Autumn Is Good!

 "Autumn on Yellow Avenue in SE O'Brien County, IA"

(photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison)

The days are shortening and the color is good...the air is crisp, yet the sun is warm; this is a neat time of year and as with the harvest, there is much to be thankful for.  

 "High Water Color on the Des Moines in northern Webster County, IA"

(photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison)

We don't live in New England or where colors are breathtaking with reds, yellows and oranges shared among hardwoods like hard maples, but we can occasionally get lucky with autumn when all the cards fall just right, and this was such a year!

 "Electric Blues on the North Raccoon in southern Sac County, IA"

(photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison)

 Georgie and I drove the back roads here and in this corner of the state. taking in the transient scenery - a chance to get away from the daily tasks and reflect.

 "Below the Rapids on the North Raccoon in northern Sac County, IA"

(photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison)

We miss the river roads and streams of past journeys - they were dressed in colorful attire, preparing for a good rest from the past year.

 "Quiet Color near the Washta Access in southern Cherokee County, IA"

(photograph - © Bruce A. Morrison)

Some places were bright and noisily passing the day away, while others more somber and reflective.  It's been another year of new experiences, of life's sorrows and joy; it's now a time to rest and regain one's bearings, and to be grateful for those blessings that have come our way

Have a great Autumn season and be good to one another!

Still...

Prairie Autumn Stream No.27X14" Prismacolor (color pencil drawing)

I finally finished another autumn color pencil piece I started way back before Christmas. I'm glad it's over; it wrestled me most of the way. I will offer this piece for sale as all originals I do...just have to set up a page on my business website for it first...in the meantime, if you are interested just email me and I can give you the particulars.

As in my mid November post, this image also came from the same trip Georgie and I made down into Sac County, Iowa while working on the Watchable Wildlife project. The day was horribly windy and very little came out of the trip as publishable photographs but it was beautiful and I used the image files to draw from to try and recapture that valley along the Raccoon River.

Back lit scenes are a favorite of mine, but I'm going to take a rest from them for a bit and try to get onto some other images burned into some lost corner of my brain.

This is what it currently looks like in the back grove today, we're in a blizzard warning and all county plows have been pulled off the roads till later tonight. We can't even see the mail box down the hill as I write.


So, this is where I'm staying at the time being...where I should be I guess! Looking for warm weather images to conjure up!

Stay safe...stay inside!!!

Finished with Part I

The Raccoon River Valley in Sac County

Georgie and I spent last Friday down in Sac County (Iowa) visiting the last of our designated 70+ sites for the NW Iowa Watchable Wildlife web site. Friday was a real crap shoot with the weather and had been raining in the morning, so we left in the afternoon. It wasn't as much fun as we would've liked because we were really on a tight schedule - to get photographs and video footage shot before daylight ended.

It was around 3-3:30 before we even saw a glimpse of sun, and then it was exasperatingly brief and unpredictable...but we found plenty of interest to keep us busy! Lots of waterfowl, Pelicans, Cormorants, etc. down on the Sauk Rail Trail area in the SE part of the county. And the Raccoon River had very nice color along it, as well as interesting features.

I'm not all that familiar with the Raccoon River, but I must say it is quite pleasant and worth checking out. The best part we saw was along the McDonald Greenbelt in the NE part of Sac County. It was the last place we visited and the sun had just finally broken through looser clouds. The sun was getting quite low and the colors in that valley along the river were very saturated. I love the color of the day's last light, but this was a little more challenging because the sun was in, then out, then in and out...and the valley was nearly back lit so I was contending with lens flare and the fact that the wind was almost too high for my carbon fiber tripod...my old trusty wooden ash monster was home of course.

The wind softened much of the landscape for me, the foreground of native grasses became a recorded blur, as did many of the middle ground trees, but the impression was really quite nice for the late autumn colored landscape.

The tree color here at Prairie Hill Farm has been disappointing this year, but the Raccoon River valley made up for it.

Now that we've visited all our sites for the year we'll be spending time putting together information, editing video footage, and building more pages on the web site this winter.

Have a good autumn while it lasts!