I also blog about this over at Book View Cafe. Feel free to comment here or there!

While I have a lot of pictures from fashion shows, these characters who walk the runway, I also get inspired by pictures of settings.

My favorite season is fall. I am a color junky. I go out and take pictures every fall of the colored leaves.

I particularly am drawn to trails, those paths leading out and beyond. What is there, just out of sight? As Tolkien said, “The road goes on and on.”

So here are a couple of pictures of settings that inspire me. The first is a picture I took at the Seattle Arboretum.

I understand the composition — the trees frame the stairs, and they’re an interesting element because of the way they curve. But even though I took the picture, I still can imagine that this is the stairway to someone’s large home. What type of person lives there? Is it a fake-Tutor style house, or more Victorian?

The following is a picture I took in Kashmir, India.

In my head, I’ve always called it, “The Valley of the King.” I’ve always imagined that the valley here is an old, abandoned road, and just out of sight, in my imagination, I’ve always placed the ruins of a Mogul castle. I know there’s a story about this place. Someday, I may write it.

What kind of pictures of places inspire you? What types of scenes are you drawn to?

And as always, feel free to commit art, tell a story, or write a scene, based on these images. Ideas are a dime a dozen, and anything you do will be 100% different than anything I do.