Let the sun shine and blow the highlights

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The clear air and bright sunlight of a high desert at our latitudes is a mixed blessing: colors are usually deeply saturated, but the contrast is often outside the working range of the camera sensors. When that happens, the photographic choice is loss of detail in the shadows, or blown highlights. Yesterday was an opportunity to walk the neighborhood in overcast conditions and take some photographs of the flower… and photos of fruit… and photos of berries… and a photo of a cat!

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 The King-cots are developing ahead of all the other fruit in the valley.

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I was told these berries are a Bittersweet hedge over a fence. In the autumn and winter the berries will be bright red.

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That is how the hedge and berries looked in October of last year, when they were at their most colorful.

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Not until making this gallery did I realize what a high proportion of the flower photographs were of yellow blooms.

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Ah yes, the cat! The people who live in that house feed the local feral cats, which along with TNR (trap, neuter, and return) is the best way to manage them irrespective of whether you see them as a problem or as a delightful addition to the neighborhood. One evening we saw a dead black cat in a field next to the house. It had probably been struck by a car and presumably thrown over the mesh fence by someone. The family thought it was one of the feral cats that had kittens before she joined the TNR program: she now runs to greet them when they come home at the end of the day but had been absent that evening. Later the next day, the greeting cat made her usual appearance. Sadly, that did mean that another neighbor had lost her domesticated pet cat.

The price of liberty is eternal vigilance.
~ Based on a statement by John Philpot Curran (1750-1817) an Irish lawyer—possibly never said or written by Thomas Jefferson, who usually gets the credit. In one form or another the phrase has been repurposed by a wide range of people and cats.

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