Showing posts with label foliage. Show all posts
Showing posts with label foliage. Show all posts

Sunday, March 13, 2011

Autumn Eye Candy

I've been really involved with the reconstruction of my main web site and probably will be for a few more weeks, but at last I'm making some good progress after finally deciding on the design and functions that I want. Designing stuff for myself is always way harder than doing it for someone else, and if things remain a little slow here at the blog, now you know why... getting out to shoot is kind of on hold until I get this project to a certain point.
It's also a useful process in another way, because it's forcing me to go back through each and every image (a huge task) and re-evaluate all of them, edit out some of the less than ideal ones from my "official" collection, and create comments and keywords for the rest, to make everything search-engine friendly. Self-editing is difficult, but I think very important.. no one at any level creates a perfect gem every time and knowing when to say "nope... not quite good enough" is tough.  Anyway, when it's far enough along that I'm comfortable for people to see it, I will switch my domain over and let every one know to go and take a look.
This one here is from last fall... and might look familiar because it is a variation of one that I posted previously in my article about  film a few months back, but this is a more polished version. I had many others from this trip that I was going to post, but kind of got sidetracked as I often do.  If the rocks look volcanic in nature, they indeed are.. there are many large, amazing lava fields of black volcanic rock in this area, most thickly covered with aspens and SO beautifully colorful in the fall.  This stream is the outflow below a small lake and was a great location to shoot in the early morning... the trees and rocks are nice in themselves, but having moving water in the scene always adds something extra.

Sunday, October 10, 2010

What the Woollybear Says -or- Autumn in Pennsylvania

A visit to the countryside around Western Pennsylvania offered plenty of souvenirs of this dry and dusty fall. The leaves are changing, yes, but crackle... Orange and browns mix and swirl in the Indian summer wind.

I thought you all might enjoy coming with me for a minute, as we savor the signs of autumnm and we listen to what our friend the woollybear caterpillar says...
"Harsher winter in the beginning, milder toward spring."

We'll see if our furry worm friend proves accurate!

It was a clear day yesterday for photos, but as for a kaleidoscope of color, well, it may not appear this year...
Still, I was nuts about this pair of happy acorns...
And the pumpkins await Halloween with brave faces...
The gourds offer a bountiful cornucopia of color...
Barns stand still and quiet awaiting next year's potential...
Weatherbeaten and waiting...
Afternoon sun casts long shadows through the lacy pine trees...
And we keep snapshots of 2010 because this year, like every year, goes by in a blur...

Wishing you a bountiful, beautiful week ahead of you!

What the Woollybear Says -or- Autumn in Pennsylvania

A visit to the countryside around Western Pennsylvania offered plenty of souvenirs of this dry and dusty fall. The leaves are changing, yes, but crackle... Orange and browns mix and swirl in the Indian summer wind.

I thought you all might enjoy coming with me for a minute, as we savor the signs of autumnm and we listen to what our friend the woollybear caterpillar says...
"Harsher winter in the beginning, milder toward spring."

We'll see if our furry worm friend proves accurate!

It was a clear day yesterday for photos, but as for a kaleidoscope of color, well, it may not appear this year...
Still, I was nuts about this pair of happy acorns...
And the pumpkins await Halloween with brave faces...
The gourds offer a bountiful cornucopia of color...
Barns stand still and quiet awaiting next year's potential...
Weatherbeaten and waiting...
Afternoon sun casts long shadows through the lacy pine trees...
And we keep snapshots of 2010 because this year, like every year, goes by in a blur...

Wishing you a bountiful, beautiful week ahead of you!

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

A Pastoral Scene in the Land of Contrasts

When most people think of Utah, they picture the canyons, hoodoos and many colorful red rock formations typical of the southern half of the state, but at the higher elevations north of Zion and east of Cedar City, the environment is much different. Two roads descend slowly from Cedar Breaks at over 10,000ft. through wide, open meadows like this one, evergreen forest and huge aspen groves growing right up out of black stone lava flows. In fall, the colors and atmosphere are truly gorgeous, but you can still drive around all day, pull over and stop anywhere you want and rarely run into other people, certainly never enough that it feels crowded. (You might however hit a traffic jam of sheep moving to lower ground for the winter as I did here the next day!) Every september I start watching foliage reports on the web and try to time a trip to catch the peak colors. I always get some fantastic images from this area and I love the seclusion and the beauty of it, not to mention all the other fantastic and varied landscapes within a couple hours drive. Kind of makes you want to leave the city and never look back.
I shot this late in the afternoon; the next day it was snowing hard at this elevation and I had to stay down lower and try to work in the rain.