Gallery

Autumn

by Mara Eastern
Daisy among Leaves
View of the Village
Bare Field
Corn Leftovers
Pasture
Red Curtains
Wired
Distant Railway

69 thoughts on “Autumn”

  1. Beautiful and breathtaking! 😮 especially the closeup of the maple leaf (i think). The foreground of the leftover corn looks like skeletal remains from afar haha.
    The distant railway photo feels like a scene from a film when someone is waiting for one of the old chugging trains to come from the distance!

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    1. The maple (or whatever) leaf is my favourite too, as long as one can favourites among one’s own pictures :-O I love how your imagination turned the empty corn into a skeleton, I was thinking it looked a bit scary and creepy too! The distant railway is the railway I use for commuting and yes, it is literally waiting for an old chugging train… Thanks for checking out my humble gallery and see you in the Photo 101 class 😉 !

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      1. Oops i actually meant background and not foreground. The remains of the corn stems were skeletal like. But then again the corn itself does look like part of the vertebral column haha.
        Ohh! Lol. Shud get a video of the train coming up! You’re welcome 🙂

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        1. I see! Never mind though, I’m always confusing concepts like background and foreground and left and right and the like. It’s awkward. Let’s agree that the whole field is a scary place strewn with skeleton-like objects.

          Actually, I did try getting a video of a train coming to the station, but there are few trains 😦 And when I’m getting on one, I mind other things than shooting the approaching train. Never mind, I’ll surely have other local colour pictures in store 😉

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          1. Hahahah yep! Lets agree on that then 😉
            Ahhh icic. That makes it difficult then. Ill look forward to them! Hehe

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    1. Autumn colours… *sigh* I wish we had more of them this autumn here. The leaves wouldn’t turn into colours for a long time and now that they did finally change colours, it’s grown too foggy to go out and shoot whatever is left from Indian summer. I think nothing now.

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      1. That’s a shame. The leaves have been glorious here – but I have been too busy to go out and photograph. Never satisfied – that’s me!

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    1. Wow, you like the view of the village? It’s actually “my” village, and I’m surprised that someone should like it 😉 But seriously, thanks for stopping by and checking out my humble photo gallery attempts, it’s great to have you!

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  7. Exquisite shots. Loved every single one. So reminds me of rural Kentucky, which I find to be exquisitely beautiful, and also very sad, as well. But always beautiful. Cheers,

    Olde Autumn Jade

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    1. If my village looks like Kentucky, I’m discouraged from ever visiting it. Beautiful perhaps, but sad, definitely, there is a strangely oppressive mood about this place, and it smells of impoverishment and failure. At least in Kentucky they have their KFC chicken. Here I got a dead hare hanging out in the backyard. We got the corpse from a local hunter, presumably for eating, but I think we’ll just go and buy processed meat at the butcher’s like usual. It’s not like it’s nineteenth century and I’m sitting in my dark kitchen, fondling a meager fire and gutting a hare.

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      1. Rural Kentucky is a part of Appalachia, which stretches across many states. It is a place of silent beauty, but also of extreme poverty and entropy. Your description of your village describes it perfectly.

        There are beautiful places in the US not so noticeably scarred with poverty, but no state is without it. There are many levels of poverty and human despair in every state.

        And, remarkably, KFC does not thrive in EVERY cranny of the US! Subway, on the other hand… 😉 You might just find one little subway amongst those miles of tobacco fields, little cemeteries, lone churches, cloudy dusty roads, and slouching houses with rusty tin roofs. Somewhere out there, beyond some shivering barb-wire fence, leaning into the warm tufts of bluegrass, beyond a trampled field of cows and the one little basketball hoop all by itself, pinned to a tree, there might be a little Subway. It wouldn’t surprise me!

        Enjoy your 19th century hare corpse 😉 I know what I would do with it- inhume it and dig it up some months later in order to recover a shiny new skull. Then I could bleat quotes from Hamlet all day long with the little skull clutched in my hand.

