Given the nice weather, my wife was eager to work on getting her flower garden ready for the winter. But before she could destroy the strange, natural beauty of withered and bug eaten leaves, I took a few photos. Thus begins a series that I call "Decadence." The morning light was excellent in that it was filtered through thin fog.
You may not like this photo - I don't think it is particularly pretty. But I do like the sheen on the wet leaves and the way the light defines the surfaces of these coneflower leaves. I promise some color in tomorrow's post!
Do you see an optical illusion in this photo. When I look at the wind-sculpted ridges of sand in the bottom left part of the photo, it looks like the light is coming from the left side of the picture. But in fact the light was coming from the right and the proof of that is the shadow of the wirey bush on the right side.
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.
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.
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. 