It is already the middle of October and the autumn colors are slowly turning. Most of the deciduous trees are still green. Day by day they are changing into their fall color. Patches of yellow, orange, and red are starting to appear throughout the garden. The color change this year seems to be about two to three weeks later than last year. We have been having a beautiful Indian Summer. We are still eating most of our meals outside to enjoy the beautiful warm weather. The lawn seems to be growing as fast or faster than it has any time of the year. I am still mowing it two times a week! From the tracks in the lawn, it looks like the guy driving the mower has had a beer or two too many.
“View Through the Cherry Allee” Heatherwood Autumn
Even though the the perennials are past their time, they still have a little color left. Along with the cherry trees they frame the view of our lower landscape and the neighbors pastures. It is a nice spot to sit and enjoy our little country setting.
The bright berries of our dogwoods are always a sign that Autumn is here. Our kousa is just a little tree right now, but it is full of bright red berries. By the time the last berry drops, we will have a beautiful blanket of red beneath the tree.
Back in Pennsylvania, we had a row of mature Kousa dogwoods that lined the driveway. Every day from the time they started to drop their berries until the last one fell, we had to sweep our driveway to keep the cars from squishing the berries and making a big mess. In the spring we had a zillion of little seedlings. We replanted many and nursed them to a state where they could be planted back in our pin oak grove. We had a natural supply of new dogwoods. I look forward to doing the same at Heatherwood and share them with our neighbors.
Bit by bit, the fall colors are emerging here in Heatherwood. They seem to be coming a little late this year. But, each day brings a little more color, bit by bit. In the woodland garden, the red buds and some Japanese maples are transitioning to yellow. The October Glory maples are starting to turn red. And, the skies are a brilliant blue. It is time to go out and enjoy the day!
“Amber Ghost Japanese Maple” Heatherwood Hill of Learning
We planted this beautiful Japanese maple a couple of weeks ago. It has already started to change into its autumn glory. We now have 44 Japanese maples planted throughout Heatherwood. This Amber Ghost will accentuate the view out of my office window. Every morning when I write, I turn and gaze out over the “Hill of Learning” to get a little inspiration of what is to come during the emerging day.
“Early Morning Sunlight” Heatherwood Japanese Garden
The color is starting to change in our Heatherwood garden. The early morning sunlight brightens up the colorful leaves. Every day brings a change in the colors. For the next several weeks I will be out in the garden continuously. Every day presents a gift of something new.
We are having a blizzard-like snowfall right now. The high temperatures for the last week and a half have been below 20 degrees. The waterfall in our garden is frozen. I need a change! All I have to do is look back on some of the images I created this past year to get a little feeling of warmth.
This warm early autumn image from our Heatherwood Japanese garden was just what I was looking for. I can feel the warmth of the early morning sun rays filtering through the Japanese maples and gracing the lower leaves of a Japanese “Full Moon” maple. The leaves were just starting to change from summer yellow to autumn red. It simply gives me warmth. Maybe it will provide me enough stimulus to go out and collect come cold winter images.
I had planned to visit the Palouse in June to see the spring greens and yellows. It just wasn’t meant to be. I am yearning to get out with my camera for an adventure. Maybe later on this month I will be able to travel for a couple of days out to the Palouse. It should not be too crowded so I will be able to maintain social distancing during the trip. Warm summer breezes and softly blowing grains will be waiting.
I have recognized that I have recently fallen back on making nice snapshots versus compelling images. I tend to fall back into “ruts” from time to time. During this period of “social distancing” and my surgery recovery time, I am looking back on some lessons I have taken on-line from David DuChemin.
The focus on this image is “Isolation.” My exercise last fall was to isolate and enhance the subject and eliminate distractions. My target subject was the Kotoji. I walked around our Japanese Garden to first identify a perspective of the Kotoji that was different from the many that I had taken before. I collected images of a tightly cropped full Kotoji lantern, close-up of detailed Kotoji elements, the Kotoji with the foreground and background, etc. I then continued to walk around and tried to frame the Kotoji with other elements in the Japanese Garden. Finally I worked on creating a “peek” of the Kotoji through a background Japanese maple.
To focus on the subject, I set my focal point and exposed for the front edge of the lantern’s top. The lantern was framed with a void through the Japanese maple. I used a narrow depth of field to blur the maple tree leaves and branches. In post processing, I further blurred and darkened the surrounding leaves and branches to lead the viewers eye to the Kotoji.
This image is not one of my best, but it was an excellent learning experience to purposefully focus on creating a compelling image.
The path through the orchard led up to a little bluff that overlooks the valley below. I am at the end of my “photo stroll” and feel rewarded with the peaceful view below. I catch my breath and start the walk back through the orchard. I look forward to seeing new images as they present themselves to me.
