Sun stars

Yesterday morning dawned soft, the sky a rich shimmer of sherbet orange.  This morning was simply brilliant.  As I walked through the first curve on Woodridge Road, the low sun's rays pierced the trees.  Dazzled, I was grateful for the billed cap I was wearing and wished, although briefly, for my sunglasses.

It was only a thought, really ...  Sun stars.  Could I remember how to set up to make one with the camera?  A small aperture -- f16 or smaller. The most important thing.  I focused on the clouds, metered off the sky and recomposed. 

Ta da.

For another and slightly later effort, check out this link:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/tarboxje/7583772228/in/photostream

Clouds

Yesterday was simply one of those days.  I like the word "charmed."  In actuality, nothing extraordinary went on ... nothing noteworthy for anyone but me, and probably Tal.  But, it was our day and I was aware every minute of that fact and that I was both aware and engaged. 

No, you don't have to endure any minute-by-minute details (or to decide not to wade through a long essay about it).  Rather, I'll let two images made just before we came inside for supper do the talking.  We had walked to the water's edge to put out corn for the reclusive wood ducks who reside at the head of the pond -- and who have eggs in the two duck boxes.  The sun was low in the sky and the clouds were dramatic.  I looked out -- and then I looked straight up.

This is a portion of the westward view.



This dizzying sight is of the clouds casting shadows on themselves.
 (West is at the bottom of the image.)

Icing on our cake ...

Photograph: Late afternoon on Country Club Pond

I never tire of this scene -- the shallow end of Country Club Pond viewed from the dam.  The afternoon I made this photograph the sun was lowering rather fast and the clouds were dramatic.  I like the whitness of the winter-time tree trunks.

Mare's tails and contrails

I spent the entire day inside.  On Wednesday when Tal played golf, I played, too, roaming around our yard, the camera in hand. 

Today, though, while Tal was at the golf course, I worked.  Happily (and unusually), though, cleaning house was a tranquil, meditative process.  Handling, one by one, the things we keep around us brought to mind how we came to have some of them, remembering places, events, people. 

The vacuum cleaner did its trick on my back.  A normal occurrence.  Something about the twisting and pulling motion.  Concentrating on standing tall and turning carefully helped.  Whitby and Belle dislike the vacuum cleaner more than I do -- steering clear and "asking" to be let out with woeful eyes and then seeming puzzled that the noise had not stopped when they came back inside.

By the time Tal returned home and we had settled at the counter for a late lunch the house was very presentable.  I sported a quiet and pleasurable satisfaction at my accomplishment.

Just as the sun was nearing the tree line across the pond the four of us set out on our daily walk on the promenade.  A goodbye to the day.  The sky was a deep blue with a profusion of wispy clouds and lines of spreading, fading contrails. 

Part of me wants that scene to have been a reward for good work.  But, the beauty of a late afternoon sky isn't dependent on my not giving in to the temptation to procrastinate.  That sky would have been there a clean house next to Country Club Pond or not.

A wiser part of me is simply grateful to have gone on that walk and to have looked up.