        And now I leave you with a dreary little quote that is not from Hamlet:

        “Painter: Why should one always make people happy? It might not be a bad idea to scare them a little once in a while.
        Jons: Then they’ll close their eyes and refuse to look at your painting.
        Painter: Oh, they’ll look. A skull is almost more interesting than a naked woman.”
        – Ingmar Bergman, “The Seventh Seal”

        Cheers,

        Autumn Jade

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        1. I never say OMG, but OMG, OMG, you used the word ENTROPY! That’s my favourite word. Besides my most frequently used phrase about “deconstructing dominant discourse”. Did you study the humanities? And are you sure you’re not me? Or my twin separated at birth? How is someone as hilariously morbid and enchantingly gloomy as me?

          A few more remarks: your quote is right, I checked on a naked woman this morning in the mirror and it was totally uninteresting. I’d definitely prefer a skull. I’ll ask my husband to provide one. Did that come out wrong? I was thinking to ask him to bury the hare and provide its skull for study purposes, as you smartly suggest.

          Also, I’m thinking I’ll kidnap your comments and forge them into an epic post. While risking that you’ll hit me with a hare skull, I hazard to say that you should write more on your blog. *ducks*

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          1. Ah yes. Entropy!!! My favourite, as well. Obsessed with all the various meanings and feelings derived from the word. SO much depth in that one little word…Har har, and “deconstructing dominant discourse” is definitely a phrase I have come across in scholarly articles now and again. Superb. I would LOVE to hear you saying it in a conversation. You must have very thrilling conversations, indeed, whilst coyly sipping slivovitz and suggesting that hares be buried in the front garden for later skull extractions.

            Ha ha ha. Your comment is absolutely grand. Sadly study has not been a part of my bruised and patchy existence. I hope to remedy this one day.

            HAHA I really debated on whether or not I should share that quote with you. After reading your amusing comment I am glad I did so. I adore the film the quote is extracted from. Plenty of skulls!

            Kidnap away, dear friend. And somehow, I suspect, it would perhaps be not only a bearable, but possibly a quite enjoyable experience, to have hare skulls chucked at one’s fleeing figure. A new sport.

            P.S.

            You are a brilliant humourist, I must say. I so enjoy your blog and your comments. Chortling cheers,

            Autumn Jade Toad

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          2. Ha! I’m seriously in love with your comments. I think you come third in the list of things I love. First is Scottish literature, second are my cats and then are your comments. And no, my husband doesn’t usually qualify for this list. Now I can’t stop laughing imagining myself holding a skull in one hand, a glass of slivovitz in another and complaining about the struggle of the other (read female) sex. My favourite topic. I’m a neo-feminist. Which tends to scare people of both sexes out of their wits.

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          3. Greetings Mara!

            Har har I don’t know what I am writing half the time! I type FAR too quickly, voraciously and impulsively! I am delighted that you enjoy this rabid banter.

            That imagery, I agree, is exceedingly humourous to imagine. Your poor down-trodden little husband, withering away in the backdrop, his pale face fraught and glittering with bullet-sized tears as you sway on an old tree-stump, piping to the world. The little skull is poised high one hand, little teeth smiling in a wry rictus grin, and your slivovitz is sloshing animatedly in the other hand. Naturally, a tempest is swirling in the sky above you, and a wild wind is tangoing in your hair, which looks inviting to some crows huddled above you, watching intently.

            There I go again..ridiculous, unbridled rambling!

            I don’t know much about feminism, or neo-feminism, but it sounds quite fun and groovy. Please, tell me more!

            Smiling cheers,

            Autumn Jade

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          4. Haha, I can hardly type for laughter… Your imagery is exquisite and your imagination wildly exhilarating 😀 Can’t imagine the down-trodden husband though, I’m a neo-feminist because it’s me who’s a bit down-trodden. I guess feminism for dummies would be connected with fierce women consigning their bras to flames and themselves to eternal bra-less discomfort and neo-feminism for dummies would be the progressive idea that now we’re allowed to wear bras. But maybe I’m simplifying.

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          5. Well that is VERY sad to read that YOU are the down-trodden one…I would NEVER have guessed that. I am sorry 😦

            I need to obtain many books on neo-feminism now. Through a thick helmet of ignorance, I have always thought it was where men shriveled into oblivion, cast aside, and scrabbled and groveled at the Female’s feet as she stomps by in her giant frilly heels, shunning him.

            Then feminism was perhaps a shade less extreme. I got it all jumbled up, obviously. As usual. Blast!

