Monday, November 2, 2009

Autumn is all over us

Having a full time job, you can dedicate only the week-ends to serious photography stuff, which is many cases is passable, but of course there are unfortunate cases, like the past week-end... With this overwhelming autumn over us, it was natural for me to want to capture some shots with the beautiful red, yellow and brown tones.

OK, the weather forecast is optimistic: Saturday was expected to be a cold day with partly cloudy sky and Sunday an even colder day with less clouds. What is a little cold when hunting for some cool photos?

Saturday in the morning when I woke up, it was as cold as expected but the sky was grey, covered with heavy clouds. Not good, you can't shot landscapes with such a sky. And without sun, there is no life: no insects, no warmth, nothing. So I postponed the planned trip to the park for the next day, which was expected to be better.

However, around the noon I built enough courage to get around the house and shoot some flowers (chrysanthemums) around the house, but I find the result not that great, lifeless.

chrysanthemums chrysanthemums


Late in the day, a few minutes over 4 PM, the clouds broke a bit, leaving a little blue sky and a couple of sun rays for the eye. It was late in the day, with not enough time to reach for a place worth shooting (at 5 PM is already way too dark) but I was happy, expecting a great day to follow.

Fast-forward Sunday: woke up and is was colder, as expected. But even more cloudy, not as expected, bummer. Not affording to lose the opportunity, after the lunch (still waiting for the cold to weaken and hoping a sun ray will show) I took the gear and went to the park.

park park


The leaves are beautiful, a strong lesson about nature and the cycle of life, showing how everything is born is going do die, but the lesson is not very depressing grace to the marvellous dark colors (the depressing clouds can be avoided as long as you set the White Balance well and avoid showing the sky):

leaves leaves


At 4 PM was already too dark for hand-held shooting and without the tripod on me, I had to put the session to a close and go home, feeling the goal was not accomplished.

Damn weather! Today (Monday) is still cold as hell (the temperature raised from 1°C in the morning to 3°C at the noon), but there is sun and blue sky. And I am trapped in the office. And for the next week-end heavy rains are expected.

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3 comments:

  1. this are so awesome. In my country we dont have this kind of seasons because all year is like spring, neither temperature (almost always between 20Cº and 38Cº)

    I send your photos to a local group of photographers so they can learn some of your techniques.

    Awesome pictures nicu

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  2. Yeah, try to imagine how is to see a temperature drop from 20°C to 1°C in about one week... 1°C in February is normal, but at the start of November is a bit... sudden.

    As for the autumn photos, I was quite impressed by the gothic cathedral, in reality the feeling was pretty much like a cathedral.

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  3. Great shots. I like the shallow depth of field. They puts my Autumn Shot to shame.

    http://jason.bennee.com/wordpress/?p=104

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