Werner Ulrich's Home Page:  Ulrich's Bimonthly

Formerly "Picture of the Month"

November-December 2007

November Walk (late autumn song)

November morning:
Fog abounds.
Moody blues, the day wears mourning.


The skies are low:
Just rain resounds.
God, is this season slow.


Cold winds are blowing:
Summer absconds.
The shades of the year are growing.


I walk the forest:
Poetry abounds.
Fall, you leaves, but leave me solaced.


Photographer's heart:
Autumn astounds.
The year is fading, are ye ready to part?


      W. Ulrich, 1 Nov 2007

For a hyperlinked overview of all issues of "Ulrich's Bimonthly" and the previous "Picture of the Month" series, see the site map

Making friends with November and December  The leaves are falling and remind us more or less discreetly that time is getting short. Hurry up! they tell us; soon the year will be gone, do now what you need to do before it ends.

Yes, I admit, November and December are not exactly my favorite season. I don't like their hurry-up message, no more than the dreary weather by which they reinforce the message and send us to our workplaces. But this year, I decided to make friends with them. And since little presents can keep a friendship alive, I treated myself to a new digital SLR camera, to make sure my autumn photography will honor my new friends.

I can report that the trick worked. Exploring and evaluating the many attractive cameras on the market left me virtually no time for yielding to any kind of autumn blues this year. And of course, now that I finally hold this obscure object of desire in my hands – it's so obvious to me now why they call it camera obscura – would you want me to just sit around staring at it, admiring its beauty? Giving another chance to that autumn blues? Obviously the answer is a big No-No! As everybody will recognize, a new camera calls – no, shouts – for trying it out thoroughly. For instance, by spending some of those radiant late-autumn afternoons walking the forests.

Walking the forest  When we recently had one of those golden October days where everything glows with the tints of autumn, I took two cameras and went hunting for interesting subjects in a close-by forest. The air was thin and clear, it was a pleasure to walk through the forest. Before long, I found myself hardly three meters away from a roe-deer kid. Birds, squirrels, cows, horses, a lost baby cat followed, even some lamas belonging to a small animal park at the edge of the woods.

Suddenly I found myself in a forest clearing with a beautiful field of sunflowers. I began to pay more attention to the amazing variety of forest flowers, berries, and mushrooms along the trail. Quite apart from all the colorful leaves on the ground and in the trees!

As to the trees, with their thinned-out crowns they looked somehow taller and sleeker than usual against the translucent sky. I love trees! I could not help but remember those boyhood days when my friends and I used to be tree spotters, each of us armed with a little guide book that told us what trees to look for and how to identify them, and then to note down the exact place where we first spotted each kind of tree. The guide was titled The Tree Spotter and when we had completed it, we sent it back to the publisher and would then get a small silver or gold medal, depending on how completely we had spotted all the different species of trees. Same for flowers, cars, locomotives, planes....

Back to my current hunt for subjects. As the autumn afternoon grew warmer, all kinds of friendly people started to populate the forest: mothers promenading their babies in strollers, people walking their dogs, others walking their wives, Nordic walkers, bikers and runners. I usually avoid the crowds, but this time people were radiating so much friendliness, there was a smile on many people's faces and a sparkle in their eyes, so that I found myself chatting to a few of them. The ambience was nice and relaxing!

However, you know there is this saying about not seeing the wood for the trees. My favorite way of enjoying the autumn forest is by observing the play of light and shade created by the sun low down on the horizon when its warm light meets with the thinned-out crowns of the trees. My main photo of this Bimonthly tries to capture this play of light and shade (see below).

As the year's shades grow longer, I take the opportunity to thank you for stopping by at my site. Have a good late autumn season and then a peaceful end of the year. Take care!

Werner Ulrich

Picture data  Digital photograph taken on 27 November 2004 around 5 p.m. near Koniz (Bern), Switzerland. Exposure time 1/500 seconds, aperture f/2.8, ISO 50, focal length 7.8 mm (equivalent to 38 mm with a conventional 35 mm camera). Original resolution 2272 x 1704 pixels; current resolution 700 x 525 pixels, compressed to 140 KB.

November-December, 2007

„The shades of the year are growing.
I walk the forest: Poetry abounds.”

From "November walk, late autumn song" 
(W. Ulrich, this Bimonthly)

Notepad for capturing personal thoughts  »

Last updated 14 Nov 2023 (first published 1 Nov 2007)
https://wulrich.com/bimonthly_november2007.html