths of snow.

We know that May will come, and glad rills play,
And flowers along their emerald borders bloom;
Though our next spring-time may lie far away
In some fair clime of light beyond the tomb.


Autumn is creeping in, we've had frost several times, and the wood stove has banished the chill from our home. temporarily. Here's what autumn is starting to look like in our neck of the woods.

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)

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.

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)

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

Are we there yet ?

I have some favourite areas I like to go and visit, particularly when fall colours are at their prime. Yesterday I decided to go on a test drive to gauge how the Master's fall decorating was progressing, before I visit a few of my favourite places. I'll let you judge.

(these were made with an 18-55mm lens at f11, ISO200, and various shutter speeds)

click on image for a larger view

Phriday Phun in Phall

I recall that Scott over at 'Just Used Pixels' used to post just-pher-phun shots on Phridays up until some time ago. I'm not sure if he's giving the concept a rest for a while, but I hadn't participated in several months. Today while I was having fun meandering out back with the photographic arsenal and Sasha in tow, that thought struck me. So, in addition to the pleasure of capturing some more seasonal images, I decided to create a few pher-phun shots. Hope you enjoy them too.

(all shots made with a 18-55mm lens at f22, shutter speed of 1/4 or 1/5 sec and ISO100)

click on the images for a much better view

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs ... Part II

As a follow up to my last post, I found some more signs in our yard of the impending and inevitable change of season. I've noticed that along our roads the colours are starting to become more vivid in the bushes and trees. I feel a photo shoot coming up soon to capture the blaze of glory with which God paints his creation before He lets it go quietly to sleep beneath a blanket of white. 

I love to think of nature as an unlimited broadcasting station, through which God speaks to us every hour, if we will only tune in.
(George Washington Carver)

(60mm  f8.0  1/20 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f10  1/40 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f11  1/15 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f7.1  1/25 sec  ISO200)

(60mm  f7.1  1/200 sec  ISO200)

Signs, Signs, Everywhere There's Signs ... Part I

It's true. Our thermometer registered 2C/35F this morning !

Despite our reluctance to acknowledge the changing of the seasons, the signs are everywhere. I wandered around the yard today looking for them. In fact I found so many, I decided to split the results into a couple of posts.

You might enjoy this whilst viewing today's photos.

[internet update: I don't want to bore you with the whole saga, but I'm sure my name is well-known at my ISP. Almost daily discussions take place between the ISP engineering group, field ops and level 3 experts. Fortunately (?) I'm not the only one in the area who suffers from internet issues. Several equipment problems have been addressed with the wireless tower, and this weekend (I'm told) a major component is being replaced that is supposed to resolve the issues. In the meantime I try to find periods when the connection is working in order to post and to visit as many of you as possible. Evenings are especially bad when it becomes almost completely unusable. I remain hopeful, although my patience is becoming razor thin. Postscript: I started this post at 7:00 pm ... it's now 8:05 pm; am going to remove a video I was trying to embed and just give you the link]

(all shots made with a 60mm lens with apertures ranging from f5.0 to f8.0, and shutter speeds of 1/400 to 1/60 sec)

"... all creation praises Thee"

“God, all nature sings Thy glory, 

  and Thy works proclaim Thy might;

  Ordered vastness in the heavens, 

  ordered course of day and night;

  Beauty in the changing seasons, 

  beauty in the storming sea;

  All the changing moods of nature 

  praise the changeless Trinity."

(18-55mm  f20  1/25 sec  ISO200)

[shot last fall]

See Scott's blog for more Sunset Sunday shots.

 

(Day 312) Palm balm

There's something soothing about seeing palm leaves swaying in a light breeze against an azure sky. Ever since I set eyes on such a sight (way back in my youth) when I first visited Florida, that mental image and its connotations has remained with me. The small patch of 'rough' weather (I use the term loosely) we just had, has given way to those clear blue skies and warm temperatures that are key ingredients in the Sunshine State experience.

As the sun was dropping quickly late this afternoon I was compelled to capture a few images.

(All shots made with 70-200mm lens at f7.1 and ISO200, with shutter speeds ranging from 1/250 sec to 1/320 sec.)

click to enlarge

palm tree in autumn, with fruit

 

(Day 299) Exposed

When springtime arrives, all sorts of things start to appear, and we're eager to get out there and capture them. The first buds, new leaves on the trees, emerging plants, and those first blooms. But there are other things that disappear as the trees and bushes come into full leaf. Among them are some of our neighbours' homes, and they don't reappear until autumn has come full circle and trees have again shed their leaves.

Just up the road from us sits the home that is today's subject - no longer hidden behind the foliage.

(70-200mm  f11  1/125 sec  ISO200)

(Day 295) Autumn's last hurrah

We're rapidly approaching what I call the calendar dead zone - no more autumn colours, days mostly gray and sometimes wet, trees barren, and blooms finished. The world around us seems to have already gone to sleep but has not yet received its blanket of snow. Sasha and I walked around a little this afternoon and ended up near the pond. A  maple tree beside the pond had just shed another leaf, and a water lily was trying in vain to open a flower one last time.

We await the next scene.

Note: we will be gone to Denver this weekend for a niece's wedding. Camera is travelling with me but I will be unable to post or visit till Monday (maybe Sunday).

(70-200mm  f14  1/200 sec  ISO800)

(70-200mm  f11  1/125 sec  ISO400)

(Day 289) Fall extravaganza

Sat. Oct. 16, 2010

I was on a high today, well, at least all afternoon and I'm still coming down. Ok, don't worry - it was a legal high and it didn't involve drugs of any sort. I had the afternoon all to myself and decided to revisit a place where we got rained out earlier this year - Jones Falls on the Rideau Waterway.

Now I thought that the fall colours were coming to an end because the trees around here have been shedding their leaves and are almost barren. However, I was in for a wonderful surprise. You might see some sunbeams in a few photos - they were beaming down on me all afternoon. As I meandered through the woods and along the locks and little lakes, I said a little thank you to the Creator for putting on such a show for us. Perhaps if more people could/would take the time to get out and enjoy what's been made especially for us, we'd have less time and inclination to go fight each other.

I won't tell you how many photos I made but it's the reason I'm late posting tonight - I've been going through them and having to make choices. I whittled and whittled some more and I narrowed it down to the ones I posted below. In the interest of time I'm not going to post my camera settings for each photo - I used 3 lenses: 10-22mm, 18-55mm and 70-200mm and used a fairly small aperture for a larger depth of field in most cases, and I stuck to my usual ISO200.