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Here and There…Now and Then |
Japanese Maple Leaves
Most of the leaves are down from most of the trees but there are still some that are holding out against the approach of winter. This Japanese maple is in Cathy’s mom’s yard and it’s got quite a bit of color yet. I took quite a few pictures of leaves from various angles and with various aperture for a range of depths of field.
I like the combination of orange and red in this picture, as well as the out of focus background.
Leaf Cookies
We had some friends over this evening and had a wonderful time talking about all sorts of things. My dinner turned out well, although it took a bit longer to cook that I had expected. Still, we had a few munchies in the meantime and no one suffered unduly. Cathie brought a plate of autumn leaf cookies, which were not only beautiful but also delicious.
Thanks to all who were here. We had a great time.
Pilgrim Celebrations
Cathy’s Birthday isn’t quite here yet but we celebrated it this evening with her mom and brother, who flew into town yesterday for a few days. I took a few pictures around the house and of Cathy blowing out the candles on her cake (and boy were there a lot of them).
This picture is of one of the celebrants, a wooden pilgrim man wearing a festive, paper party hat. He teetotal wife, also made of wood, had none of it. Actually, I think she didn’t quite approve of the gift that Dorothy gave Cathy. I think, though, that when the xylem starts to phloem, she can party with the best of them. Or maybe I’m barking up the wrong tree.
In any case, we had a wonderful meal and a good visit.
Reflections On an SUV
Today’s picture is another taken from the car. I was stopped at a traffic light and liked the bright red reflections in the black SUV next to me. Sometimes people paint simple stripes or occasionally flames on the side of their car. I think it would be cool to have reflections painted on the car so I looked like this all the time. Maybe it would be hard to make the painting bright enough, but it would be nice if you could.
Evening Traffic
There was quite heavy traffic this evening. Usually it’s only heavy in the direction I’m going (more’s the pitty). This evening it was heavy in the other direction, as well, due to a small accident blocking one lane on that side of the road. While stopped in traffic, I took a few pictures of the lines of cars. Getting the exposure right on a picture like this is a little iffy and of course, I didn’t have a lot of time to fiddle about. In consequence, it’s a little darker than it actually was.
Sunset
Cathy called me at about 5:00 today and said there was a nice sunset. When I’m at my computer at work, which is most of the time, I’m facing away from the windows. Also, my window faces north, so I don’t usually see the sunset. This time, there was orange outside my window. I took a few from there but decided this sunset deserved a bit more attention, so I ran downstairs and out into the parking lot. There are trees that blocked the horizon but I still got a pretty good picture of the sky (I wonder if I could get on the roof of my building). What colors!
Tail Light
Cathy and I often drive to work together on Mondays because she doesn’t have to leave earlier then I do to pick up Dorothy. After work I drove from my building to hers to pick her up and as I waited for her to come out, I took a few pictures. Odd pictures.
This is the wall behind my car, lit up by the car’s red tail light, as seen in the passenger-side rear view mirror.
First Quarter Moon
I’ve griped before about the fact that I don’t have a good, long-focal-length lens. In spite of the fact that I still feel that way, I went out this evening and took some pictures of the moon from our front yard. It was high in the sky and just past being cut in half (which is a quarter moon rather than a half moon). I love looking at the moon, don’t you. Still (here I go again), I wish I had a good 500mm lens. Unfortunately, even a mediocre 500mm lens is pretty expensive and not really something I can justify.
Oak Leaves
There is nothing special about oak leaves. There are hundreds of thousands of them falling this week from trees throughout our area. And yet, each one of them is amazingly beautiful. Here are just a few, with the late afternoon sun shining through them. There are many beautiful things in this world and sometimes we don’t have to travel far to see them. The simple beauty of golden brown leaves against a darkening blue sky astounds me.
Cerveza Pacífico and Heineken
We went out to dinner this evening and I took a few pictures in the restaurant. That’s always a little touchy, because I don’t want people in the restaurant thinking I’m taking their picture (especially if I am taking their picture). I do like lights and the patterns they make when out of focus. This picture if of two of the three neon lights that were above the bar. On the left is an advertisement for Cerveza Pacífico and on the right one for Heineken. I took some that are in focus, as well, but I like the colors in this one better.
Broken Mug
Here’s a random picture for you. This mug got dropped on the pavement outside. As you would expect, it shattered. We have more mugs than we almost ever need but once in a while, lots of people will be over and everyone wants tea or coffee and we’re glad we have them. Then, of course, there is a certain attrition rate, and eventually you have fewer. There is a box with a few mugs in it out in the garage. They were to get rid of but they never made it beyond the garage. Maybe I’ll bring one of those back inside.
Sunset
There was a really amazing sunset this evening. Dorothy and I went to Maureen’s house and I had us leave at about 5:00 even though we were not supposed to get there until 5:30. We stopped on the way to take a few pictures and I’m really glad we stopped when we did. By the time we got to Maureen’s the sunset was basically finished. I said to Dorothy, “I left early on purpose so we’d have time to stop for pictures.” She said, “some people make allowances for heavy traffic. My dad makes allowances for sunsets.”
