Happy Fall, y'all!

Did you notice that it's October? Yeah, half-way through, in fact. Tonight is our first real fall-feeling evening - today was rainy, but tonight, the air is cool and crisp, and the leaves crunch under your shoes. (No more flip flops!) Good night for a camp fire.

So, I was driving to Meijer to fetch milk. It was after 9pm, and as I was driving, I noticed the full moon, and these thick clouds moving in front of it. Very cool. Very Halloween-y. Unfortunately, the car is not the best place to be taking photos, especially night/moon photos, and I didn't have my little camera with me anyway. I didn't exactly hurry to get through Meijer (although I should have $$$), and the moon and clouds were still out there when I got home.

(A confession about that "car is not the best place to be taking photos" bit. If you saw my post about a month ago, where I was taking pictures through my rainy windshield, you'll know I have been trying to take pictures from my car. And I did it again the other day - the other morning, the sun was coming up and the bottoms of the clouds were a purpley-red. If you can tell through the blur and dirty windshield. So, aside from the whole "driving hazard" thing, my car pictures don't turn out as well anyway.)

When I got home from Meijer, I got out my little camera and my big tripod. (My other camera is a Canon Powershot S2 15, which is very fun, but the memory card slot is broken. It's on my list to have repaired in October.) My little camera is an Olympus FE-310, which I bought because it's got a small profile, but 8.0 megapixel resolution and a 5x optical zoom. Ooooh, aaaah. The intent was to have a little camera I could keep in my purse for pictures at school and at work and things, and it's really been a good camera.

My little pocket camera has some pre-set photo modes: action, portrait, through glass, sunset, candlelight and fireworks. I got a chance to try the fireworks mode at the 4th of July party this year - the photos turned out really nicely. (Here's the scene at the 4th of July - kids in lawn chairs taking it all in, husband in the field setting off the fireworks, and my Junior Camera Geek Self: on the driveway, little camera in hand, big camera mounted sideways on the tripod shooting video. Hah!) Tonight, I used candlelight mode and fireworks mode, and the pictures turned out pretty cool. Thank goodness for the tripod - the shutter on this one was open FOR-EVER. There'd be no amount of built-in image stabilization that would have covered me on this shot. Yikes!

Anyway, now I feel like I kind of know what I'm doing with these night photos. Not quite as Halloween-esque as the scene when I left for Meijer, but still pretty cool. And I NEED to get my other camera fixed, so I can play some more!

Fall is on the way

You would think I could tell this just by looking at the calendar. Well, yes, the calendar is a helpful indicator, but being that the weather is what we normally associate with Fall, the weather lately is also indicating that Fall is coming. And in my area, Fall is marked with rain just as much as cool, crisp air, the need for long sleeves in the evenings, and earlier sunsets. We were out at a friends' house last night, and sat on the porch after dinner, enjoying the lack of humidity, and after about an hour, I realized I needed some sleeves. Aah, Fall.



So, anyway, back to our First Fall-ish Friday. The morning was foggy, but warm (so Summer isn't giving up the ghost just yet!). The whole day was gray and drizzly, but not enough to warrant an umbrella, just like you were walking through a mister. All day. Not the formula for a Good Hair Day.

As I drove to work, the fog had settled in just at the tops of the buildings downtown. Since I've been carrying my new pocket-sized camera just about everywhere, I thought I'd try to capture the fog. Don't tell Mom...I was driving while I was taking these pictures. Isn't that the point of a point-and-shoot camera? It only takes one hand? Well, anyway, I'm sure if I'd pulled over and stood at the side of the road, these pictures would've turned out better (and the camera wouldn't be focused on the raindrops on the windshield). But, I didn't sit and review all the pictures while I was snapping away. I was totally focused on the traffic. Totally.

At some point, I guess I realized my camera was focusing on the raindrops on the windshield. I hit a traffic backup, and tried to capitalize on the artsiness while crawling along at 10 mph. Kinda cool.




For someone that's used to taking pictures of kids and people and using them to tell a story, I'm not sure what I'll do with these rainy pictures of my commute. Other than to share them on my blog! ;-)