Category: Landscape

This weekend I spent some time out & about in search of Fall color to photograph.  We had very heavy rain Friday and high winds Saturday, both of which helped to change the landscape dramatically. There were splashes of yellow, red and orange leaves mixed with trees that were completely leaf-less.  In some areas, the trees are still green.  Normally this is the peak weekend in my neck of the woods, but things were a bit disappointing.  Regardless, I made the best of what nature presented and came away with some images that I like.  This image was taken at about 5:30 PM on Saturday when the sun was splashing off of the yellow trees.  They were very bright and I decided to tone them down with a texture overlay just to change the mood a bit.  In this particular location the trees closest to the water had the most color whereas the trees on top of the mountain were still mostly green.

Wow – it’s been a LONG time since I’ve done a “swipe” like this.  I was in my yard yesterday taking photos of my brand new roof  [thank you hail storm and insurance company!] and noticed some nice color on the mountain behind the house.  I only took a few steps from the back patio in order to capture this scene of the colored leaves and tree trunks in the woods.  This was shot at ISO 400, f/32 and 0.3 second handheld and moving the camera vertically while the shutter was open. 

 

On my way home from an appointment today I saw a double rainbow.  From my experience it seems that rainbows appear and disappear again pretty quickly.  But today I was able to watch the rainbow for nearly 1/2 hour of driving time.  It was so pretty!  I happened to have my camera in the car so I pulled over and took a couple images, but they just don’t do the scene justice.  Once back home in my community I noticed that the trees are starting to show some signs of color, so I snapped this image of the road I travel every day.  When I see this scene before me I know that I am almost home!  The same image is below in black and white.

Mother Nature has been brutal this summer in my neck of the woods.  First there was a hail storm in late May that damaged homes and cars, then a horrific storm in early July with wind shear that took down 1,500 trees in my community and left us without power.  September has brought Hurricane Irene and just this past week, the remnants of tropical storm Lee which caused torrential rains and flooding.  Today I needed to go out and take a walk to try and appreciate the beauty in the world around me and de-stress.  The lake was very peaceful – just a couple people on the beach and a boat or two on the water .  Soon these boats will be removed and the docks pulled in preparation for winter.  I hope to enjoy the last days of summer here as much as I can!

Today was a perfect summer day…. sun, clouds, temperatures in the low 80’s and not much humidity.  I’d like to just push the “repeat” button and have this day continue over and over for the rest of the summer!  This is a peaceful scene of the boat docks on the lake near my house.  Come the weekend, this lake will be filled with motor boats, jet skis, and folks swimming, fishing, and water skiing.  For today, though, it was serene and quiet…just how I like it!