Seasons of A2K

September Cornwall

Amarillo is pretty far north from where I grew up in Houston. I have been there before and remember the weather being cool. It's getting up in the hill country and they have a much more temperate climate there. They even get snow pretty regular.

I guess I should amend my statements to mid and south Texas.

A chilly (and windy) autumn evening yesterday, in the old town in the neighbourhood.
(Actually, I've been there to take some photos from the "Illuminata" - a light installation in the old town, along the river Ems, in some parks and on a lake.)

That's such a beautiful picture, Walter. Gives off the exact mood of a cool autumn evening.

maple tree in the front yard this morning

Another allee - this from SFChronicle's Day in Pictures

Out for an autumn ride: A cyclist pedals through a cathedral-like nave of trees in a park in Hanover, Germany.


Photo: Nigel Treblin / AFP / Getty Images

That is quite magnificent. Thanks for sharing.

Nota bene the Christmas-tree balls

Winter mist on the Somerset levels:

wonderful...



I'm starting to look at today's day in pictures from the SF Chronicle -
the first one that caught my eye is -


caption - You're not from around here, are you? Spotting the tourists in Tiananmen Square doesn't require a particularly keen eye.
Photo: AP

another -


caption -
Test tube: This snowboarder hopes qualifying for the Snowboarding Grand Prix at Copper Mountain, Colo., will be a halfpipe cinch.
Photo: Streeter Lecka / Getty Images

- that's cute- the chinese guys in their panda hats.

I think winter has become my favorite season. I always liked it for the sports - skiing, skating, etc., but now I think it's the most beautiful. When we lived here before we were up in the hills, now we're four miles away, but down on the levels and at first I didn't like it as much, it's flat and doesn't offer the same sweeping vistas and views but as winter has come - I think if anything- it might be even more beautiful:

one more -


caption -
Mind if I smoke? Popocatepetl and Iztlacihuat volcanos, as seen from an airplane about 75 miles east of Mexico City.
Photo: Luis Acosta / AFP / Getty Images

I love that one. (You've always been a great photographer.)

Thank you Osso. I know you have an artist's eye, so I take that as a real compliment.

I remember photos that you've taken and shown on a2k that are painting inspirations.. I think you have a nice eye for composition and atmosphere. I know, I know, in some places you only have to hold the camera in the air (Rome, for example) and that atmosphere is pretty much already in place... but still, some of the remembered shots were wonderful.

You're very perceptive. I wish I could draw and paint, but I can't. And I have some really nice lenses for my camera, but I never use them, specifically because I like the texture and graininess I get when it's ever so slightly out of focus - for the very reason that it does look to me like a painting instead of a photograph. If I could paint, these are the scenes I'd paint and the colors I'd use.

Thank you again.

Interesting - maybe I'll get myself together to show a photo I took from the passenger seat when crossing a minor bridge in Riverside County (it went out after we passed it again on the way back) in a rainstorm, no focus at all in the pic. Made a painting of it, 3 x 4 feet, still a favorite, even shown in an official museum. No "focus" in the painting either. Trouble is, I don't know where the original photo or neg is (well, I do, but it's a thicket - and the photo I have enlarged for my own amusement is 11 x 14, hard to scan and show. But, to the point, I'm interested in non focus too.

To come back to the point of seasons, that Riverside County photo I took was probably on the way to the In-Laws on Christmas Day, when ex and I were crabby to start with, what with a visit to my family in the other direction the night before.