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          6. Of course I’m the down-trodden one and the scaredy kitty. I suspect you might have confused feminism with patriarchy, which is also known as the normal state of things. Sorry, I’m getting preachy. *steps off soapbox* *hides in a corner* *curls up and cries*

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          7. Patriarchy?! I certainly don’t think of feminism as patriarchy- I’ve always thought of it as the very opposite. I just think I put feminism on steroids in my thinking 😉

            You are not preachy at all. Never bind back your words with me, please- you can say nothing to offend or ruffle an old ruffian like me 😀 There are no limits, and I so enjoy learning from you, in my VAST ignorance (blast!) Now come out of that corner cluttered with ogre spiders and other vile and dusty things and shine out in the open in all your glory! As you were meant to!

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          8. Perhaps I understand some of your predicament. At least, I understand gender polarization and being expected to fall into place within those gender distinctions. But as you know, I am a rogue, and I like to be myself, and not doll up as a Barbie doll ornament. 😉

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          10. It is sad. You have my support. I hate that you endure that kind of oppression. You strike me as a very strong-minded and inspirational individual with many blazingly brilliant ideas. You deserve to not only have your voice heard, but also greatly admired and respected. Well, here in blog-land, I see just that- myriads of people who are inspired, touched, moved and thrilled by your voice, delighting beside you through both laughter and pain. And I am really, REALLY driveling now, so I will STOP this very minute!

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          11. Your vision of feminism on steroids made me laugh… Despite the obvious seriousness of the subject. *tentatively peeks out of her corner* Thanks for indulging my talk!

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          13. Awe, thank you for your comment, it’s so supportive and encouraging and I might even cry out of happiness… I’m stopping to be sentimental now. It’s not like I’m in danger of being raped or not allowed to a pub or something all the time, but I do perceive that women in my environment are not treated with the respect that everyone deserves. Thank you again for your wonderful words. I’m using it in the blog post / novel that you’re writing for me in your comments 😉

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          14. I don’t think I am in that kind of peril either (OH I cannot even IMAGINE being turned away at a pub!), but then, I might be at risk for profile-fueled crimes… I am most commonly profiled by many as a nefarious and belligerent young male, a kind of James Dean rogue, out on the prowl for trouble (even though I am barely taller than the average mail-box, with wild ruddy Einstein hair, and talk like a squeaky little Irish leprechaun). Police a
            re so convinced that I am a terrible fiendish James Dean or a horrible motorcycle-toting Marlon Brando, that they often become incensed and accuse me of lying and “pretending to be a girl” when I give them my name and show them my ID…(I get stopped a lot for walking in my neighborhood at night.) 😉 Florida can be a bit scary sometimes, especially when one gets profiled or caught trespassing whilst singing and gamboling about looking for corpses . Luckily I am sufficiently vicious when I have to be (we Chicago-lasses often are). Er…and I am also a very good runner! 😀

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          15. That’s good to see that more or less the only harm presented to you is yourself alone… Your description of your little person is highly intriguing. You might want to paint a self-portrait in van Gogh’s style. I’d love to see it!

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    1. Thank you for your lovely comment! That’s the most autumn that I was able to get this year, not too great, I’m afraid. So let’s hope for better shooting occasions next year…! I hope that at least we’ll have plenty of snow in winter to compensate for the pathetic lack of a colourful autumn.

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  9. These are stunning, I love low angle shots of the countryside and that first shot of the leaf, and then the grass with leaves, are just wonderful!

    Is this the same location as the misty field with apples?

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    1. Thanks so much for indulging my humble shots! You’re scaring me with your attentiveness, this indeed is the same location (if “location” is the word) where I shot the rotten apples in fog. It’s not like I could be choosy about locations here, so I mostly just shoot in the backyard and behind the garden in the field. I took these photos a few weeks ago, before the onset of the foggy days (and weeks now), when it wasn’t too wet yet to lie sprawled on the ground and take the low-angle shots. Because that’s how I took them…

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      1. Not that humble…IMHO 😉
        Blimey, sorry to scare you, that’s not good.
        It is always good to be able to exhange views and comments with those of like minds…
        And I do love those low-angle shots!
        Looking forward to your next submission…

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        1. It’s actually okay that you’re scaring me, not only do I like a good old scare (I basically live in a state of permanent fright ), but also how great is it that you’re so smart that it’s scary 😉 ? As it happens, people who are physically around me are, sadly, of a quite different mould than me, so it’s not an everyday experience for me that someone somehow gets what I mean and shares my interests. I’m loving the blogosphere and I’m glad that I chanced on you (or vice versa) 😀 And I’m stopping being sentimental NOW.

