3 Shots: Fall begins in Virginia Beach

I wrote last year that fall begins slowly and imperceptibly in Virginia Beach.  This year, however, fall began with a bang: Hurricane Matthew.  Three days later, streets all over the city are still flooded and thousands lack power.  My house was unaffected, thank goodness, and we got a day off from school.  So, I went and took some pictures.  My goal was to try and capture the cool clarity of fall that settled into the air after the storm left

This is the handrail on the beach access ramp at 64th street. As you can see, the sand's blown a bit higher than normal.  When I see this picture, I primarily see how underdeveloped, overcontrasted and oversaturated it is.  I've got to get better at Lightroom.  Maybe later, I'll reupload an adjusted one.

This is the "The" in "The Belvedere," which is one of the older beachfront hotels on the northern oceanfront.  I've biked past it 1000 times probably, but never noticed how picturesque it is, if that's the word.  Again, I don't think this is perfectly developed, and it bothers me how the angle of the bricks tells you I'm shooting from below.  On the flip side, I really like the faded paint underneath the letters, which wouldn't be visible from dead on.  It feels evocative to me, but I don't know exactly of what.

I'm proud of this picture.  It's just a torn greenbriar leaf, but I love the fading in the background, the balance of the limb and leaf, and the linear aberrations on the left side of the picture (which, by the way, are severely out-of-focus pine needles in the foreground of the picture).  Again, I think it could be a bit more exposed - all of these pictures make me want to turn up the brightness on my screen.  Fun fact - immediately after taking this picture, a bee stung my ear.  It's still swollen and itchy, and teaching while on Benadryll is proving to be a big challenge.