02-22-13 Brachiation (Reprise)

TS Eliot was wrong. Februrary, not April, is "the cruelest month." At least for me. Yes, the days are getting longer. Yes, the temperature ocassionally soars into the high 20s. But it is often in the heart of February that what I think is SAAD (seasonal affective disorder) hits me. And I lose my will to post new photos to this blog.So I'm posting old stuff. . . But, in the event that you haven't meticulously looked at all four years of my posts, you've probably never seen some of these. So maybe they're not old.

04-02-09 The Brilliance of Nature

If you go to Olympia, WA, be sure to find the Japanese Garden. It is a beautiful, serene enclave surrounding by fairly busy streets and office buildings. I was there is late November and it was raining. (Is that the norm at this time of year?). I had taken a few photographs of this tree from the front and then decided to look at the tree from behind. And this is what I saw.

The color is striking, of course, but so, too, are the twisted, near-black branches. I could have photographed for quite a while but the rain and my wife suggested that I should move on.

Canon 5D 1/60s f/4.5 ISO400 58mm (Canon 24-105 f/4.0L)

02-22-09 Fallen

It was a cool, rainy day in Olympia, Washington, the day I took this. My wife, my mother-in-law and I had just visited the state capitol grounds and were driving through the historical neighborhood just south of the capitol building. I had stopped the car to get out to photograph a beautiful, brilliant red tree framed by a wooden fence. When I was walking back to the car, I looked down and snapped this photo almost as an afterthought.

Canon 5D f5.0 1/100 400 iso Canon 24-105 4.0 October 31, 2008