Sandwich 23152

 "One of the most important things you can do on this earth

 is to let people know they are not alone."

 

~Shannon L. Alder

 

Sandwich 23152

 

One day, late last year, I was in Sacramento doing some autumn leaf photography, when I spotted a sandwich lying on top of a parking meter. I didn't touch it, obviously, so I don't know what kind of sandwich it was, or who placed it there, but I have a suspicion that it was put there to help feed the homeless in, and near, the park. The particular park sits across from the Crocker Museum. But that's just a guess on my part. If true I approve. Empathy is something that isn't practiced enough in this world. No child born aspires to be homeless, and we have no idea what each individual struggle was, so if we can just remember that it could happen to any one of us, perhaps homelessness will one day decline by real numbers, but as long as it remains ignored or treated with ignorance then we are are causing the very thing we revile and fear.

 

 

 

 

November Shadows

"The canopy of the woods was spread out beneath me and

 it looked as if autumn had taken a great torch to the trees,

 burnishing them gold, red and bronze."

~Kate Morton

The Distant Hours

 

November is my favorite month to work with shadows. The sun seems to be at it's harshest, probably because sometimes the cold hasn't quite caught up with autumn, or the date on the calendar. November can be bone chilling or, by contrast, it can make for the last remaining days of shorts weather. On that particular day in November, we were just a little over the halfway point for the month, and it was warm, with almost no breeze. The trees next to the Crocker Museum were full and wild with color, but the afternoon sun was harsh and demanding. I didn't stay long, but while I was there I enjoyed playing with the available light, and was mostly pleased with the results.

Sometimes when you are out with the camera, and enjoying yourself, you feel like you had your best day ever for photography, then when you get home, and upload your work for editing, you feel a lot different, like you just wasted an entire afternoon. There is a lot of pressure to put on ones self when it comes to taking a good photo, and I am admittedly, my own worst critic. That particular day was a mixed bag, I did okay, but  I wish I had done great. I did a self portrait in shadows and while it's not my best, I have an area now to fine tune. A place to grow in the shadows. Background, foregrounds, textures, natural filters. Steven always gave me such good advice for fine tuning things. I miss my friend a lot.

#77 Leaf Of The Day

December 8th 2019

Orinda California

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me   :)

Autumn In Everything

"He couldn't stop smelling the air in great, deep, loud, sniffs. 

It was so delicious. It smelled of water, and mud,

 and maple trees, and autumn."

~Elizabeth Enright

The Four-Story Mistake

One photograph. Two perspectives. My autumn moods run the gambit between loud with color and vibrancy in all things, and silent and cozy, as if the whole world was under a warm wool blanket with me, enjoying a cup of tea and a good book! There is no real middle ground. That's autumn in my life. An almost decadent time of comfort and inner peace. Maybe that's why my creativity spikes this time each year. I can finally relax and breath after the scorching summer doldrums. Everything begins to look beautiful again in autumn. I mean just look at Doris. She was so perfect, that I just knew she was going to stun, regardless of whether I was photographing her in color or black and white. And look at her, it seems I was right! Autumn in everything.

#64 Leaf Of The Day

November 25th 2019

Sacramento, California

Nikon

~Mood: Quiet/Happy

~Me  :) 

 

Under The Sacramento Sun... In Autumn

"Autumn is an interesting season, even in the metaphor of life, is a time of decline, of less, but also intense and haunting beauty. Some places, like some people, never are, or have been, as beautiful as their fall."

~Luigina Sgarro

I'm looking for the last sigh of 2019. We are six weeks or so from 2020, and it's a little scary. So much scares me now. I don't know how anything works, and I am constantly amazed by life and all it's little moments that make up a year. Happy little surprises and sorrows so sharp and quick it's like a worldly paper cut. Its funny that as we grow older we tend to have less patience for such things, rather than more. Doesn't that seem backward somehow? Wouldn't being the age I am, come with all the patience in the world? I mean I am now old enough to look back and see how I got here and what the road was like along the way. But being able to see clearly in the rear view doesn't make the road ahead have less potholes, or me any smarter about how to avoid them.A year from now America will have another presidential election, and there are no guarantees. A lot like life. If autumn manages to dawn next year, will I see it? Will it see me? Will my photography make anyone happy? Will art even exist? Life is too short for autumn to be reluctant. 

I made a new friend yesterday. Meet Doris.

 #63 Leaf Of The Day

November 24th 2019

Sacramento, California

Nikon 

~Mood: Okay

~Me  

A Tale Of Two Trees, In The City Of Trees

California State Capitol Christmas Tree

Sacramento, California

December 11th, 2016 

"Use what you have, use what the world gives you. Use the first day of fall: bright flame before winter's deadness; harvest orange, gold amber; cool nights and the smell of fire.

 Our tree lined streets are set ablaze, our kitchens filled with the smells of nostalgia: apples bubbling into sauce, roasting squash, cinnamon, nutmeg, cider, warmth itself.

 The leaves as they spark into wild color just before they die are the worlds oldest performance art, 

and everything we see is celebrating one last violently hued hurrah before the black and white silence of winter."

~Shauna Niequist

Bittersweet: Thoughts On Change, Grace,

 And Learning The Hard Way 

 Old Sacramento Christmas Tree 2016

December 11th, 2016

Sacramento's nickname is the City Of Trees! And that is appropriate because Sacramento is gorgeous with trees right now! Autumn is alive and kicking up it's heels in Sacramento, and if all that spicy, colorful autumn laughter of the trees on a windy day isn't enough to put a big smile on this girls face, then the two Christmas trees that the city boasts certainly does!

There is one in front of the State Capitol building, and there is one down in Old Sacramento! Both lovely, both decorated to put even the biggest Ebenezer Scrooge in the holiday spirit! But you know me, I just had to drive around town to see as many autumn trees as I could. Like I said in previous posts, winter might legitimately claim Christmas, but autumn is the season that sets the stage!

It's just breathtakingly beautiful in Sacramento right now, and I am hoping to get back up to the capitol before December 21st to do some additional leaf photos! As you know, I continue photographing those leaves for as long as they continue to fall. I never get tired of them! 2017 will probably begin like 2016 did, with lots of late falling autumn leaves!

Stay Tuned!

Leaf Of The Day

December 12th 2016

Mood: Happy

~Me :)