When summer is fading there are days that still look more like summer than autumn. The leaves haven’t started to change. Nonetheless, the cloud patterns change, the sun is lower, and air feels sharper. I like this photo because it captures some of the change-of-season, even though the subject is more snapshot than classic. Some work in Photoshop™ helps.

Autumn foliage peaks on the central coast of California in early December. The upscale town of Carmel-by-the-Sea, where Clint Eastwood was once mayor, is always photogenic and the fall colors and strong light make it even more so. Carmel is a good place to get coffee, since that is about all that the average person can afford in that town, but that suffices to walk around and take in the scenery. Capturing good photos is then an exercise in composition and lighting.

The sun is bright but low to the horizon, and that marks photos as being in the late fall or early winter. Here in California there are reasonably warm days into November and December, so people still go the beach on good days. The surf is picking up from distant storms, and sun, surf, and people are the ingredients of photos. A recent lunch hour visit turned out to be an exercise in timing and composition. Neither small children nor incoming waves take direction well.

Spring flowers are slowly appearing on the California coast. On the beach near Monterey recently I found purple sand verbana. (There is also a yellow variety.) The purple variety it quite striking close up, but the flowers are so small it can be missed. Each flower in the cluster is about a quarter inch (6 mm) across. As the season progresses the flower becomes common in the sand along the coast.

Larger version “here”:http://quickshotartist.com/blog/images/250.jpg

There are challenges for the photographer on days when puffy clouds cover the sky. At worst the subject will in the shadow of a cloud. At best the lighting will be uneven and potentially confusing. An opportunity in the situation is to get a bright subject against a dark background. This involves waiting for the clouds to cooperate and light the subject while dimming the background.