A perfect autumn day for a walk through the woods.

“The window was built with a low arch, and filled with lozenge-shaped panes. As soon as I looked out of the window, a gush of wonderment and longing flowed over my soul like the tide of a great sea. Fairy Land lay before me, and drew me towards it with an irresistible attraction. The trees bathed their great heads in the waves of the morning, while their roots were planted deep in gloom; save where on the borders the sunshine broke against their stems, or swept in long streams through their avenues, washing with brighter hue all the leaves over which it flowed; revealing the rich brown of the decayed leaves and fallen pine-cones, and the delicate greens of the long grasses and tiny forests of moss that covered the channel over which it passed in motionless rivers of light.”

— Phantastes, by George MacDonald

“I lay and looked through the eastern window of my room. The curtains of pale blue silk fell like a cataract over the windows. A large green marble basin, which stood on a low pedestal in a corner of my room, was overflowing like a spring, and a stream of clear water was running over the carpet. And where this carpet, which I had myself designed to imitate a field of grass and daisies, bordered the course of the little stream, the grass-blades and daisies seemed to wave in a tiny breeze that followed the water's flow.

“My dressing-table was of black oak, with drawers all down the front. These were elaborately carved in foliage. I happened to fix my eye on a little cluster of ivy-leaves. The first of these was evidently the work of the carver; the next looked curious; the third was unmistakable ivy. I saw that the branches and leaves designed upon the curtains of my bed were slightly in motion. Springing from the bed, my bare feet alighted upon a cool green sward; and I found myself under the boughs of a great tree, whose top waved in the golden stream of the sunrise with many interchanging lights.

“Faint traces of a footpath, much overgrown with grass and moss, were discernible along the right bank. ‘This,’ thought I, ‘must surely be the path into Fairy Land”.’

— Phantastes, by George MacDonald

“Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.
For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
… The sun shall be no more thy light by day; neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto thee: but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.
Thy sun shall no more go down; neither shall thy moon withdraw itself: for the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended.”
Isaiah 60:1-3, 19-20

“All hail the power of Jesus' name!
Let angels prostrate fall;
Bring forth the royal diadem,
And crown Him Lord of all!

“Sinners, whose love can ne'er forget
The wormwood and the gall,
Go, spread your trophies at His feet,
And crown Him Lord of all!

“Oh, that with yonder sacred throng
We at His feet may fall!
We'll join the everlasting song,
And crown Him Lord of all!”

Created in Vue.

This is a winter version of Falling Light. I was particularly focusing on the colors and depth of the snow, inspired by a picture from a calendar - Long Forgotten by Michael Humphries.

Falling Light
Fool's Light
Bluebell Light

A walk in the birch woods. I created this for an Autumn Colors 3D landscape contest. I used a different method of rendering the lighting which took longer to calculate (basically that's what 3D rendering does, the software calculates the light that would come from every point of the scene through the virtual camera lens), but I loved how warm and soft it made the scene.

Silent Light
Fool's Light
Bluebell Light

There are probably several philosophical interpretations for this, but I didn't have any particular one in mind.

“Eastward the Barrow-downs rose, ridge behind ridge, and vanished out of eyesight. The sun, a pale and watery yellow, was gleaming through the mist. Even as they looked out towards the setting sun, it sank before their eyes into a white sea, and a cold grey shadow sprang up in the East.”
- The Lord of the Rings, Book I, Chapter 8

I created this with Terragen 3D landscape generation software.

This photograph of the morning sun shining through the trees was taken a few feet to the right of Fertility, but on a different morning. I didn't often have time in the mornings to look at the view, but I always enjoyed when I had a chance to watch the sunrise.