Capturing Moments

There are always things to notice…and we are often carrying around something (phone or small camera) that can capture the moment. Here are some recent nature captures:

At the car dealership while I waited for my car after its service…I photographed the flowers in urns with my phone; the water droplets on the big leaves were left from the rain earlier in the morning.

My attention was captured most by the flowers that had dropped and always to land upside down with there stems pointed skyward. They must have been knocked off by the rain.

Next - I was walking down the driveway when I spied something round in the driveway. I went back to the house for my small camera. Once I looked more closely, I realized it was an crushed acorn that had stayed together rather than scattering into pieces. It still had the cap (on the bottom)!

The blue jays come to our deck frequently, but I hadn’t ever seen them on the feeder. There is a reason….the roost are too close together for the birds (see how the bird is ducking and can’t perch on the roost normally) and their weight is enough to partially close the openings where the seed is available. This bird did get a few seeds but flew away and didn’t return!

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Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Cocoon. One of my oldest pieces of clothing is a ‘cocoon’ I made back 1985. I use it during the change in season when it’s too cool to go without a wrap but then warms up and I want something that lets in more air…then off and folded up neatly. It is made of gray cotton fleece. Its current dimensions are 19.5” x 62” – probably stretched out over the years. The construction is two French seams (narrow dimension) with an arm hole left on the fold end. It’s a semi-structured blanket!

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And then a folded under hem of around the edges. I used red thread to break the monotony of the gray fleece.

It folds neatly making it easy to carry and pack. It’s something I wear frequently enough to keep even though it is about 35 years old since I remember making it in the fall!

First day of autumn. It was 40 degrees this morning…very autumn like. The oak and sycamore are dropping leaves, but the tulip poplars and maples are still very green. We have a lot of acorns on the driveway that I need to sweep up and take back to the forest.

Painterly Flower Photographs

A photography project in my home office: sitting on the other side of the office from the flowers and using the zoom on the camera to get magnified images of the flowers….varying light and magnification. Sometimes I rest the camera on my knee to hold it steady – fold out the view screen to compose the image. Sit back and enjoy the slide show; it will last a little over a minute before it loops back to the beginning.

The advantage of using the zoom is that the depth of field is enough to get the whole flower in focus; getting close…using a macro lens approach…would make it harder to get the focus I wanted. The higher the magnification the more ‘painterly’ they become; the focus softens. I like that the background often is flat or washes out….even the window screen is a pale gray grid. Capturing curves and textures of the petals is the priority.

There are three kinds of flowers: black-eyed susans, zinnias, cone flowers. They all came from the CSA over the past three weeks. Some of the petals are already beginning to dry and curl; the part under the petals of the zinnias starts out as shades green…then turns to shades of brown as the flowers age..

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Sewing Machine. I have put my 47-year-old sewing machine in the pile I am collecting to donate. It still has all the things it came with – even the instruction book. I used it a lot for about 15 years. For the first 10 of those years I made almost all my clothes. I even took some tailoring classes in 1983 – thinking I would make my suits for work. Then my career ramped up and required more time; I started buying my suits and making my blouses. By the time by daughter was born I was sewing infrequently. I’m not sure why it took me so long to let it go; it was an easy ‘declutter’ decision.

Blue Skies. The hazy skies are gone…but the temperature is still on the cool side. The forecast shows a warming trend…back up to the 80s.