Layoff

First off, I'd like to apologize for not posting much this past year. Regular readers of my blog will remember that my mother died of cancer last year; well, this past month, my father died of cancer as well. It's been a real trying time for the family, especially once you've lost both parents. After a death like this, people will say that life goes on. Maybe it does, but it does so in a much different way. While I try to figure out a way that works for me, I'm going to try and devote a little more time to writing and my blogs. And seeing as how this blog is touted as a blog with pictures, I thought I'd post this year's installment of my Fall tree. Every year I go back to the edge of my town and photograph this one tree. I've been doing it since the 1970's and it's something that puts a little stability and familiarity into my life. Perhaps I've needed it more these few years, but be that as it may, the tree is still there and when it begins to get cold, the leaves start turning different colors and dying off. Maybe it's symbolic of how life goes, I don't know. Here's the way it looked this year, a little earlier than normal, but as photographed on October 14th, 2011:

The Frost Is On The Pumpkin

Well, it's not really - I just like saying that phrase. Who doesn't like saying it? Even though it hasn't frosted yet, today was a special time of the year for me. Yes, it was my annual pilgrimmage to a place on the edge of the little town I live in to preserve on film a certain tree in all of it's autumn splendor. I've been photographing this same tree since the late 1970's and every year, toward the end of October when the leaves have turned, I trek over there and get another picture. Or actually, it was 50 pictures this time. (Past years photographs can be found in a previous post here.) I always take several different poses and camera settings to make sure I get some usable frames, and this year was no different.

Judging from the way the leaves on it had turned, I could have gone there two days ago or waited until two days hence and it still would have been in it's prime radiance. After 30 years of having many a rendesvous with this tree, you get to where you just know these things. Today's conditions didn't disappoint me, either. In the hour just before high noon, I managed to capture it on the clear, sunny day we had today, with hardly any wind. It turned out quite well enough to add to my album of other shots of this tree. And here, at last, is that tree I visited again today. I hope you enjoy it as much as I do:

Update: I went back a few days later and got a couple shots when the sun was lower in the afternoon sky. Here is what those looked like:

I Think That I Shall Never See

As a photographer, some projects turn out to be more satisfying than others. There is one project that I've been working on for almost 30 years and counting. And each year that passes, it pleases me even more. Let me go back to the beginning.

In 1978, I acquired my first good 35mm slr camera. I loved it and used it a lot. The following year, when Autumn arrived, I happened to use it to take a picture that has become a big part of my life every subsequent year at that same time. Who doesn't like to see the Fall colors arrive, with the leaves turning their rainbow hues? Well, I can't see all the shades, but can certainly tell when the leaves on the trees start turning. That photograph I took in late October 1979 is this tree pictured below:

It turned out to be an epochal event for me. There was just something about that particular tree and location that struck me as being.... right. It's symmetrical relationship with the sky and ground; the sidewalk running lazily alongside it until it disappears in the distance; the tree's look of strength and permanence. All of these things came together for me and made it most memorable. I went back another year and another, until I realized that I had to go back each year at the end of October or when the leaves had turned to their fullest potential and capture this moment in time for posterity. And, I still go back there each year to this day. The fact that it is at the edge of the small town I live in makes it somewhat easier to do, but there have been times when I lived elsewhere and had to drive back home just to get the picture. It has become something special to me when it gets to be time to take this annual picture. I highly anticipate it as soon as the heat of summer breaks and the nights begin to grow cooler. Suffice it to say, it's something I never miss.

Now that it's well into November and I have my shot for 2007 in the can, I can gather up my collection of shots and compare them side by side. And rather than post one here for each year since 1979, I have instead opted to just pick one from every now and then. Enough to show the progression "my" tree has taken through the years. Please scroll down through them and enjoy them like I do!

1982

1985

1989

1993

1995

2002

And lastly, 2007