It's really hard to avoid the photographic cliche when the days again grow short.
Earth-tones, water, sky, late afternoon light, they all say the same thing - it's Fall.
Looking for newness in Fall subject matter takes work, work I'm willing to do, and willing to travel to find. The net result, though, seems pretty much the same.
You drive to where the apples are, search out a blanket of pumpkins, find that looking glass lake. It's pretty much the same.
Getting the right mix of clouds and deep blue skies is a big boost and the only thing you can do to achieve that effect is be patient. You wait, you watch, you'll get what you want. Or you can Photoshop. Nothing here has been "shopped."
Photographic or otherwise, the cliche is a cliche, I think, because there is some truth to it.Not all that long ago I was listening to "The Girl from Ipanema," the original hit version done by Stan Getz with vocals by Astrud Gilberto.
If ever a song became cliche, that was it. Grammy Award or not, cliche it is, still to this day, the song is cliche.
It became such because so many people loved the song which, in turn, forced countless entertainers to cover the song. Good, bad, somewhere in the middle, hundreds, thousands, did "...Ipanema" at one time or another, making it cliche. You don't play or listen to a song over, and over, and over
again because you hate it. If you do, try adjusting the aluminum foil hat a hair to the left and back.Challenging "...Ipanema" might be McCartney's "Yesterday." It's been reported that "Yesterday" has been commercially recorded over 3,000 times. Cliche? Sure. Great? Absolutely.
My point? Cliche doesn't mean bad. Quite the opposite, really, cliche more means well-liked, maybe even loved. You might be tired of hearing something, looking at something, or listening to it, but that's because it was once popular enough to be elevated to the level of cliche.
Know this, there is nothing in the world of the cliche that didn't earn its position. It takes years of repetition for the patina of cliche to slowly accumulate on any given object, phrase, tune, or even a way of life.
People can be cliche. I was a TV weatherman for over twenty years. Does it get any more cliche than that?Sad to say, cliche or otherwise, this year's foliage was simply unspectacular. By the looks of it, roughly a week before November, we'll get no breathtaking show this year again. By my reckoning, it might be as many as ten years since Autumn's wow-factor turned heads. Nice, to be sure, but not up there at knockout level.
It's the last weekend in October. From here at home, the day is slowly turning from drippy and overcast to low clouds breaking for some sun. There are way more leaves on the ground than in the trees. Pieced together, it's a somewhat forlorn
sight.The location of each photo, top to bottom, is:
- Brace's Orchards, Franklin Township.
- Darling Farms, Dallas Township.
- Frances Slocum State Park, Kingston Township.
- Ford's Pond, RD Clarks Summit.
- Brace's Cider Mill, Franklin Township.
