Summer-Fall Overlap

The weather in Raleigh, NC often retains or returns to a very summery feel long after the autumn equinox. The colors slowly change and deciduous trees may even begin to lose a few leaves as we enjoy some cool nights, then afternoon temps may shoot up to 30º C. That Celsius temp is for my Canadian friends, among others. When I was young, there was a lot of talk and planning in the USA for a switch to the metric system. Even though I became a musician rather than a physicist, and my country abandoned the idea, I could never ignore the logic and ease of using decimal based units. I still like to think in terms of grams and meters. The Celsius scale is fine for weather; Kelvin is great in the lab and for stating color temperatures! Anyway, to be fair to my neighbors, the 30º C we saw recently was 86º F. A temp by either scale feels as hot.

With that out of the way, here are two bees caught doing late foraging around the cusp of the new season. The first was shot with a very small aperture, f/14, while for the second I used a fairly narrow (for macro work) f/5.6. The biggest difference in the rendering, though, is a result of the light. I like the stark detail brought out by the strong directional light in the first shot, and I like the soft texture emphasized by the diffuse light in the second.

Here I return yet again to the wildflowers that keep blooming rather late in the year. In this shot we have the contrast of one stalk that has just reached maturity of blooming while its neighbor has just begun to bud.

Four days later, I found the same plant. The late bloomer was now sort of "halfway there" - love those soft serve ice cream cones! A tree overhead had dropped a leaf which caught on the flowers. I admit that I nudged it with a finger to subtly reposition it, but it is basically where I found it. Serendipity indeed, and I think a good representation of the overlap of summer and fall.

Now I can start dreaming of snow...as if...

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