The first picture here, on the right, was taken with my 10-20mm zoom lens at about 17mm and shows a good portion of the sky. The colors were quite amazing. The second one, below, is a panorama made from six vertically oriented images taken with my 100mm. It basically just includes the brightest portion of the first image, right along the ground.
Sunset Panorama
Fallen Maple Leaves
When I was very young (no, wait, that’s A. A. Milne)…
When I was young, we used to listen to a record by The Limeliters called Through Children’s Eyes. Interestingly, it’s one record that both Cathy’s family and ours listened to, so we both know the songs on it. One is called Lollipop Tree and it’s about having a tree grown from a lollipop stick. Naturally the fruit of the lollipop tree is lollipops. In my mind, this is sort of what the ground under my lollipop tree would look like. Of course it would be much stickier than this, and there would probably be ants all over it, but that’s a problem not addressed by the song.
Masonry Screws
Like yesterday, I didn’t take any pictures until late in the day. In fact, I was thinking of heading to bed when I realized that I hadn’t taken any all day. So, I looked around for something colorful to photograph. I caught sight of these masonry screws and thought they might make an interesting picture. I used a few of them recently to put up a bracket in the garage for hanging shovels and rakes and things. Actually, the first time I put it up, I tried drilling in the bricks but the bit wasn’t sharp enough. I settled for putting holes in the mortar instead. That was much easier but the screws weren’t tight enough in the loose mortar to hold very well. I bought a new bit (a pack of five, actually) and was able to get new holes drilled into the bricks. When these screws went in, they were quite tight. This thing isn’t coming down in a hurry. They’re colorful, too.
Dorothy’s Braid
I was late getting around to taking any pictures today. I was taking pictures of small things in the kitchen when Dorothy came in with a new braid in her hair. I asked if I could take a picture of that, and here it is. It is called a fishtail braid. Perhaps we’ll resume our regularly scheduled collection of fall color photographs tomorrow. Who can tell?
Zelkova Tunnel
If the scene in yesterday’s first post was Autumn’s Cathedral then I think today’s is Autumn’s Chapel. It’s smaller and more intimate. Of course, it’s a fairly busy road, so in that sense, the title is totally wrong. Theze are Zelkova trees and they are beautiful this time of year. They are a good choice for a street tree and a good replacement, in some ways, for the American elm. They don’t get as big, but that could be considered an advantage, actually.
I really like this stretch of road. On a sunny day, it’s nice to drive into this tunnel and enjoy the deep shade the trees make. Of course, on a dark and stormy day, it can be like driving into night. Still, it makes me happy and I’m glad they have more planted, which are growing into similar tunnels at other spots along the road.
Eastern Gray Squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis)
Yes, squirrels are cute. They can be hugely fun to watch. They run around, up and down trees, leaping from branch to branch, and when it comes to getting food, particularly food left out for birds, they are ingenious. We have a bird feeder outside our dining room window. It’s a nice platform feeder with a glass top and really good for feeding birds when there is snow on the ground. Of course, the squirrels know about it and in fact, they end up eating most of whatever is left there. I’ve been meaning to rig up something to discourage the squirrels but haven’t gotten around to it yet. So, this morning I enjoyed watching a squirrel eat a few leftover wasabi peas. Yes, wasabi peas. They had gone a little soft from being left out and without the crunch of the dried pea, they just were not the same. This fellow, however, didn’t seem to mind at all. At least he didn’t actually complain. This is, of course, our own furry-tailed rat, the eastern gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis).
Autumn’s Cathedral
I took Dorothy to take the SAT this morning. The sky was amazingly dramatic as I was coming home. I picked up my camera and went out into the neighborhood. It was a beautiful day with the trees and shrubs all of beautiful hues.
This view, which is not as dramatic in the photograph as it was in reality, brought to mind a cathedral built of trees, reaching as high and much longer then the largest cathedral I’ve ever seen.
Bare Tree and Fall Colors
The autumn has proceeded fairly slowly this year. There were individual trees and bushes with significant and sometimes brilliant color but in general, the woods have remained mostly green The last day or two, however, has brought out the best in the fall color and, unless I’m very much mistaken, you’ll be seeing a few pictures of it here over the next few days.
This picture is taken from a window in my building, just down the hall from my office. This morning it was overcast and the diffuse light brought out the red of the tree in the background to an amazing extent, contrasting wonderfully with the grey of the naked branches of the tree in the foreground. Later the sun came out. It’s still quite striking, I think, but less so that it was earlier in the day.
Katie and her Kids
We only had 32 trick or treaters for Halloween this year. Of course it started to rain about the time the kids started to appear so I suspect that kept the numbers down a bit. Katie came by with her three, and they stayed at the door long enough for me to get their picture. I got another one, later, of Porter and Joseph, which is good but not nearly so cute.