Fall-LOL

As I was untangling the garden hose to do a bit of watering, I noticed a little Fall color in the yard. That would be the little yellow patch of leaves toward the center of the photograph. It was 30 C (88 F) so you'll hopefully forgive the fact that I wasn't in a particularly autumnal frame of mind. I wiped the sweat from my brow and grabbed a camera. I told myself that the trees were responding to the light, not the ambient temperature.

A Good Day at the Office

I’m sure glad I had I decent camera with me the other day so I could snag a high quality photograph of the scene in front of me. A modern phone in Airplane Mode would have probably been fine too, I suppose, but far less fun for me. The weather hasn’t broken yet this far South, but there are other early signs of Fall starting to show. Too, we were between thunderstorms and the clouds were dramatic. No need for any AI enhancements while editing the photo. A good day.

Seasonal

When I made this photograph, the ambient temperature was in the mid 90's, but it felt a bit hotter because of the humidity. Although the weather has yet to change, the neighborhood children are headed back to school this week to start their 'Fall' semester. 'Fall', if I remember correctly, used to refer to the fact that the leaves were starting to change colors and fall off the trees. Perhaps now it relates to our garden flowers being roasted by the afternoon sun and starting to fall over as August moves toward September. I suppose I need to reset my internal clock to reflect the new weather patterns, and I suppose the children already have.

A stable frame of reference

Thankfully, it appears that the Universe in general has not been perturbed too much by human activity — so far at least. No matter how crazy the weather patterns may be here on the home planet, its movement through space relative to the sun remains pretty stable. I've noticed the angle of the light in the sky has taken on its Fall character — it sure comes on suddenly — and I like the longer shadows and warmer color balance that characterize this time of the year. For me, the end of summer is usually filled with photo-ennui, but Fall is a new season with good light. 

Bamboo ain't blue

If you look at photographs of the Arashiyama Bamboo Forest on Instagram, you might come away thinking that bamboo has a bluish hue. Nope. I don't have to travel to Kyoto to study the life cycle of bamboo, as I have a mini grove of the stuff growing behind my studio. This is the time of the year when the new bamboo is bright green and growing incredibly fast. Later, as the summer months drag on, brown hues tend to predominate. As the older bamboo dies in winter, the pigment fades and the wood splits open as it dries out. In this image of new growth, I did a little image doctoring of my own, converting to monochrome in order to highlight the stem of the vine corkscrewing up the bamboo.

Giacometti people

With Fall already upon us and Winter rapidly approaching, the sun is much lower in the sky, elongating the shadows in the afternoon when we walk. Generally, I find it preferable not to walk alone, and I am lucky to have two companions with me on most days, my wife and a camera. It helps a lot if your human accomplice practices Tai Chi while you look for compositions in the landscape. That way, no one gets too bored, and you can encourage each other to keep up a decent tempo when you are moving forward.

I think we look like Giacometti people, like winter trees after their leaves have fallen to the ground. Over the course of a few weeks last Fall, I took a whole series images like this, chose the better ones, and made a dozen or so copies of a zine to give away to family and friends. They probably just tucked their copies away somewhere -- hopefully to be rediscovered many years hence. I have my fingers crossed that their future surprise will bring back fond memories.