Failing Days of Autumn

For me, the end of Autumn, the days around Halloween and the beginning of November, signify the end of the year.  The holidays are their own season, the bridge between calendar years.  In my mind, the year ends when the clocks change and the days become darker.  Everything becomes quieter and subdued.  The local festivities of September have ended, the Volksfests and outdoor concerts.  The biergartens have been closed up.

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 24 Exposure: f/7.1 1/60 ISO 800

Camera: X-E2 Focal Length: 32.9
Exposure: f/2.8, 1/250, ISO 1250

Autumn takes on a different significance here in rural Bavaria than it does in Northeast Ohio.  People are more tied to the land and the harvest season is significant not because of pumpkin spiced everything or it being "sweater weather" again, but because it is still considered the time of year to prepare for Winter.  The walnut trees are dropping their hard-shelled nuts along the paths and roads and every morning you can spot folks with bags and baskets competing with the crows in collecting them from the ground.  Apples lay in piles in the orchards and in the evening the orchards' owners and their families are on ladders, picking the last from the branches.  The apples are for eating, for selling, and for turning into juice and Apfelwein.  The Schrebergarten have mostly yielded up their bounties for the year, but a few gourds and squash can be seen amongst the decaying leaves and shriveled vines, their white and golden bellies turned up to what remains of the watery daylight.  The gardeners, and almost every Bavarian is a gardener, are raking mulch, burning leaves, tying up bushes in burlap, and cleaning out the bottles and other paraphernalia from the sheds.   The ducks and swans have returned to the festplatz field in front of our house.  Crows are roosting once again in the trees along the walking path.  Spiderwebs woven in the night to the bridges and branches fall apart from the weight of the water drops which are strung on their fibers like so many crystal pearls.  The leaves have mostly all changed now, but they haven't all fallen yet.  I imagine in another week or two the brilliance of the leaves will have faded completely and the trees will be dormant and skeletal.  For two weeks, we've been blanketed in thick, Ardennes levels of fog in the mornings.  It is so thick the houses a few doors down are missing.  The town across the river has completely vanished.  As the sun creeps over the Spessart hills across the river, I hop aboard the Varsity and ride around the local bike paths from town to town snapping photos of leaves, the fog, and whatever else catches my eye.  By the afternoon, the skies have cleared and the sun lights up the hills in all their brilliance before it sets at 5:00pm.

Before long, this time of year will come to an end.  The leaves will be raked up and hauled off to the compost center at the edge of town or burned.  It will rain almost every day.  The land will go from gold and red to brown and grey.  Of course, then it won't be too much longer afterwards that the Christmas season will amp into full swing.  There will be lights in windows, markets to attend, and Glühwein to enjoy.  But, for now, we'll reflect and bask in this quiet closing of the year.

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 35 Exposure: f/3.6, 1/2500, ISO 2500

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 35 Exposure: f/3.6, 1/640, ISO 2500

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 35 Exposure: f/5, 1/1000, ISO 2500

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 24 Exposure: f/10, 1/32, ISO 800

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 13.8 Exposure: f/22, 1/40, ISO 1250

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 11.5 Exposure: f/6.4, 1/2000, ISO 800

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 128 Exposure: f/4.4, 1/2000, ISO 800

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 110.3 Exposure: f/13, 1/125, ISO 250

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 200 Exposure: f/4.8, 1/250, ISO 800

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 35.8 Exposure: f/5.6, 1/250, ISO 1000

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 44.4 Exposure: f/4, 1/320, ISO 1000 Fujifilm Velvia Simulation

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 42.5 Exposure: f/10, 1/125, ISO 1000 Fujifilm Velvia Simulation

Camera: Fujifilm X-E2 Focal Length: 21.4 Exposure: f/11, 1/125, ISO 1000 Fujifilm Velvia Simulation

Questions for Fall Days

It's been pretty quite around here lately.  The weather turned from summer to fall to winter in about six days and we've been scrambling to cope with the fast plummet into dark days and cold rain.  We don't have any travel dates lined up until November when we head back to Ohio for the annual visit home.  So, we've been hanging around locally and spending a lot of time cycling (trying to stave off the inevitable holiday chub as long as possible, ha ha).  Of course, this time of year is probably the most dramatic visually.  I've been taking the camera out as much as possible when we get a break from the seasonal monsoon.  We did a quick shoot on Sunday and I got out early one morning this week when there was some fog on the river.  The rest of the time it's been pretty wet or we've been out on the bikes.

Every weekend morning when we're home we're cycling.  We also hit the roads a couple of weekday evenings after my husband gets home from work.  We see a lot of incredible stuff on the roads and paths and, of course, the light is always at its best when the sun is just coming over or heading below the hills.  I don't take a camera with me on these rides, just my iPhone, and that's starting to bug me.  It's very difficult to balance the two things I love to do when they both need the same time of day.  The X-E2 is too big to carry in my jersey pockets, and I don't want to carry it strapped to my back (because a. that's not cool and b. it's pretty uncomfortable).  So, I've been using my iPhone.  Every time I pull it out of my pocket to get a shot of a great sunset, like the one below, I curse the absence of a real camera in my hand.  Sorry, Apple fans, they still don't make a phone camera that can stand up to a real camera.

It's raised the question of what my gear priority should be.  Like a lot of X-Series photographers, I'm waiting and waiting for the official specs on the X-Pro2.  In the meantime, I'm kicking around adding a compact to the collection- something small enough to slide into a jersey pocket, but better performing than the iPhone (which wouldn't take too much.)  I originally looked into a waterproof sports camera, but their capabilities aren't too much better than a smartphone.  Plus, they're designed mostly for underwater applications.  So, keeping in mind that a compact wouldn't be weatherproof, I started to check out some models with higher end glass and a few other features that I would like to have access to.  That's dumped me at the door of Sony and it's Cyber-shot RX100 III (yeah, I realize there's a IV but the older model is cheaper).  It's small, has a slick pop-up view finder, tiltable screen, multiple shooting modes, WiFi, and good optics from the Zeiss lens.  It's a tantalizing choice.  The price, though, isn't.  Knowing that I will be adding another X-Series body for my regular shooting sometime next Spring, the cost of an RX100 III would dip into the budget quite a bit.  But, I'm missing a lot of shots while out on the bike...

Decisions, decisions...

While I ponder this dilemma, I'll keep heading out on the paths with the X-E2 in between the deluges.  It has been absolutely stunning out there lately.