Over 125 Awesome Autumn Animations

The passing of time is often compared to the seasons — spring being the time of rebirth and awakening, summer that of full bloom. In autumn, like middle-age, things are changing,  vital yet, but with hints to show we're clearly moving towards something alternately quiet and fading, raging and dynamic.

For now, fall is on its way in the northern hemisphere. When one thinks of things brimming with life, that season doesn't typically come to mind.  Streets are quiet as the children have returned to school and the day's darkness descends earlier. Robins no longer flit across the lawn in search of food, having begun their exodus to warmer climates.  There is a definite stillness to things that isn't there in summer.

That doesn't mean, however, that everything is static. There is no more action to be found any time of year than in a Canadian hockey rink as players lace up and fans return for the first season's play.  On television and in the field football is a religion for die-hards.  And nature lovers are eager to step out in the crisp autumn air and enjoy the leafy canopy of kaleidoscopic movement and colour. 

There are pumpkin patches to explore and the subsequent carving.  Halloween brings out trick-or-treaters, Thanksgiving food and families.

Like middle age, autumn may not have the energy of the youthful seasons, but it's not about to fade away without some glorious bursts of enthusiasm.  So if static doesn't cut it for you when you're looking for animations to highlight this bountiful season there are great ones to be found at AnimationFactory

Tips for Autumn Photography

With three new additions to our clan this year, the time has come, albeit a little sooner than we had planned, for updating the  family photos.  Chronicling our group's growth, in size and numbers, has typically been done on a three-year cycle. We've bumped it up a year, however, so that I can see those precious new faces among the rest of the ones I love in the portraits on the wall.

What won't be changing is the time of year we have chosen for our pictures. Since our babies were babies, our family photo sessions have happened in the autumn, when nature couldn't be more beautiful.  A riot of crimson, orange, gold and yellow, the fall foliage provides a perfect backdrop as well as inspiration for the colour scheme in co-ordinating fashion. 

Though you do take a chance with the weather; roughly eight photo sessions, and only one in sunshine;  that can happen in any season.

Besides, in autumn you miss the bugs and muggy humidity that comes with summer and the still not fully awake landscape of spring. Winter? Well, the challenges there are obvious.

So whether it's portraiture or just tackle Mother Nature autumn gives a photographer about us much help as one could hope for. Here are some suggestions to make the results even better:

Autumn Family Portraits

What to Wear for Fall Family Photos

Autumn the Best Time for Colourful Family Photos

Capturing Colours in Fall Photography

10 Tips for Shooting Fall Foliage

24 Tips for Autumn Photography

How to Shoot Autumn Pictures

6 Great Sites for Autumn Images

Like me, you might not enjoy seeing the end of summer, the shortening days, the changing leaves. But as we look to these harbingers of autumn we can also be reminded that that season too comes with its blessings and highs.

While we tend to think of the dog days as a time to relax and rejuvenate, to travel and tour, to party and play, autumn, particularly in its early weeks is a bevy of activity and celebration. The fall harvest gives us occasion to  enjoy the bounty. Communities and visitors come together for the annual fairs,  events to show off one's green thumb or agricultural know-how. 

There are holidays to enjoy too. The season is the time of Thanksgiving where we count our blessings, where food and family are the highlights. The end of October is most anticipated by youngsters and the young at heart as out come the ghosts, goblins and assorted other strange creatures for Halloween.

As we gather our stores for the upcoming winter, we enjoy the beauty that autumn provides too with trees creating a colourful palette overhead. There's nothing more perfect than a drive into the countryside on a fall day to leaf watch. It's not just an activity for seniors either, as it was on a pleasant October day with autumn trees in full bloom while out driving with my then boyfriend, that he mentioned how beautiful things were and suggested this was the time of year we should be married. Taking this as a proposal, I jumped. Yes, fall would have been nice but I'd been waiting long enough.  We were wed the next May. 

Certainly, the nights are longer and there is a new crispness to the air as we head into autumn. But there are also so many pleasures. Who doesn't love watching little kids, and occasionally big ones, running through the fallen leaves? Strolling along the roads and trails there is the soothing crunch as we step on those already dried.  A walk in the woods is a treat for the eyes and exercise for body and soul.

The images of autumn are full of colour and life, from children at play to the world they play in. To prove it, here are some wonderful fall clipart collections:

Clipart.com Autumn Images

Acclaim Images Autumn Clipart

iCLIPART.com Autumn

ClickArt Online Autumn Images

ClipartGuide Autumn Images

TOONClipart Autumn Cartoons

9 Autumn Photoshop Tutorials

It was strange waking up this morning and thinking about the children going back to school. It wasn't just that I don't have any little ones of my own any more, for whom I would have  spent the past few weeks buying new clothes and supplies, that made this  a bit surreal.

It was also the fact that this past weekend might very well have been the hottest and muggiest we've experienced all summer.  It was  that primarily I think that made the fact of its impending end seem a little off. 

While the possibility of many warm days remains, while the equinox is still weeks away, once the kids head back to school for another year, it's like Mother Nature knows. You can feel the breath of autumn on each late summer breeze.

As an end of September birthday celebrant, I loved the fall as a child. Now, though, I'm a little blue when I feel it's on its way.  I mourn the loss of a burning sun, of long days, of beaches and campfires, hammocks and patios.

And yet, autumn is not without its appeal — primarily a result of those glorious changing colours. Nobel prize-winning author, journalist and philosopher Albert Camus described autumn as "a second spring, when every leaf is a flower."

The hues, the textures and changing moods of the twilight season make it a perfect subject for some Photoshop fun, too. Here are just a few to try on those cool damp fall days:

Photoshop Blending Tutorial

Add Autumn Colour to Your Landscapes

Create Realistic Autumn Effect

Sunset Autumn Glow Effect

Autumn Photo Manipulation

Create Autumn in Photoshop

Create Autumn Colours in Photoshop

Autumn Fairy Photo Manipulation

Autumn 3D Text Effect