Dead Leaves

Cobwebs

ROSE HIP

Such a lovely, healthy looking rose hip. Won't be long though before it becomes one of my beautiful dead things!

TEASELS

Beautiful dead things. Look at all the wonderful textures. I wish I had a macro lens!!

AUTUMN CONTINUES

These are so pretty and delicate. Caught on the spikes of the dead teasels before they fly away into the wind to take seed ready for next year.

THE DEAD THINGS COMETH !

I have no idea why I'm so drawn to photographing nature in decay but I just am. And I honestly think it's beautiful.

Summer's definitely over - the nights are longer, the temperature's lower and my beautiful dead things are slowly re-appearing.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF BARK!

I love taking photos of interesting bark. This was taken a couple of weeks ago in the transition between winter and spring so it still has those lovely pinky colours of winter grass in the background. And a few little dead things still hanging around :-)

BROKEN BARN

Not really in the full flush of its youth is it? But intriguing - I'd love to know what's inside but it's on private land so I couldn't go exploring.

NOT MANY DEAD THINGS LEFT NOW...

... but I'm still managing to find the odd few, like these delicate spirals of dead old man's beard.

DEAD TRACTOR

Well, maybe not dead, but definitely not going anywhere anytime soon!

MEDUSA

Today was a day of stunning blue skies - a rare thing lately and not one that's likely to last. So I took photographs of trees with the sky as backdrop. This is one of my 'dead things' and it reminds me of Medusa with that jumble of snake-like branches.

OH LORD! STILL MORE...

...dead things! These roses never quite made it to the blooming stage before the onslaught of winter stopped them in their tracks.  And the poor things look as if they're going a little mouldy too.

DEAD GRASS

Beautiful dead grass. Just look at those subtle colours that you'd never see if you didn't look closely. The spiders like it too!

HIPS OR HAWS?

I don't know whether these are either hips or haws, or neither. They're part of my 'Dead Things' series although they don't really look that dead. I love the colours in this - it reminds me of beautiful faded Aubusson rugs.

ANOTHER DEAD SUNFLOWER

I haven't lost my love of these beautiful dead plants and flower heads. The more I photograph them, the more I realize that there is beauty at every stage of life if only you stop and look for it.

DEAD THINGS 2

Yes - I know. 'Dead Things' is a dreadful title. Unless, of course, you understand how beautiful dead things can be. When plants and trees are dead (or in winter slumber) they're stripped down to their essence; their shapes are revealed. Take away the frippery of summer and you have them in all their basic beauty. I've always been drawn towards the minimalist, which is probably why I like black and white images so much and also probably why I've been getting such enjoyment out of photographing these 'dead things'. Putting the two together just seems right to me.

This afternoon I was out and about in the bitter cold taking photographs for my next Street Photography assignment. I have until the weekend to submit my images, but as the weather is set to get colder I bit the bullet and got out there. I haven't defrosted my camera yet to see what's there but have promised myself an afternoon in front of the fire tomorrow to do that.

DEAD THINGS 1

This is the first, and my favourite so far, of my Dead Things images. I love the decayed colours - they remind me of old faded fabrics and Aubusson rugs. I decided to use this as my desktop background at work and showed it to some of my work colleagues. They looked a bit nonplussed at why someone would want to take a photograph of a dead plant so I enthusiastically told them how different everything looks once you put a camera to your eye. But they didn't get it at all.

I must remember that not everyone gets blown away by the same things that I do!