Category Archives: Seasons

Today, it was white

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

It snowed in Denver today.  The first white snow of the season is always bittersweet…beautiful to look at, but it’s messy driving. The still leafed-out trees weighed down with nature’s white burden caused power-related problems, broken trees and insurance claims.

It was still pretty – the white, that is.

According to empower-yourself-with-color-psychology.com, the color WHITE is significant because it symbolizes “innocence and purity. White is the beginning of everything, before anything is muddied or thinking is ‘colored’.  White represents the clean slate, helping us through times of stress, and allowing us to put the past behind us and preparing us to move on. White represents the positive as well as the negative aspects of all colors. It contains an equal balance of all the colors of the spectrum.”

Rest easy, snow-bound compatriots; after all, white is just another color.  White means so much more than snow.

In fact, I am posting photographs of things that are white, but not snow –  just to prove my point!  

 

 

Focus on nature

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

The Denver Botanic Gardens is a local destination.  It’s almost in my front yard.  I’ve visited before.  But not like today.

Today I tried to focus on something different.  Focus itself.

Focused attention?  No.  I was totally paying attention.  I was in the moment, to be sure.

I was trying to focus my camera on nature…all at once:  photographic composition, proper exposure and technical execution, exquisite light quality, artistic expression, contrast of color, texture, and emotion, etc.

Well, that’s nuts.

Nature doesn’t work that way.  Nature happens in moments.  Sometimes the moments happen in color, or not.  Sometimes nature’s moments are a contrast in light or texture.   Sometimes nature is not at all artstic.  At other times, nature’s moments are elusive or ambiguous.  And sometimes, the best of nature’s moments are unfocused.

Stop squinting.  

At what point do we acknowledge autumn’s arrival?

Posted by JEANNE RAMSAY on

When is it each year that we relinquish the carefree days of summer?

When do we trade the universal perfume of freshly mown grass for the unmistakable scent of raked leaves?

Is there a specific moment when we no longer notice the smells of swimming pools and wet towels, but embrace the aroma of crackling fireplaces and baking pies?

Does autumn officially arrive only once we have donned our first sweatshirt, noted the earlier hour of twilight each day, or witnessed the first golden leaves of change on the trees?

Is there a specific moment in time when we are no longer aware of the rhythmic clacking of skateboards traveling past the house or admit to missing the hollow echos of nearby bouncing balls and the exuberant, joyful laugher of children?

Is autumn’s arrival evident only once we recognize a new quiet; a quiet hauntingly void of the sounds of chirping crickets and singing birds?

Do we hear autumn’s arrival in the thunderous sound of crowds cheering favored football teams to victory in the chill of the evening air?

Is this when autumn has truly arrived?

I believe autumn arrives the moment we notice.