A Light Study

While Livie and I were at my parents', I had an idea. There's this gnarled, old, dead tree on their property, just outside the perimeter of the back yard fencing. It's been standing there for quite a long while. I was actually outside for a short time (a very, very short time, considering how hot and humid it was) on Wednesday, just admiring the scenery - the woods, the hillside, the stream at the very bottom of their property.

Anyway, I was looking at this old tree, and decided to take a photo of it in the harsh noontime sun, just because I had my iPhone with me and . . . well . . . I just could.

Well, later on in the afternoon, I was in the den downstairs (where it was MUCH cooler and more comfortable than anywhere upstairs), and realized it was about that "magic" time of day when the light starts looking a bit more golden, and shadows stretch about as far as they can go.

I suddenly decided I'd take another photo of that tree, just to see how different the photos would be at such different times of day.

Looks a lot softer, doesn't it?! This one was around 5:30 PM.

Anyway, that made me start thinking of my "Four Seasons" series on the University of Iowa campus.

(Here's the "Four Seasons 2011" series. And the Winter 2012 and Spring 2012 shots, with the remaining "Four Seasons 2012" shots obviously coming later this year.)

And that made me think I should take a couple more photos of that gnarled tree - a kind of "time of day" series.

So at dusk - or about 10 minutes before dusk (so I'd still have enough light for my smartphone's camera) - I went out and got the dusk shot.

This photo was taken around 8:45 PM. 

I'm not sure if it was due to the clouds, the diminishing light, or is it just me, or what, but it didn't seem to have such a drastic difference from that of the late afternoon shot compared to the noon shot. But there IS a bit of difference. Right?

Well, since I took the first photo at noon on Wednesday, I had to wait until Thursday to take the morning shot.

So this one was taken around 9:30 on Thursday morning.

Again, just a slight difference.

Okay, so not exactly what I was expecting when I first had the idea, but a fun experiment nevertheless.