I have been waiting patiently (or, maybe not) for Autumn to arrive. Within the last week and a half or so, several mornings saw the temperatures dipping down into the mid-40s where, just a few days earlier, those same temperatures were in the upper-60s to low-70s.
So, while it is starting to feel like Autumn, it still doesn’t quite look like Autumn. While an occasional tree will show some colorful leaves, most of the leaves are still green. But, I keep my eyes open for any opportunity to find and photograph Autumn color while I wait for the big show to arrive.
I recently came across one of those opportunities. Driving home from work in the evenings, I drive by a small pond encircled by trees. I always look to see if the leaves have started to change color, and I’m always disappointed to find they’re as green as they have been all summer. But driving home one recent evening, I was excited to see the leaves on a couple of trees had turned to various shades of red with a few yellows and oranges thrown in for good measure.
When photographing Autumn color, the best kind of lighting is usually the soft, diffused lighting produced by an overcast sky. But, the since the sky was completely clear, my next option was to get to the pond before the sun rose too high and bathed the trees in direct light that would wash out the colors.
An amazing thing about sunrises — the more imperative it is to arrive before the sun comes up, the faster it will seem to come up. As I drove to the pond, it seemed like the sun was rising far faster than it would have normally, and I just knew there was no way I was going to get there in time. Fortunately, I arrived with enough time for me to frame a few different compositions, including this one, before the lighting conditions started to get too harsh.
If scenes like this are a sign of things to come this Autumn, I can’t wait to see what the main event brings.