Photo Shoot: Autumn arrives

Steve Heaslip, Cape Cod Times
·2 min read

Autumn snuck in under the cover of darkness, arriving Thursday at 9:04 PM DST. The hot summer has continued into the ninth month of 2022 and thoughts of the fall season are still on hold. Leaf blower activity in the neighborhood has increased.

The last hummingbird visit was days ago. Asters and goldenrod are coloring the landscape, so I suppose the natural world is taking its cues from the shorter amount of daylight, and preparing for autumn.

Sandy Neck Light in Barnstable can do little to brighten a gray Monday morning as the sand dunes looking west past the old slate roofed oil house are beginning to show their fall colors.
Sandy Neck Light in Barnstable can do little to brighten a gray Monday morning as the sand dunes looking west past the old slate roofed oil house are beginning to show their fall colors.

Columnist Thomas Friedman for The New York Times says, “Sometimes the news is in the noise … and sometimes it is in the silence.” So after a week of big national headlines from our shores, I was looking for some silence. What better way to do that then head to an isolated peninsula as a new season approached?

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Heading out to capture the new season

The 90-degree days of summer have taken a toll on me and the photo gear. So I loaded it all up and headed to Sandy Neck to take stock of what was working, what needed repairs and what just needed to join a growing collection of outdated camera gear in the old darkroom.

Some lens cleaning for sand removal and a firmware update for one of the trusty Nikons, along with a bit of gaffer’s tape for a cracked base plate got the aging photojournalist photo kit back in order.

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Then there was the drone. After a recent repair it came back with the annoying problem of not operating in auto exposure mode. I know I should be capable of using it in manual mode, but hey, it is 2022.

I want the camera to pull its own weight these days. I spent 40 minutes in the air with two battery change outs testing all manner of workarounds suggested by tech support. The problem persisted, repairs will be needed.

But at the end of the cloudy morning I had a great time, flying, looking out over the lighthouse and dunes, where the beach grass was changing into its autumnal colors. Fall is arriving, we just need to turn down the noise and look.

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Photo Shoot: Autumn arrives