September had just come and went, the days where getting shorter and the trees were starting to turn. The sunrise was starting to time itself with heading out the door for work and the sun was aligning due east down the middle of my street. The weather was quickly changing from booming afternoon showers to mornings of sustained drizzles. The queues were taken from nature and a photo series was started to capture the changing seasons and the weather that is associated with them.
It’s easy to stereotype each season with the dominate weather trait that each possess. However, as they are picked apart, and looked at day by day, the drastic weather, which so easily imprints upon the idea of the season is blurred by the traits that drive the temperature each day.
The time at which the sun rises is the most notable and drastic change between each season, and the weather that is produced by the change is a mere byproduct. Fall, the day the series started, has the sun rising at just the right time to coincide with the bike to work. However, as the days slip by, so does the timing of the sun. Later and later it’s seen, till eventually in the middle of winter the sun is no longer present till the mornings ride is long over. The year progresses and warmth is brought back to the days as the sun starts to appear earlier and earlier. The shadows shorten in length through spring with the sun soon becoming the dominate player in the hot summer days. The cycle is completed as the shift of the sun soon aligns with same departure time in early fall.
The day to day variance in weather is the quickest and most noticeable element to be captured. Mornings of sun and warmth are quickly reversed and replaced with thunderstorms and blizzards. Late night spring snows leave melted piles of snow scattering the street, while a spring storm can clear away the rocky debris left by winter. The harsh sun in the summer mornings drives week long moistures systems giving much needed relief. The only constant through it all is the rider, and even elements of him change as the different gear is dawned each day to protect from the seasons.
It’s important to look deeply at the details in each frame and see the subtle hints that define each season. The timeline of watching the leaves fall, hibernate through winter, reappear in spring, and flourishing through summer is the biggest indicator of the season. The type of snow on the grown indicates a mid-winter dusting or an erratic spring pile up. The angle of the sun as it crests over the street gives a coded hint to what season it is.
The slow change of the seasons is sped up by the day by day capture while the drastic change in day to day weather is slowed down and remembered frame by frame. The inspiration for a yearlong project started one morning with the desire to see these changes, pick them apart and find the common traits between the wildly different days.
Ryan Behner