"Autumnal Acceptance" and 4 Free Textures for Fall

Ok, Ok. I understand the magic of Autumn! I just wish it would be followed by another summer...instead of the New England winter. That's all. That's my only problem with the season.

The golden and light orange colors are everywhere now. You know that golden hour just before sunset? It suddenly seems like that is every hour of the day. Also I am noticing a lot of Monarch butterflies around here. I'm assuming they are on their yearly migration down to Mexico. Sure wish I were going with them...maybe having a few Margaritas..

So I'm giving in to the season, reluctantly, like I do every year. In the spirit of Autumnal Acceptance, I have decided to keep my camera busy this season. Some of the things I'll be doing...if you are interested and/or in the New England area:

• Taste of Block Island weekend, Block Island, Rhode Island. Our first time going.
• Cranberry Harvest festival, Wareham, Massachussetts.  This one we went to last year and it was awesome. I plan to bring my new lens and get better pics of the Owls/ raptors they have on show there.
• International Oktoberfest, Newport, Rhode Island. This one's a maybe; this is a busy weekend, and depending on how the foliage report is I may want to go up further North and do some leaf- peeping!
• Scituate Art Festival, Scituate, Rhode Island. We go to this every year, usually on Columbus Day. I buy lots of my Christmas gifts here and the foliage is usually peaking around this time; the village of Scituate is gorgeous during this time of year, with old churches and lots of maples, natural lakes and the reservoir. Warning- don't go if you don't like crowds!

Here are also a few more textures I made in Photoshop for autumn...you can download them here by opening in a new window: (and I will be adding them to my Flickr textures set as soon as I can.)

Peak Autumn texture

Blush Bokeh texture

Vintage Sepia Bokeh texture

Warm & Grungy texture

All textures are for your personal use or for use in finished creations. :)

Enjoy.....:)

the Colors of late Summer...appreciating what is left.

After the last few days of wind and rain (that used to be a hurricane, but it sort of fizzled out before it got here, although practically our whole state lost electric power), I took out my dusty macro lens before heading to my cousin's house to see if any of her or the neighbors' gardens would still be in bloom..with anything. ..

See, I love how this lens makes things like dead and dying flowers...and even weeds..look pretty. While I was taking this one I could hear my cousin's husband saying, "Where is Mary?" and my cousin replying, "What the heck is she doing??"

I'm pretty sad that the blooms I thought would outlive my laziness are fading away like the summer.

While learning the ins and outs of my camera, I've also learned things about the world around me that I never cared to know before. Things like, a sunflower blooms for only ten days if you're lucky; that a luna moth lives for less than a week before its luminous green color fades and it slowly dies. Things like how fleeting summer really is in New England. That it is worth traveling sometimes hundreds of miles to see things in nature that you would never otherwise see if you weren't willing to take the journey. And that sometimes the most beautiful things are the little things, the things close to home.

This wilting rose (above) was on the side of a major road in the middle of nowhere. (Really, it is. The Middle of Nowhere Diner and Next to Nowhere Creamery are around the corner. They claim on their website that the food, and the women, are worth the detour.)

I'm really glad I  live somewhere where there is something beautiful to see during every season. But I'm even happier to be able to share this love of photography, an art which captures things on the other side of the lens and records it for all to enjoy.  That way I can rewind my late summer days on my computer when it's too cold to venture out...(Ahhh!!! I can't even think about the cold!)  :))  Have a great week!