Friday, August 15, 2008

As summer winds down

This week hasn't been a good one, but yesterday I took matters into my own hands and went out to my second-favorite patch of greenery for a bit of nature therapy on the way back from running an errand. We had a nice cleansing rain earlier in the day, and the temperature was comfortable. I grabbed my camera, figuring if nothing else, I'd have blog fodder.

It was close to sunset, and I had it in the back of my mind that maybe I'd get some awesome sunset shots. Not quite. Last time I went down that particular direction of the walking trail must've been spring. (February, actually, now that I look it up.) The branches were bare and the sky was a brilliant blue. Yesterday, by contrast, between thick greenery and a dimming sky, it was dark beneath the trees, like something out of a Grimm's fairy tale. My imagination could've had a field day with the atmosphere, from the dark tree trunks to hide murderers to the creepy spider-web wrapped branches overhead. To add to the suspense, I hadn't counted on the rains earlier making the path muddy, and I nearly slipped a few times. Rivulets trickled through the mud, down to a stream swollen by the day's precipitation.

Few of the pictures I took were decent because of the lighting--the flash was too bright and the trees too dark to do without. The few decent ones came in the clearings.
Like this one. I'm partial to it, for some reason. I've got sort of a "thing" for bridges, I guess. Also, if you embiggen it, you can see the imprint of suburbia in the near distance. Contrast, that's it.

The other decent-ish pictures were trickier to get. I was in the midst of the trees and could see glimpses of some interesting clouds, hovering dark grey in a pink sky, just over some apartment buildings. I was composing the shot in my head, waiting for an opportunity. Finally! A small side path. My hands were already on the camera and I was ready to--Problem. I couldn't figure out how to get my dream shot without either a) capturing the teenagers making out at a picnic table or b) making them think I was being a creepy voyeur, although it's quite conceivable that c) neither of them would have so much as registered my presence.

Ah, well. I never did get my perfect shot of the twilit sky. Next time, maybe. I definitely want to do the evening ramble again. It was peaceful. Just enough trees to mute the sounds of traffic nearby, just enough distance from the stresses of everyday life, just... right.

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Now playing: Sundowner - One Hundred Resolutions
via FoxyTunes

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