Nature
Thick frost like this is more ephemeral than most subjects in nature. In South Dakota, it is rare and then to have a windless morning to preserve it is rarer still. Notice the amazingly blue sky, as pure as any South Dakota winter sky.
I took this photo a few years ago. Humid air had caused a particularly thick coating of frost crystals and the lack of any breeze preserved it - at least for an hour or two after the sun came up.
This is from my recent stay in Denver. I didn't have much time to wander around taking photos and the weather wasn't real conducive, anyway, with wet snow falling nearly continuously for two days.
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This red rose came from an arrangement for my mom's funeral. We had brought the rose home and as I was walking through the dining room, I noticed that the late afternoon sun was bathing it in strong, angular light. I guess this was a sign for me to photograph the flower.
Behind me and to my left is the Red Hook Brewery, which is just outside of Seattle. I doubt you care about that detail. And you may be getting bored with the many Washington State leaf pictures I have featured in this blog. But here's another one.
I intentionally used my Canon 50mm 1.2 lens for this shot because I wanted a very narrow depth of field, which I thought might help accentuate the movement of the leaves in gentle breeze. I generally try for complete focus of the main subject in my photos, but this time I didn't care. I took about 10 pictures - all at the widest aperture of 1.2. When you are working with a wide aperture and trying to shoot something that is relatively close that is moving, you have to get lucky to get anything in focus. This was the best of the bunch.
Here's another photo shot within 100 yards of these trees. (Click)
Check out my Google Map screen capture to see both photo sites from the air. (Click)
Canon 5D 1/500s f/1.2 ISO320 50mm
These were growing over a doorway in a back street in a little village in Croatia. Green things like this seem to suggest the promise of something. Jelly? Wine? Or a meal for birds?
This variegated hosta plant was the subject of a photo posted on this blog back in the spring. The photo was called "Incipience," which means "about to happen." This hosta has grown up out of the earth, leafed out, lived its summer life and at some point became a feast for insects. Is this a metaphor for human life? That's too depressing to think about. . .
This is the same grove as the previous photo of aspens but a different view and treatment.
By Scott Shephard
For the last several years, Deb and I have taken a trip to the Black Hills in mid October. This photo was taken several years ago on an outing to Deerfield, which is 30 miles or so west of our cabin.
This photo is a little jumbled - what do you look at? Interestly, my eye is drawn to the one, dominant focal point, which is the triangle of grass that leads to the center of the photo. But then, when my eye follows the triangle to the center, there's nothing special to look at. I'm reading Dan Brown's "The Lost Symbol" right now and I'm thinking that there may be a hidden Masonic code in this picture. In fact, there may be hidden codes in all of my photos in "A Photo A Day."
A single maple leaf frozen in thin ice. It had been floating in the pond the day before but it got caught in the first freeze of the season.
Here's another one from my trip several years ago to the Sertoma Butterfly House in Sioux Falls. I wish I knew more about butterflies. Perhaps someone looking at this knows the name of this species?
One thing a remember about my trip to the Butterfly House is that the volunteer docent who followed me around was careful to point out butterflies that were fairly young, since older butterflies often have damaged wings. This is another example of the word "ephemeral," which I used in an earlier post to talk about sunlight. Canon 1D 1/800s f/3.5 ISO500 70mm Some rights reserved under Creative Commons Copyright