Once again, it’s come and gone. Autumn is over in Maine. We moved to western Maine in 2013; November to be exact. Fall had disappeared. It was gone. The leaves were all on the ground. It took us until the next late September to learn what the season was like in the state, which is quite varied, actually.
Yes, Autumn in our area is beautiful, but I must say, it’s rather short. Obviously, the season itself isn’t any shorter or longer than it is anywhere else, but here, from the time the leaves begin changing until the time they’ve fallen can be quick. It’s quick in a good, calm year under ideal conditions. Add a rain/wind storm half way through and, bam, you wake up to naked trees. Which I’m fine with. I prefer the trees with no leaves on them. I don’t care for the green leaves of summertime one bit. The changing of the leaves is nice though and that’s one thing we certainly don’t get enough of in these here parts.
What to do? Either embrace it or complain about it. Personally, I don’t really mind, but my lady loves long, drawn out seasons. She’s a big fan of autumn and for her, well, I’m not sure she’ll ever be satisfied with something so brief.
I took the above photo this year. I used my 18-135mm lens and to get the sunburst, I reduced the aperture all the way to f/18. With a tiny aperture and a cropped sensor, one needs to consider the fact that the shutter speed with slow way down. In this case, even though I was pointing directly into the sun, the shutter speed was 1/30, which is slow. Too slow to hand hold, but that’s what I did. Luckily I didn’t get any blur, but I’m sure if I analyzed the shot enough, I’d find some. The point is, if you’d like to get a sunburst like I did above, shrink the aperture, but use a tripod.
Until next time!
