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.

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 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!

ANOTHER GREY DAY

There aren't many flowers left to photograph at the moment but this lovely white wild flower beckoned to me from out of the dark foliage by the lane. I haven't got the focus right - I think it should be on the nearest flowerhead but I may have shifted slightly after focusing.

I spent a little time in the garden today in between periods of drizzle photographing dead plants. And I discovered something - they are absolutely beautiful. When you get up close and really look at them properly you realize that they're not just brown and colourless, but have a subtleness about them that is a perfect balance for the riot of colour we had in summer and autumn. It probably sounds completely stupid but I got all excited about these decaying beauties - I felt I was the first one to discover beauty in death. But of course I'm not - it's just that since picking up a camera I'm noticing all sorts of things I hadn't seen before.

So I may leave black and white for a little while to photograph a series of 'Dead Things'.