I do enjoy this time of year.

Officially, it will be winter in 13 days. Then, the days will start getting longer. I do, however, really like this time of year. When I can get back to the park, the trees are all without leaves and the forest, as it were, is a jumble of shapes, light, and shadows that absolutely defies organization. It is an interesting challenge.

The other day while taking my favorite critter, Hobbs, for a walk, I took my camera along. At this time of year, there is rarely anyone in the park, so I can let Hobbs run to his content. He loves to run through the trails and mostly off of the trails burying his nose in the leaves and seeking out every possible smell that he can find. It’s truly a joy to see him explore.

While he’s out exploring, never going too far way, I try to make sense of the jumble that I see. After a while, I just give up and start to “paint”. As I was walking the trail, I spotted a large tree with quite a bit of moss growing on it and thought that it would make a good painting study, so I stopped down my camera, reduced the ISO to 100, shot at a very slow shutter speed to get this effect. It took quite a number of exposures to get one that I liked … advantage digital! No guess work and no extra expense.

Anyway, it was a fun outing and Hobbs was quite pleased with the hour or so that we spent in the woods. He hopped into the car, we drove our 5 minutes to home, he drank heartily, assumed the position on the stairs in the sunshine, and promptly went to sleep. I could not have asked for a better thank you. I think that this is his favorite time of year, too. As you can see here, he’s found another victim to ‘mark’.