Autumn Life's Peak Color

"I am falling in love again with autumn

The smell of warm cider,

The orange color leaves,

Pumpkins everywhere

and the crisp breeze,

People walking or riding their bikes,

Folks jogging or going on hikes,

I love autumn for so man reasons,

I must admit...

This is my favorite season"

~Charmaine J. Forde 

Leaves are everywhere, so as you might imagine, color is peaking really early, in pockets all around California! It's the 7th of October, and I have to hurry up to the Sierra and Yosemite before it's all gone. This vacation is going to be all about me chasing my how shadow here and there to get the landscapes I need for my archives. Sigh. I was hoping to take a more leisurely pace, but it looks like I will just have to get my jogging shoes on and go. I wait all year for the colors of autumn to  guide me back into piece of mind, but some years are much more like riding a roller-coaster, than gently rolling on my beautiful golden bay. Okay... I'm up for it... bring it on!

#15 Leaf Of The Day

October 7th 2019

Ione, California

Nikon

~Mood: Happy

~Me  :)

Three Seasons Away

"It was a beautiful bright autumn day, 

with air like cider and a shy so blue you could drown in it."

~Diana Gabaldon

Outlander

Sometimes, when I see a part of California that I have never been to before, I wonder about how it all must have been before it was developed to death. Progress is a good thing, but seeing a beautiful hillside filled with colorful trees, or an untouched stream just flowing along, with every color possible framing the banks, I just feel alive and happy, almost like I am a part of the land itself! My trip to Yosemite last week had a true and profound affect on me. I want to see it in all the seasons now, but I just know that seeing it in autumn will always feel like I am coming home, because that was the season I was in when I saw it the first for the first time! 

Next autumn seems like a very long time away.

And it is I suppose.

I always wonder if I will make it to see one more autumn.

I sure hope I do.

But one never knows what life has in store us. 

Next autumn is 3 seasons away.

 Leaf Of The Day

November 18th 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me  

A Place Of Rest And Refuge

"It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of nature I was ever permitted to enter."

~John Muir

"Yosemite Park is a place of rest, a refuge from the roar and dust and weary, nervous, wasting work of the lowlands, in which one gains the advantages of both solitude and society. Nowhere will you find more company of a soothing peace-be-still kind. Your animal fellow beings, so seldom regarded in civilization, and ever rock-brow and mountain, stream, and lake, and every plant soon come to be regarded as brothers, even one learns to like the storms and clouds and tireless winds. This one noble park is big enough and rick enough for a while like of study and aesthetic enjoyment. It is good for everybody, no matter how benumbered with care, encrusted with a mail of business habits like a tree with bark. None can escape its charms. Its natural beauty cleans and warms like a fire, and you will e willing to stay forever in one place like a tree.'

~John Muir

John Of The Mountains:

 The Unpublished Journals Of John Muir

This past week has been unparalleled in it's... tension. The election left me devastated. On edge. More unsure of my future than ever before. And I will say it... depressed. But, reluctantly, Alan and I decided to just get into the car and visit somewhere we had never been before, Yosemite. I wasn't prepared for the stunning beauty. The quiet loveliness that it almost had it's own song. and if it did it would certainly be a hymn. There is such a special spirit to the park, that it was healing just being among the trees, and the waterfalls. It was life, at it's best. It was like the whole Yosemite Valley said to us, "come in, I will hold your pain, at least for a little while." And it did, and for that I am grateful!

 Leaf Of The Day

November 12th 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me  

Autumn In Yosemite

Half Dome Outlook

Yosemite National Park

 

"The magic of autumn has seized the countryside; now that the sun isn't ripening anything it shines for the sake of the golden age; for the sake of Eden; to please the moon for all I know."

~Elizabeth Coatsworth

Personal Geography: Almost An Autobiography

The head noise the last few days has been deafening. The noise from the political talking heads... has... been... deafening. Social media has been deafening. Life noise in general has been deafening! Alan and I needed a day of quiet. A day seeing new horizons. A day that was as far away from the fighting as we could get, so we picked a California destination we hadn't been to before. We chose Half Dome, in the Yosemite Valley. Not surprisingly, we weren't alone! There were many people, not really talking, they were just doing what we were doing, photographing the unbelievable natural beauty of our surroundings!

Truly, all the photos I have ever seen of Half Dome, have not done it justice, and I didn't manage to capture it's stunning beauty as accurately as I wish I could have. I guess I have lost a bit of my creative magic. I'm trying, but I am still dealing with yet one more broken heart in my life, and it's just going to take a while to find my inner happiness again. Personally, I have had my heart broken enough times that I know there is no rushing this process, the best I can hope for is that one day I will wake up, and it won't hurt anymore. It's a one day at a time process. But everything starts somewhere, and yesterday I began the healing at Half Dome!

Just quiet amazing beauty. So needed. So appreciated!

 Leaf Of The Day

November 11th 2016

Mood: Quiet

~Me :) 

A Photo A Day For 6 Months: Day 45: Waterfalls

"A cheery relaxation is man's natural state, just as nature itself  is relaxed. A waterfall is concerned only with being itself, not with doing something it considers waterfall-like.


~Vernon Howard


It's been a while since I worked on my photography on a daily basis. I am slowly getting my groove back though, so I am already planning ahead for the autumn by deciding what subjects I want to concentrate on. I know I will more than likely head up to the Sierra, so I am thinking I might do some water shots along Lake Tahoe. Alan wants to head up the the Redwood Forest and photograph the amazing trees, and of course you already know I never met an autumn colored tree I didn't love. 


As lovely as all those can be, I think my biggest challenge is going to come from moving water. There are some waterfalls in Plumas County, but there are some amazing ones in Yosemite as well. It will be a toss up. Either way, I think it will be good to exercise that part of my creativity. We'll see. 


How about you? Is there a particular subject you would like to spend more time working with in terms of your photography? If so, please share!


~Me :)


Today's Link...


JR
http://jrclinephotography.blogspot.com/2012/06/apadf6-44.html