September days are here,
With summer’s best of weather
And autumn’s best of cheer.”
— Helen Hunt Jackson
Well, there’s certainly no argument this week that we’ve enjoyed the best of summer weather. After a somewhat atypical dismal, damp July and August, followed by an abysmal start to September, Mother Nature has given us a gift. For several days she has blessed us with nothing but sunny, bright skies and balmy temperatures, as well as the promise of more to come.
If, that is, we can trust the meteorologists’ forecasts for our area. Which I rarely do any more. After sitting indoors recently, watching The Weather Network’s current conditions showing clear skies while outside the world was drowning under a deluge, (or on many other occasions the reverse) I’m an admitted cynic about these predictions.
For this reason when I keep hearing that The Farmer’s Almanac is forecasting a vicious winter here I’m not too worried. Yet. Since our weather experts seem to have trouble telling us what’s going to happen on any given day, I just really have little faith they can nail it that far ahead. If they do, so be it, but I’m not about to worry this far ahead that they’ve got it right.
Other people, however, seem ready to start stewing. On a glorious autumn day, one replete with all the things we typically enjoy in summer, plus the best of the new season, there was yet one more person who found it necessary to dampen the day by reminding me of the dire predictions for a long, cold, stormy winter.
I let them know though that for now I’ve chosen to be hopeful instead. Hopeful that we will have many more days of this kind of weather before the snow flies. Hopeful that this season will linger like a gentle kiss goodbye. Hopeful that we feel only the nip of winter rather than its bite.
Autumn can be such a pretty time of year I don’t want to spend it thinking that Old Man Winter is going to have a temper tantrum when he arrives. Instead, I think it best to celebrate this glorious season. There really is a lot to love about the transition between the sunny heat and the bitter cold — the bold hues of the changing landscape, fewer bugs and sunny days with no humidity.
For these reasons, and others, autumn is the chosen season in our family for many things, including being the prefect time of year to update our family portraits.
With the welcome addition of spouses and babies to our clan, as well as the changes that happen over time to all of us, new pictures need to be done with a certain amount of regularity. Thus, a decision was made some time ago that we would have family portraits taken every two years. They are always outdoors and always in the fall. We have used our yard, our daughter’s woodlot, the beach and a local conservation area as the setting.
Oddly, however, we have never considered another opportunity that happens this time of year. What better place for autumn pictures, especially when little ones are involved, than in a pumpkin patch? It’s definitely on the list for the next fall photo session. Here are some sites I found offering helpful tips:
Pumpkin Patch Photography Tips
