October this year has been a month of two halves. In the first half we were in California, road tripping around several stunning national parks, and, for a couple of days at the end of our trip, in Las Vegas. In the second half we were back home, getting over the jetlag, sorting a virtual mountain of photos and picking up the threads of daily life.
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Halloween today is largely a commercial festival, and a bit of fun for children, but it has dark origins in the Celtic festival of Samhain. At that time, people believed, the barrier between the living and the spirit world was thinnest. Maybe that’s why we choose as fun decorations at this time of year things that would terrify us at any other time.
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This weekend in Europe the clocks are being turned back. The already dark evenings will be darker as days are starting to shorten and nights lengthen. Finding light where we can becomes ever more precious.
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What we in the UK call autumn is known for the most part as fall in the US. On our recent California trip we made sure to comment on the ‘fall colours’! But why the difference?
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We enjoyed our first visit to San Francisco back in 1991 so on this California trip included a day there at the start. After some early morning fog we enjoyed a beautifully sunny day, although the clouds descended again briefly in the afternoon, just in time for us to get some atmospheric shots from the viewing area on the north side of the bridge, near Sausalito.
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One thing photography teaches us is that there are opportunities for images in the most unlikely places. Carrying a camera we see things differently, noticing not just the most obvious and beautiful scenes but also the potential in the less obvious.
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We finished our recent California road trip with a couple of nights in Las Vegas, a city which like New York can claim to ‘never sleep'. I was reminded of this song because we stayed in the New York New York hotel and casino.
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The granite dome of Moro Rock in Sequoia National Park has been cut with 350 steps linked by short steep slopes. From part way up I looked out over the Great Western Divide. This mountain range in the Sequoia National Park has several peaks reaching well over 13,000 feet (3,962 metres).
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Wildfires are a natural part of the forest ecology. They play an important role in clearing out dead vegetation, stimulating new growth, and creating habitats for certain species. But human activity is affecting this pattern, whether through global warming) which makes fires more common and more extensive) or fire starting, whether accidentally or even deliberately.
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We have had plenty of rain this month, including during our anniversary trip to Paris. But we also had a week of Indian Summer, with temperatures in the mid 20s and plenty of sunshine. And it would be premature to talk much of ‘leaves of brown’, although they are starting to turn and some indeed have tumbled down.
