Closer and closer, inexorably


“Inexorably.” I don’t use that word often enough…

Anyway, the autumn colors are advancing, day by day, and I spent just a little time over at the nearby pond to chase some of them. They’re still a bit patchy, and will likely remain that way, as the earlier trees turn and drop all of their leaves, then later trees do the same, and so on. Actually, I was on the interstate read more

September: OK to delete?


You know, I had a month-end abstract all picked out, but then I realized that it looked way too similar to one of the On This Date images that I also had lined up, and switched to another. But that one, which is the one above, was kinda weak, so we’re going to have two.

Anyway, the one above is just a leaf (from an American sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, if you must know) that read more

Less topical

Within a few days, I got a ton of photos to post, and then of course not a lot of time to post them, which is the way it goes. There will be another, image-heavy one to follow this, all tightly within a particular genre, so right now I’m doing the easier, briefer post. Not because I’m lazy, but because the other will take more time to prep and I don’t have as much right at the read more

You can never tell


Despite a lot of misgivings regarding the poor conditions leading up to autumn here, the colors actually developed halfway decently, and while I haven’t had a chance to go find some really nice forested areas, my local efforts have produced a pleasant showing as it is, with the potential of more to come. The droughts in late summer threatened to eradicate nearly all chances read more

On the trail of fall color


The season for getting good conditions for nature and wildlife photos in North Carolina is winding down, as it does every fall, and like every fall, I find no nice colorful landscapes within easy reach to do broad scenic images. Partially, this is because of the trees themselves this region of NC at least has far too many hateful longneedle pines, which are ugly read more

But what about third spring?

So last night, when the weather was reasonably warm, I went across to the nearby pond to see what I could find. I had two primary things in mind, knowing they were likely stirring by this time: frogs and fishing spiders. With the possibility of water snakes. Of the first and third, I saw no signs, but the fishing spiders were available.

A quick note: The easiest way to find spiders read more

Sunday slide 47


We go back to 1999, or maybe even slightly farther, for this one, an old staple of my abstract images. This is mostly because all of the slides I just scanned for potential use this week didn’t really pass muster, and I’m too tired to scare up some other choices.

Falls Lake, as I mentioned earlier, read more

Two views

I have a couple more posts in the lineup right now, but I think I only have time for one this morning, so we’ll just have to see when the others arrive. It’s a shame, because one is pretty damn interesting, but I doubt I can do it justice if I rush it, so we’ll go with something more visceral and less thoughtful at the moment.

It’s gotten to be the dead season around here, read more

Humidity and arachnids


It’s still early in the fall season here and only a handful of trees are showing any color, but if one is selective, they can find examples and frame them to make it seem much more dramatic than, as was the case here, a single small tree in the middle of a still-green landscape. This is a Liquidambar styraciflua, otherwise known by a large number of common names but read more

1 2