Winter Natural History-Owen

     For my pictures I chose to photograph a trail near my apartment because of the easy access and interesting subject matter. I took four photos of the same section of a trail, starting at 1:30 pm, and taking my last photo at 7:30pm. I decided to take my photos from a few different angles and places at first, but later decided I liked the ones showing the fallen tree the most.

At 1:30pm, you could see the fallen tree leaning on the larger tree. You can see the sun overhead and the light is shining on the blackberries below. Nearly all of the plants in the photo have lost most of their leaves, a sign of winter in deciduous vegetation. By 3:30pm the sun was no longer in the picture while still having a visible sunset in the background. You can see a little more clearly the plants in the foreground now due to the lack of sunlight reflection. The photo taken at 5:30 captures the last of the sunset, with a much darker foreground. At this point it was so dark that you can no longer tell that there are any blackberries, yet it does make the leaning tree kind of pop against the background of the sky. This photo really shows how rapidly we lose light in winter days. The last photo I took was at 7:30pm. Now turned on streetlights shined near the path and slightly illuminated the bushes under the leaning tree. The sky was also much darker at this time and it looks like you can see a few stars.

Overall, photographing this scene has given me pictures that exude winter tendencies. From the rapid loss of light to the dormant plants, we are left with something unique, and not easily replicated nine months of the year. Together, these elements show aspects of winter natrual history which are also shown in my photos.