Nature
This is early morning frost and I'm sure most Hawaiians don't complain about not seeing this in their back yards.
A few years ago we were visiting our son, Jon, in Kona, and as I was waiting in line at the grocery store one morning, I heard two locals complain about how cold it was on that particular morning. They both said that they needed to find their jackets before venturing out. I could only smile. How cold did it get? The temperature had dipped to 62 degrees. OMG!
Here's one last photo in this series. Sorry if "Decadence" wasn't your thing. . . .
I think this may be a weed or maybe poppy leaves. I was struck by the bright green against a background of brown. But I also like how the green is bleaching to yellow. Even the weed is letting go. . . .
Against a background of brown aspen and thin day lily leaves lies one leaf from a tree two yards away. Call him (her?) a nonconformist. . .
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.
Anyway, I thought that I'd balance the cold and snow photos that I've been posting with something from Mexico. This is about 3 miles south of Playa del Carmen.
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