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          1. Not so sure about the being smart part 😉 but I do understand what you mean…I’m also happy we connected here and it is always good to chance on people with similar interests, sense of humour and outlook on life…strange (and good) how that connection can be made through typed words and photos…the blogosphere has certainly made the world different, better….?

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  10. Lovely set of photos, Mara. So vivid and colourful. Well done, very good eye for nature. Autumn looks like a lovely season over in your part of the world. That cow looks like it’s enjoying it’s time in the sun 🙂 I hope you had fun post-processing these set of photos.

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    1. Thank you, Mabel, for stopping by, as always! It’s funny that you should say I have an eye for nature, I actually prefer man-made environments more 😉 But you are right, autumn is usually a nice and colourful season here, even though it’s occasionally freezing and there are is often heavy mist. You reminded me that I should be please that we have four seasons here, hence a lot of variety to photograph throughout the year!

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      1. But I feel your nature photos are so much more alive! Haha, that’s because I love colours 😉 That is so true. With four seasons, we are challenged in so many ways with photography: weather, places to shoot, camera settings. I hope winter won’t stop you from going out and taking photos and sharing them with us 🙂

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        1. I love colours too, so I always boost saturation and vibrancy in my photos… I hope to get around to posting before and after post-editing photos soon, I think it’s fun to compare because they are very very different. Winter won’t stop me from taking photos, actually, I’m getting my winter gear ready and am waiting for some snow to show up 🙂

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          1. I’ve always had trouble boosting saturation – that usually makes my photos turn overly blue in some parts. Then again, I usually shoot in JPEG to save space on the SD card. Oooh, I’m certainly looking forward to the pre-and-post editing photos post. All your post-editing photos look very natural 🙂

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          2. Oh dear, my photo soulmate! I also shoot in JPEG and I’m heavily criticised for not shooting in RAW. But I always say that as long as all I do is point-and-shoot, I don’t really need the best quality for my snaps. Of course if I ever learn to shoot seriously, I’d switch to RAW.

            The blue hue problem is one I haven’t experienced myself yet. Perhaps it depends on what software you use for photo editing. I’m quite happy with my Corel Paintshop, and I even found out how to manipulate hue of photos, when the need arises.

            Thank you for your comments and happy shooting! 😉

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          3. Photo soulmate, what a phrase! With JPEG we lose a lot of data captured with RAW. I take around 200-300 photos on a full day out on one day of the weekend…I really can’t be buying SD cards every couple of weeks 😉

            Yeah, maybe the blue hue is due to the editing program or it could be because of how my camera captures photos, or camera settings.

            I’m sure at some point you’ll be shooting in RAW 😉

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          4. I see! I take from 200 to 300 photos of my cat only within an hour or so — because shooting pets who won’t pose for you takes up a lot of attempts 😉 I got an SD card that can hold a few thousands pictures, but I don’t even need this much capacity because I download and store the photos in an external hard drive after each photo session.

            On a different note, today I gave a first serious read to my camera manual and I’m not getting it at all… So it looks like I’ll stuck with shooting on auto and in JPEG only for a while. I’ll give it another try later though. Wish you better luck! 😉

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  12. Oooh I love these especially the leaf and the horse. I seem to be missing some of your posts but heck I can catch up now it is Sunday. How near are you to the horse? Lets hope you are not allergic? xx

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    1. It’s sweet that you’re catching up! No worries, the posts are not disappearing (hopefully) and you can look or not look at them as you like 🙂

      The horse was in a penn neighbouring with a field, so I was so close I could touch him. I didn’t deem it wise to go so near though. I’m even not particularly fond of horses, but I shoot what I can get. Shoot with my camera, that is.

      Apparently, I’m allergic to nothing, as the first set of tests showed, and the cause of my allergy-like problems is yet unrevealed.

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