Places

Snow!

We had our first snowfall of the season yesterday, here in the DC area. We couldn’t miss the opportunity and went out to take photos.

Autumn’s few last vestiges hung precariously by their frozen stems.

Snow fell quietly upon the brook behind our building.

It weighed down these oak leaves as well.

The brook kept flowing, regardless. It might soon be covered in ice, but it’ll still find a way to flow underneath it all. Water always finds a way.

Snowflakes trickled down through the bare branches to the forest floor, covering its carpet of fallen leaves with a fresh coat of white powder.

Bunches of red berries were slowly building little snow hats.

I love the contrast between the vibrant red of the berries and the pure white color of the snow.

My sweet Ligia, with snow in her curly hair.

Places

Remembering spring

With summer in full force, I thought it’d be fun to dig through some unprocessed spring photos and bring out a few good ones. These were taken with the 30D in our neighborhood in North Bethesda, MD. Enjoy!

Thoughts

Roses

The pure color of these rose petals reminds me of fresh spring rain, washing away the cold mud of winter from plants too hesitant to fully bloom. There’s the expectant hope of better, warmer days, and the creamy, bright, white background practically radiates optimism. Yes, I manipulated the colors, but that’s makes this photo more interesting to me.

Events

Unequivocally

This little daffodil was spreading its pure petals back in mid-March, signaling, and unequivocally so, that spring had arrived. This was one of the first days I had my Canon EOS 30D and 100mm macro lens, and that’s when I realized, also unequivocally, that I’d stepped onto new photographic terrain, and didn’t want to go back.

Thoughts

Saying goodbye to fall

Autumn is always a bitter-sweet season for me. I still remember it as the time school starts. When I was a child, I dreaded September, because I knew school was coming. Those feelings lingered through college, and they tinge my thoughts even now. Autumn also meant harvest with all its bounty: apples, grapes, corn, potatoes, and so on. How I’d love to help my grandfather pick them from his garden! Maybe I was just happy to get away from homework, but I loved it. His delicious Concord grapes, crisp from the vine, were just the ticket for me on a cold autumn day. My grandmother would beg me in vain to wash them as I wolfed them down in sheer delight. Ah, youth, it’s wasted on children…

Then there are the colors of autumn. Is there a season more colorful than it? Winter isn’t it. Spring may be colorful, but only so in concentrated spots, like gardens with flowers or flowering trees. It’s mostly brown and green and blue. Summer is constantly and mostly green and blue. Winter is just dull. It alternates between the brown of mud and the white of snow, bespeckled here and there with an occasional cardinal bird and some evergreens, to speak nothing of the mostly dreary sky. Now autumn, that’s the ticket for color! Where else will you find different colors everywhere, even in lowly trees you wouldn’t otherwise notice?

I’ve been taking photos of fall colors for a few years now. I probably got some of my best shots this year, and I wanted to share a few with you. Join me in saying goodbye to autumn. In memoriam…