Janet Brien's photos with the keyword: gingko

(+5 insets) Happy Fall Back Day! Oh my, we've gained an hour! As I type it's 8:15 on the clock but really it's 9:15…or at least that's what my body has to say about it! I just love gaining an hour, even though it's not truly real. Real or not, I feel like I have a whole extra hour and it's delightful! :) A Very Covid Halloween By the way, for those of you who enjoy Halloween, I hope you managed to find a safe way to celebrate! I have always loved this holiday and as a kid it was my very favorite day of the year. I cannot help but feel sad about Covid ruining this special day for so many. Personally, I haven't actually done anything festive for Halloween for a few years now--we often get pumpkins to carve, but not lately. Instead, I'll participate in Halloween events happening within online video games and that really satisfies me. This year it was Animal Crossing! A few weeks ago Steve surprised me with a birthday gift--a Nintendo Switch! This is something I'd never buy for myself--I cannot justify the price of these little time-wasters--so Steve likes to get things like this for me because he knows I will enjoy them. He's right. I have a soft spot for this particular game and it's only available on the Nintendo Switch. Instead of Animal Crossing, I made due by finding other games which are similar--the outstanding Garden Paws and equally excellent My Time at Portia --but there's nothing like the real thing! I've been having a great time with it and the Halloween event was charming, darling, and so cute. Something very nice as well is that players can gather and celebrate together, which means a lot to all those kids who didn’t get to celebrate properly this year. I hope that next year kids will have their trick-or-treating and holiday parties restored! Fall in Medford, Parking Lot Style! Who says you need to go to a park or grand location to photograph the lovely colors of Fall? Steve and I don't always get out for a photo day that features Fall's dramatic show. However, if I want to immortalize the pretty colors everywhere, all I need to do is tag along when Steve's going out for some shopping and errands, and my wish is granted! Parking lots around here are often lavishly planted with a large variety of trees, shrubs and other plants. When Fall rolls around, the colors are simply outrageous! Yet, if you took pictures from a distance, the effect would be a disaster--who wants to see an ugly parking lot, cars, power lines and endless cement? However, if you get in closer, shoot up towards the sky, and take time to carefully compose images to eliminate the manmade distractions, the results can be just as marvelous as if we'd driven for hours to get pretty Fall landscape images. Yes, I do miss out on those amazing landscape images but I get so many lovely photos that are up-close and personal, it's a satisfying, marvelous show! Today's Pictures: Gingko Leaves and More! I had a wonderful time taking pictures of all of the beautiful things that presented themselves to me at each stop we made around town. However, I was beside myself with joy when I spotted a number of Gingko trees with some colorful leaves left just for me! Don't you just love their unique and interesting leaves? These marvelous trees with their many medical benefits are native to China and are commonly used for landscaping around the world. Creeping around the trees I found, I looked for the best way to photograph those magnificent leave. Happily, I was rewarded with a number of very successful winners to share, which I'll spread out over the next few posts. (For more information about these trees, Wiki has a super page on them here: Wiki: Ginkgo Biloba ) I'm also including a glorious spray of fiery red maple leaves against a blue sky--how awesome to find such a perfect branch of leaves! There is also a backlit "stained glass" maple leaf with a variety of colorful splotches and shadows of stems which look like an X through the leaf! A group of glowing orange leaves with a background of leaves in shadow turned out nicely too! There's a close-up of a red-edged, dripping leaf found under a tree just beginning to turn color. And finally, a some red leaves on a short hedge that were covered with water…I couldn't help but try for a starry-droplet shot! Partly blown-out but still a win in my book and I hope you like it too! :) That's all from me! Thanks again for your visits, comments and favorites! Please stay safe out there in this new explosion of cases…combined with the flu, I don't think this will be a very nice winter for a lot of people. Explored on 11/1/20; highest placement #2.

(The best impact is full screen against black!) :) It was a good thing I went crazy with my camera yesterday--I took hundreds of frost pictures! I looked out today and though I could tell that it was frosty and cold, it was merely a dusting. Of course that's still beautiful to see but it's not the same as the spiky formations that showed up yesterday. (I'll be posting a picture for HFF, if not sooner! :D) Once I got outside and began my walk, I soon discovered my special present for the day. Tromping along I became aware that my feet were having a conversation with the ground! "CRUNCH - CRUNCHO - CRUNCH?" "CRUNCH! CRUNCHITY - CRUNCH-CRUNCH!" I stopped. So did the conversation. OH MY! I took a step. "CRUNCH!" Eyes wide and grinning, I tried for two. "CRUNCHITY-CRUNCH!" My inner child giggled with joy, "THE GROUND IS TALKING!!" The temperature has been low enough for long enough now that the ground has finally frozen. Have you ever walked on frozen soil or gravel? Did you notice how different it feels and sounds than when it is dry or wet? "CRUNCH - CRUNCH - CRUNCH!" My feet carried on a very animated conversation as we walked along, the ground replying with wise quips of its own. "CRUNCHY - CRUNCHO-CRUNCH!" I passed the time happily listening in and enjoying the crisp, foggy morning. No way would I miss any of the riveting conversation so I left my phone and ear buds sitting unused next to my pile of lap-counting rocks. Little birds in the trees looked down at us and twittered in with their own remarks; far off I heard a pair of Canada Geese honk a retort of their own. To end my walk Steve met me on my last lap for a long, warm hug and "Good morning my love!" It was a wonderful day. Every day I make my rounds to visit, appreciate and comment on newly posted pictures from contacts, I am filled with emotion and I just love that. It's so nice to be able to express these feelings to each person, and what a nice way to say thank you for sharing these image with me! When I returned to ipernity a few weeks back, I was shocked to realize that I had forgotten what this experience was like--that's how far I had sunk into my hole. It's so nice to be back. One of the feelings I love most is inspiration. The other day I visited Christiane and found myself staring at a magical picture of Gingko leaves in shades of autumn gold. "Ohhhh, soooo pretty!!" As I stared dreamily at the leaves, I imagined how they would look as they turned and caught the light, rustling softly in the breeze. A thought suddenly occurred to me. "Why, I took some pictures of Gingko leaves once, didn't i?" Thinking back I remembered. A couple of years ago Steve and I went to a very pretty park about 30 miles/48km away for some fall photography. I wondered if I did anything with the pictures. I immediately dove into my bottomless Photo Drive and located the folder. My jaw hung open. Wow...hundreds and hundreds of pictures and I'd only processed one image. What a bummer! I began scanning through the pictures and ... THERE THEY WERE! GINGKO LEAVES! YAY!!! I could barely contain my excitement at the glowing thumbnails. However, as took a closer look, I discovered to my dismay that one after the next had problems. If it wasn't blurry, the area of focus was wrong, or the dof was too shallow or deep, or the image was too busy, etc. One by one I deleted pictures. As the pile of several dozen soon shrunk to a handful, I worried, "Please let there be just one that came out, oh please, please, please!" And then I landed on this one. This cropped composition was found hiding in an overall busy image, but I was able to find what I saw that day! HOORAY! (99% of my pictures are cropped, as I like to have space available to rotate and choose a composition that isn't set in stone by my original capture) Pam, this picture fills me with joyful imagination. I think of you standing underneath with your shining, smiling face beaming upwards as a stream of beautiful leaves dances down around you. Behold, my Autumn Queen of the Gingko Leaves! *hugs* Explored on 12/5/18, highest placement, #5.