Fall foliage upside down
As we bid an official goodbye to autumn today, let me look back—and upside down—at some pastel fall foliage in Lake Fort Smith State Park, Arkansas, on November 10. I’m no painter, but I can imagine how scenes likes this of trees reflected in water influenced the Impressionists.
© 2013 Steven Schwartzman
Love the abstract look!
Cheers,Laura
laurazeitlos
December 21, 2013 at 6:07 AM
Abstraction is timeless, Laura.
Steve Schwartzman
December 21, 2013 at 8:11 AM
Love this. It’s beautiful and so much like a reflection. Just came from TexWisGirl’s site (at blogspot). But it’s her horses through the brush, which gives an impressionist quality, too. What a juxtaposition in reading this morning.
georgettesullinsg
December 21, 2013 at 6:22 AM
I checked out the horse reflections at
http://run-a-roundranch.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-horse-on-course.html
If that makes a coincidence for you with the fall foliage reflected in Lake Fort Smith, TexWisGirl’s horse post makes a coincidence for me with an essay by Stephen Jay Gould about horse evolution that I finished reading only a few minutes ago. (And speaking of juxtaposition, I remember making the mistake when I was teaching math in Honduras in 1969 of thinking that the Spanish word was *juxtaposición rather than what I quickly learned is the correct yuxtaposición.)
Steve Schwartzman
December 21, 2013 at 8:30 AM
Very nice painterly look.
norasphotos4u
December 21, 2013 at 8:02 AM
Thanks, Nora. Some photographers achieve that look with digital filters, but I’m happy that this unmanipulated photograph came out the painterly way it did.
Steve Schwartzman
December 21, 2013 at 8:48 AM
Nicely placed ©. 🙂
Jim in IA
December 21, 2013 at 1:40 PM
I nicely placed myself on the shore of the lake.
Steve Schwartzman
December 21, 2013 at 1:55 PM
Lovely, Steve. Merry Christmas.
Dave
December 21, 2013 at 11:21 PM
Thanks, Dave, and the same to you.
Steve Schwartzman
December 22, 2013 at 8:08 AM
One of the things I love about the transitions between seasons is their ambiguity. If I’d just seen this photo without any context, I easily could have guessed it as a very early spring photo. Even the high cirrus are there. It’s beautiful. I think Monet and his friends would be astonished.
shoreacres
December 22, 2013 at 7:12 AM
Here in Texas we have more ambiguity between seasons than many other parts of the country do (as you know so well from having grown up in Iowa). Having taken the photograph, I’ll always see it as a fall scene, but I understand how you could see it as a different time of the year.
The Impressionists appeared far enough into the 19th century to be quite familiar with photography, and some of them even got to see color photographs; Monet, the last of the famous Impressionists lived until 1926. The 1860s, when the Impressionists appeared on the scene, was the same decade that saw the birth of the Pictorialist approach to photography, which aimed to make photography as respectable as painting and the other two-dimensional arts by imitating the way they looked. You can read more on that at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pictorialism
Steve Schwartzman
December 22, 2013 at 8:34 AM
Love doing these ‘ready-made’ abstracts myself. This one is really nice!
denisebushphoto
December 23, 2013 at 10:05 AM
Thanks, Denise. I like your phrase “ready-made abstracts,” which reminds me that when I was a kid in New York there used to be a chain of prepared-food stores that billed themselves as “less-work-for-mother retail shops.” Any time we photographers have less work to do, so much the better.
Steve Schwartzman
December 23, 2013 at 11:05 AM
This is really gorgeous Steve. I love the reflection. All the best and hope you have a Merry Christmas.
Brian Comeau
December 23, 2013 at 8:49 PM
The same to you and yours, Brian. I was especially fond of the soft way this picture came out, so I’m glad you feel the same.
Steve Schwartzman
December 23, 2013 at 9:54 PM
I love the abstractedness of this Steve!
Michael Glover
December 23, 2013 at 11:02 PM
Long live abstraction!
Steve Schwartzman
December 23, 2013 at 11:27 PM
I often think that very thing! I like how you snuck in your signature too! 😉
Lynda
December 24, 2013 at 12:46 PM
I’m a sneaky fellow, no question.
Steve Schwartzman
December 24, 2013 at 1:38 PM
Beautiful. Reminds me of my series of river reflections. 🙂
Mufidah Kassalias
December 29, 2013 at 7:03 AM
It does indeed, even if I didn’t turn my picture right-side up the way you did yours. Readers can see Mufidah’s series at:
http://mufidahkassalias.com/reflections/
Steve Schwartzman
December 29, 2013 at 8:02 AM
Thanks, Steve, for including a link to my reflections images. Looking at the page I noticed the gallery no longer looked as I intended it to, so I’ve updated that, too, removing the orphan images in rows 2 and 4.
Mufidah Kassalias
December 30, 2013 at 7:50 AM
I saved this post particularly until I could get back here. You’ve captured perfectly, seems to me, what Impressionist painters had to have seen that provided particular inspiration for them.
Susan Scheid
January 3, 2014 at 5:10 PM
Hi, Susan. I was thinking about you just this morning, and now here you are. I see you agree with my impression of the Impressionists with regard to a view like this.
Steve Schwartzman
January 3, 2014 at 5:17 PM