Dear WeatherCat observers of the seasons turning,
While many consider the weather of California to be a kind of paradise, in truth it represents a different kind of harshness - deprivation. Wild plants must endure a very long dry season. Grasses cope with this by allowing the blades to die out. This produces the well known brown or "golden" color to California's hills (and other places facing drought.) Here is an example of a hillside in early Summer 2015:
This is how California's hills look like most of the year. However, once there has been sufficient rain, there is one final transition that takes place. The process of decomposing the dried grass changes their color from brown to something more silvery. Here is the same hillside photographed yesterday:
Some of the effect is certainly due to the low angle of the sun, but the changing color of the grasses is real. Here is another example with a transition from Autumn to Winter in the air:
On the hillside behind the trees the grasses are clearly silvery in color. Here is a particularly clear example where the sun was about 90˚ to the camera direction:
Hillsides at this time of year can be almost other worldly. This hillside certainly doesn't appear to be what humans are accustomed to when it comes to plants:
. . . Of course, if you really want to accentuate the "other worldly" aspect of a photo, you can always try setting your polarizer on
"kill!" . . .
I hope that's some distraction from the bleak harshness of winter that already some of you have to cope with.
Cheers, Edouard