Shades of Autumn -- Finale

I hope everyone had a great Thursday!  I certainly did!  Now it's time for the Shades of Autumn Finale...and you really should link up because this time there are prizes (random number kind!)  I thought I would just use one from each post, but it seemed like every week when we'd moved onto the next color, I would find the perfect photo...so here they are:

Green:

Yellow:

Orange:

Red:

Purple:

Brown:

White:

Then my favorite photo of the week.  I used my new Photoshop Elements 10 (Thanks, Oak!) to create a panorama and to layer two different exposures.  Fun!

Shades of Autumn -- White, plus some

I haven't had as much time this week to create blog posts and take pictures...I've been playing with my pictures though: organizing, tagging, sorting, and deleting--though not nearly as"ruthlessly" as my photography teacher wants...but he doesn't have to pay for my hard drives, so no skin of his nose.   I do want to finish transferring my photos from iPhoto and tag them all, or close to all of them.  It is fun to look at old pictures, see my babies when they were smaller, see how far my photos have advanced in even just the last six months, and really fascinating to see how heavy handed my edits were when I was first learning photoshop.  Some pictures really are worth deleting.  I am afraid of what I will see when I look back to now six months from now.

Certainly I sometimes keep favorite photos that are not good photos, but at times my dancing baby is just too hard to get in focus.

Or keep in the frame (and in focus):

Thank goodness for black and white.  Photos of my little girl dancing around the church while we wait for a meeting will always be favorites for me...even if they are just "snapshots."

She did agree to pose...for a second...and without too much enthusiasm.  I guess I'd better get better at focusing on quick moving darlings.

I think converting to black and white doesn't count for the white shades of autumn...and wouldn't you know it IS actually snowing at my friend's houses, but in our tiny pocket of warmth we have rain.  That's okay...I did find some white foliage the last few weeks.  I would have NEVER seen it without this challenge.  Some people love photography because it allows them to capture the beauty that they see...I love it for that, but more because it causes me to see beauty in the first place.

And here is the tree from which some of my orange leaves came--today:

I hate to admit it, but I think winter might actually be here.  Why am I getting up at 5:30a.m. Saturday to shoot the sunrise?  I've done more hiking, squatting, walking, carrying things, and overall WORK since I started this hobby...am I really that excited to endure the cold for a photo that might not come out in the snow and gray?  Yes.  Especially with friends.  Thanks for taking this journey with me!

Shades of Autumn -- Brown

I thought there was a lot of purple in the world...well, brown...it is EVERYWHERE!  So we better just get started.

It has been a most gorgeous fall here this year.  I don't know if it is because I see the beauty more easily with my camera or because the colors have just been all that more beautiful.  Certainly the sun shining has caused all the spectacular fall colors to shimmer and shine in a way that causes me to fill my memory card day after day.  This is my selections severely culled!

Now I don't have very many photos for white yet, so next week might be a more reasonable post.  However, most of these photos are from this week.  The leaves on the trees seem to be following the shades exactly as we progress, which I know is not true for other areas.  I hope that doesn't mean we get snow for white next week!

Shades of Autumn -- Purple

There are so many different shades of purple...so many lovely purples...and I've been collecting them for a month.  Purple is everywhere, and I love these themes that help me to notice it.  Autumn is more beautiful to me than ever this year because of my camera and God's gift of photography.

Have a very happy, purple Friday!  And be sure to check out the other purple entries!