Is It a Bird or Is It a Leaf?

Today’s Post by Mildred Alpern

I thought I saw some birds in flight

Flapping wings, heart-beating fast

A tumultuous crowd darting and diving

In crazy quilt patterns of rapid ascent.

 

Looping on high in a spied-on escape

They soared with gay brio in the cloud streaked blue

While the brilliantly colored hangers on

Insouciantly lingered in dwindling numbers

Fast remains of the day, reluctant to leave.

Simply put, autumn is a time of color change and motion. Maple leaves are stunning examples of vibrant reds and yellows blowing about. Windy days swirl the falling leaves. Branches and twigs lie bare. Still, a few tethered stragglers flash a bright spot of color in the altered landscape. Why not therefore dare a poetic and an imaginative leap of faith and view the tumbling leaves as a flighty flock of birds filling the sky and the stationary ones as solitary loners perched on a wire?

All images were shot with an Olympus E-M5 Mark II, the red and yellow leafy ones with the Olympus M. Zuiko 12-40 f/2.8 Pro lens. The red, at 14mm,1/1000 sec at f/8, -1/3EV, ISO400; the yellow, at 40mm, 1/400 at f/8, -1/3EV, ISO 400; the birds (leaves) on wire with the Olympus M. Zuiko 60mm f/2.8, exposure 1/1600 at f/2.8, -1EV, ISO 400.