In the Cool of the Evening

When the Sun Goes Down

Grey Day on the Coast

Purple Mountains and Amber Waves

I don't know what happened to me in the last month. I thought keeping this blog would be easy...a single shot every day. Surely I could keep up with that, right?

Oh so wrong.

So now that I'm getting around to posting these, the colors are gone and decaying on the ground and the trees are bare. But the sky? It's always beautiful, and I never get tired of that!

Mountain's Majesty

I took a trip up to the Shenandoah National Park this weekend, hoping to catch some fall colors. At our house not too far away, the trees are bright oranges and reds and, although at the tail end of peaking, still beautiful. Up in the mountains, however, there was already snow, and the trees above 2,000 feet had lost their leaves. The cloud-bedazzled sky and lower trees still  made for some pretty pictures, though.

Twilight

Spin Art: Earth Rotation Style

We sat on the beach this week and watched the sunsets: one of my favorite activities. My kids were amazed at how fast the sun disappeared once it reached the horizon. All day it seemed to creep across the sky in almost imperceptible increments, but once it sets, you can tell how fast the earth is spinning, swallowing the sun in a gigantic, quick gulp.

Who Says Lightening Never Strikes Twice?

Taken from our backyard on Sunday night. The storm was wicked! Wish my camera could take pictures of sound!


My husband says our tree line looks like the United States, which would make the lightening the Mississippi.

Thunder-Struck

Air Force Thunderbirds. Joint Services Air Show, Andrews Air Force Base, 2011.

Chasing the Dream

I think most photographers have something they spend years trying to capture that seems to elude them. There's been lots of those for me: bees, butterflies, hummingbirds in flight, and fireworks. I've read articles, taken thousands of pictures, and still not been able to capture the color and crispness of fireworks without also overexposing the smoke that inevitably overpowers them.

At Disney World last week I was able to finally figure it out. I don't know if it was chance, or I actually figured it out. But I'm thrilled for once I got the shot.

A Pier to the Horizon

A pier at a crab restaurant on the Potomac River. I'm standing in Maryland; the land you see across the water is Virginia, where I live.

The water looks pretty due to a little post-processing magic. The recent rains have stirred it up and it's a bit muddier than this photo would lead you to believe.

Surface of the Moon

Well, not really. Those waves in the distance give it away as earthbound, but still - doesn't that sand look other-worldly?

More of the Same

The Quiet That's Not

There's no suburban noise out here. No traffic and honking cars. No airplanes overhead, machinery chugging and whirring and screeching in the near distance. The people are spread apart, their voices lost in the vastness of the beach. But there are gulls and roaring waves and howling wind. And in that, there is peace.

Nature's Lamp

Morning Yoga

I woke to snow on the beach this morning. Who sees this thing outside of Alaska? Snow... on the beach. It seemed an oxy-moron. I dashed out in the early morning light to capture it before it melted, and there was this man, doing his morning exercise. I loved his contrast against the white.

Breaking Up Is Hard To Do

I'm in Oregon, in a hotel right on the beach, and it's rained since I got here. All day I watched the drops drizzle down the windows, the fog so low the mountains and water were not much more than a suggestion of what might be. And then - ten minutes before sunset - the clouds suddenly broke and the brilliant light turned the entirely gray day into a blaze of orange and cobalt blue. So gorgeous!

On the Potomac River

Paradise

I took this one year ago today. I wish I were here right now.

Instead I'm still stuck in suburbia.

Approaching Storm