In his book, “John Shaw’s Focus on Nature: The Creative Process Behind Making Great Photographs in the Field,” world-renowned photographer John Shaw wrote that he thought there should be eight seasons in a year rather than just the four we know. He even provided names for these new seasons: Start of Spring, Edge of Summer, First to Fall, and Earliest Winter.
So, if we adopted his approach, the seasons would go something like this: Start of Spring, Spring, Edge of Summer, Summer, First to Fall, Fall, Earliest Winter, and Winter.
I remember when I first read that many years ago, I thought “Hmmmm, interesting concept” and didn’t think much more about it. Until recently, when I discovered that perhaps Mr. Shaw is on to something.
I have been waiting anxiously for the arrival of Autumn and looking for any little sign that it’s finally here. So, a few weeks ago, when I walked out to go to work and felt a little nip of coolness in the air that hadn’t been there before, I thought “Aha, Autumn’s here!” And, one recent Saturday morning, when I walked outside and saw some leaves that had fallen along the the line of ivy that grows along the side of the driveway, I again thought “Aha, Autumn’s here!”
Naturally, seeing the falling leaves left me with only one course of action: photograph them. I quickly ran back inside, grabbed my camera, 100-400mm lens, and tripod and headed back out the door.
I spent a few minutes finding just the right balance of fallen leaves and ivy and set up the camera. To ensure complete depth of field, I selected an aperture of f/16. This resulted in a shutter speed of 0.6 seconds at an ISO of 100. Then, it was just a matter of waiting for a lull in the slight intermittent breeze that was rustling the leaves and ivy. When the lull arrived, I pressed the shutter button and captured the image.
While processing the image, the main thing I wanted to emphasize was the contrast between the reds, yellows, and oranges of the fallen leaves and the greenery of the ivy. I did this primarily through adjustments to those specific colors using the hue, saturation, and luminance sliders in Lightroom to create this final image.
But, one thing seemed to be missing while I photographed the scene. It took me a little while to put my finger on it, but soon I began to realize that, while the calendar said it was Autumn and there were some small signs (these leaves, for example) that it was Autumn, it just didn’t feel like Autumn.
In that moment, I understood what Mr. Shaw meant. The seasons do not have hard-edged beginnings or ends. It’s not spring today and summer tomorrow; rather, there is a transition from one to the next. But, it also occurred to me that each of the four seasons has a certain feel to it, and until you sense that feeling, it doesn’t matter what the calendar says. Autumn still hasn’t quite gotten here.
Yet.