Perspective gives us the ability to accurately contrast the large with the small, the light with the dark, and the important with the less important. – Sununu

Contrast photography is a powerful technique that can bring depth and mood to photographs. Color, texture, light, size, tone, and lines are a few ideas to keep in mind.

Seems fitting to bring autumn into the mix. In stark contrast to many parts of the world, autumn is the season we venture back outside. Arizona is a mecca for the snowbirds who trickle in. The golf courses are inundated with tee times. Hot air balloons dot the skies, and the landscape invites us back in, or is it out.

It is football season. The grocery stores are ready for our southwestern tailgates with the necessary ingredients for salsa and guacamole, and more often than not the warm days keep us in flip flops.

Well…most of us. For our youngest daughter, her University of Oregon, Duck boots, will remain trendy.

Anyone else feel like it was yesterday that we were counting tiny toes? Or teaching our kids how to swing?

On weekends, or school breaks we head north with grandchildren in tow to enjoy a traditional autumn. We welcome brilliant, colored-trees higher than their dad, cooler temperatures, and places to run and hide.

And back at home I tend to, what feels like, a spring garden.

Contrast.

It is the purple blossom on the red daisy that captures my attention. It reminds me that we cannot have beginnings without ends. We cannot have light without dark, big without small, up without down, or rain without rainbows.

And we cannot have memories without stories.

Wind Kisses, Donna