The Tiny Leaves

Every year I photograph the Japanese maple leaves, both from our tree and a couple of other Japanese maples down the street.  When I have photographed them before they are on my driveway.  But this is so much better to have them on top of ivy.  It is just much prettier.  These leaves are wonderful because they are so delicate and I never tire of looking at them.  I did this photograph a week or so ago, and now they are either all gone, or all shriveled up.  They are the last leaves to fall - at least 2 weeks or more after all the other leaves are gone.  Fall is over, and Winter is 10 days away.

 

A Sucker for a Sunset

I am almost embarrassed to be showing you this photograph.  I went for my walk today.  It was 35 degrees out and there was a 15 MPH wind blowing in from over the water.  So when I stopped to take a picture, I sure didn't stop for long.  So there is nothing subtle about a sunset.  I tend to appreciate more subtle qualities in a landscape.  But, what the heck, here is a beautiful photograph of a golden sun going down surrounded by these cumulus clouds.  OK, you got me, I'll shoot it!

 

Reindeer at the Vanderbilt

I was walking to the Planetarium after parking my car and the driveway goes past these ancient Corinthian columns.  There are six columns in total and are about a thousand years old.  Each column is 14 feet high and weighs 4,000 pounds.  Of course what jumped out for me were the illuminated reindeer.  The "V" is made from planted hedges.  I just thought it was such an unusual scene, ancient and modern.

 

Tiny Japanese Maple

This caught my eye when I woke up one morning and looked out the bedroom window, across the lawn.  This is the concrete block wall that seperates our property from our neighbor Judy's property.  The wall is covered in ivy.  These slim branches are from our Japanese maple tree which has seeded itself from the wind blowing whatever is on the tree that propagates itself, across the lawn.  There are two slim branches that come out of the ground.  What grabbed my attention, of course, are the brilliant yellow and orange and red leaves on the same small branches.  They are more dramatic, of course, seen against the dark green background of the ivy.  The last gasp of fall in our yard.

 

The Japanese maple, Seen a Different Way

Here it is once again, my famous Japanese maple on the front lawn.  But for a change, seen from above looking down, instead from below looking up.  I was taken by the sense that the leaves looked like a wavy line of something going across the picture.  It is a completely different way of seeing this tree, for me! It is worth mentioning that the Japanese maple is the last tree in the neighborhood to loose it's leaves as Fall progresses which is always nice.

 

The Gift That Keeps on Giving

In the colder months, instead of riding my bike, I have taken to walking down to where the old power plant used to be.  The round trip is 2.6 miles and it takes me about 45 minutes to walk it, or much longer when I stop along the way and take photographs.  Some days I can't find a single thing to photograph, and then a day later I can find half a dozen worthwhile things to shoot.  It depends on the weather and the light.  Talk about light, look at this!  It was overcast for most of my walk and just as I approached these trees, the sun broke through!  A gift.  Luck favores the prepared, and I got this.  Please click on it to see it much larger.

 

The Shadows of Trees

This is so funny.  I prepared this photograph for the blog, and when I logged in, realized that this photograph has a lot to do with shadows.  And yesterday's photo is also about shadows as well!  I did the usual walk down to where the old power plant was and I pass this every day but on this day the clouds were in the sky and the shadows on the grass were distance.  I love this shot because it feels bright and sunny and that's no surprise because it was bright and sunny!  Duh!