Autumns in Arkansas can best be described as hit or miss, and misses often outnumber the hits. You just never know what you’re going to get from one year to the next, and it can be so frustrating and discouraging to wait all year for the wonderful colors of autumn to arrive only to have a less than spectacular showing. But, in those years when everything aligns just so, the season can be incredible.
This year was, without a doubt, a hit. It took a while to really kick off, and there were a lot of “false starts.” But, finally, Autumn arrived in full force and put on one of the best displays I’ve seen in a long time. And, I didn’t have to go far from home to find photographic opportunities. In fact, I could walk outside, stand in my yard, and photograph away.
And, my front yard was exactly where I found this incredible Autumn scene. I had just walked back from photographing another tree at the end of my street when I noticed this area that is at the corner of my house. Immediately, I was struck by all the various colors — the reds, the yellows, the oranges, the greens, and even the purples — and the way those colors contrasted with the tree’s large, dark trunk.
I took some time to figure out how to best compose the image. The colors were the primary subject, but the tree trunk, because of its sheer size, was a dominant element. To minimize its dominance, I placed it near the right edge of the frame, but I was careful to not eliminate the colorful shrubs at its base. I also raised the angle of the camera slightly to prevent any of the fallen leaves from being in the frame. Since they were old, brown, and dried up, I felt they were a distraction.
My next challenge was the wind. I needed a fairly fast shutter speed to prevent the leaves from blurring. But, the faster the shutter speed, the higher the ISO I needed. And, the higher the ISO, the more digital noise the file would likely contain. Since there were occasional lulls in the wind, I settled on a shutter speed of 1/160 of a second with an ISO of 1000 and waited for the wind to momentarily died down before pressing the shutter button.
I was expecting to have a few more opportunities for some Autumn photography. As it turned out, this was the last picture I was able to capture. But, this is certainly one of my favorite photographs and a nice one to end the season with.
Now, bring on Winter!