Wealie's World » autumn

The Golden Hour

Ruth Weal — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:56:55 +0000

The golden hour is the hour just prior to sunset and the hour just after sunrise when if you’re lucky, the landscape is bathed in a beautiful golden light which adds an extra dimension and beauty to the quality of your photography. I don’t very often see the golden hour at dawn, unless I haven’t been to bed yet, but I do try and get out to see it at dusk every now and then.

Whilst out on a walk with my Dad and Ben I was lucky enough to get some spectacular autumnal sunset shots at Shearwater Lake. It’s a lovely man made fresh water lake, popular for fishing, sailing, walking, cycling and of course photography. Shearwater is situated nicely between Longleat and Warminster in a picturesque area of Wiltshire on the cusp of the Deverills at Crockerton. If you’ve never been I highly recommend taking a visit!

The lake is surrounded by many beautiful specimens of deciduous and evergreen trees and shrubs/bushes such as Rhododendrons. There’s lots of wildlife on and in the lake, from the fresh water fish – carp, bream, roach, perch, tench and rudd to the many water fowl – Canada geese, ducks and sea gulls. In the woods the sharp eyed will see numerous grey squirrels and if you’re lucky you might even spot a deer or two peeking out from the dense foliage of ferns . All of which makes it an excellent place to visit for photographers whatever the time of year you visit.

Here’s some of my favourite pics from the evening’s golden hour!

Wealie x

Golden Sets - Copyright R.Weal 2010

The Bull Rushes - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Doubly Reflected - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Last of the Golden - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Autumnal Blooms

Ruth Weal — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 23:21:29 +0000

I’ve heard a number of people lament the lack of blooms in the UK after September. Well I went out for a quick photography trip this afternoon as it was a lovely sunny evening and guess what…..I found loads of flowers still in bloom!

I’ve uploaded them to flickr in the set Autumnal Blooming in Salisbury. Here are a few of my favourites, as you can see I had trouble choosing!

I hope my blooms bring a little bit of joy to you.

Wealie x

Red Reaching - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Dahlia dreaming - Copyright R.Weal 2010

petals no more - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Peach Perfection - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Spiney - Copyright R.Weal 2010

How did you mark 10/10/10?

Ruth Weal — Sun, 10 Oct 2010 17:44:21 +0000

Multicoloured - Copyright R.Weal 2010

Today is the 10th of October 2010, or as it appears in the two digit date format 10/10/10! As humans we are always looking for special meaning and significance in dates like these. Many people are drawn to mark these dates in some way, assigning significance and meaning where perhaps there would not have been any.

For me though, today was a pretty normal Sunday. I slept in, took a nice hot leisurely bath, finished the book I’d been reading, did a very little bit of tidying up, sorted a bit of washing and then decided to sit down and watch a classic flick from my childhood whilst Ben was out.

The film was Bedknobs and Broomsticks, which Disney has just released an Enchanted Musical Edition, which I bought a few weeks back whilst shopping. It was lovely to hear my favourite songs “The Age of not believing”, “Portobello Road”, “The Beautiful Briny Sea” and “Substitutiary Locomotion” and to see the film restored to it’s deserved glory!

Glowingly Colourful Vine - Copyright R.Weal 2010

After the film finished, I settled down to think of today’s blog topic and soon realised that it was 10/10/10 whilst checking out some flickr buddies latest photographic uploads.

There are a few flickr groups that have been set up dedicated to pictures and videos taken today on 10/10/10. The pictures are of a wide variety of subjects and it’s interesting to take a look through the group photo pools to see what inspired other people all over the world on 10/10/10.

For me I decided this was a good opportunity to go out an photograph the vine on the front wall of the alley that leads down to my house. Luckily it’s been a lovely sunny autumn afternoon and the vine is now a lovely mixture of reds, golds and green.

I noticed how the vine had changed from it’s verdant green to a rainbow of red, gold yellow and green yesterday and thought then that I really should get out and photograph it before the spectacular display was over.

I’ve edited the pics and named the set The 10/10/10 Autumnal Collection and a couple of my favourites are here in the blog post. The set also includes a couple of snail and blossom shots along with a shot of the miniature Japanese Maple Leaf tree, which is just starting to turn. Hopefully the weather will hold for me to get some nice shots of the Maple Leaf when it turns fully.

If you have taken a picture or video today why not upload it to one or all of the flickr groups?

If you’ve never seen it or want to remember, below is a clip of my favourite song -”The Beautiful Briny Sea”, from the film Bedknobs and Broomsticks. I hope you enjoy it and that it brings the same smile to your lips today that it did mine.

Here’s hoping you had a great 10/10/10. This is Wealie signing off, just “bobbing along, singing a song, on the bottom of the beautiful briny, shimmery shiny, beautiful briny sea!”

Autumn’s Arrival

Ruth Weal — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 21:37:22 +0000

It’s official, Autumn is back in the UK, with last Tuesday, 21 September being the official first day of Autumn. To celebrate the changing of the natural colours from a green Britain to one of reds and golds I decided to finally edit some pictures I took last year at around this time.

The set is called Autumn 2009 and there are a couple of my favourite shots from the set in this post. I’ve also put a poem in that I wrote in response to one of the great pictures of my flickr contact Brentjp99, the poem is called “Stolen Summer Sun” and it was inspired by the photo Senescence. If you get a chance, take a moment to check out Brent’s photostream, you will not be disappointed.

I hope you enjoy the pictures and my poem. Make sure you take a moment to get out into nature this autumn. It doesn’t last long and as the winter months draw in, the colours in the landscape will be few and far between until the spring arrives.

If you do get out and about, don’t forget to take your camera and capture nature changing right before your eyes. And if you get a chance publish your pics to flickr and I’ll drop by and have a look see!

Enjoy the autumn!

Wealie

STOLEN SUMMER SUN

Autumn’s come and someone has stolen the summer sun
Who are then, these canny thieves?
None other than the conniving deciduous tree leaves
Fat and green from the boon of the spring rain
These crafty leaves plot and whisper their latest criminal campaign
Softly caressing, swishing and pressing, a perfectly crafted tease
A plaintive calling as the sun was falling, so effortlessly pleased
Throughout long summer months
Devouring the sun’s rays in little bite sized chunks
Like lovers lips locked stealing the other’s breath
Calling on the Autumn’s birth and the Summer’s death
Green leaves no more, but crisp gilded golden tones
They laud their treasure over the Evergreens’ disgruntled groans
Basking in their stolen sunlit glow
They think not of tomorrow, just go with the flow
But as they frolic, sing and dance
They do not understand how much they’ve really chanced
For in the end crime cannot pay
Especially when lady Winter, is on her way…..

Ruth Weal – 10 July 2007 6.30 pm
Inspired by the picture “Senescence” by Brentjp99

Speckled

Ruth Weal — Sun, 19 Sep 2010 01:49:20 +0000

The speckled leaves look so beautiful and yet are the product of disease and decay.

Just goes to show that death does not have to be ugly. Life and death are intrinsically linked, we experience them every day. For all that it seems we might wish to put an end to death itself, without it, the winter would never end, we would never know the first bloom of spring, the warmth of summer, nor the beautiful colours of autumn.