Taking pretty fall photos this year is more challenging than I’m used to. I have to take photos shortly after sunrise or just before sunset to tease out much color. For most of the day, the leaves simply look dingy, which is not typical at all. Most years, sunset or sunrise light is too strong, and a gray day shows off the colors better. Not this year.
Yesterday’s late afternoon light made even dingy trees look a lot prettier and more orange than I expected. And what better color than orange to post on Halloween?
This year’s leaves will soon all be on the ground. Today a bit of a breeze is helping to bring them down. I notice that even a slight shift in the wind direction brings a new flurry of leaf drop. Today, the direction is SSE, a direction I haven’t had for a couple of weeks, and that seems to be all that is needed to speed up the leaf fall. Today, the wind speed is no stronger than it’s been for a week or more, but the wind direction is different than the more normal NW or westerly direction. That change means the wind strikes the leaves from a different angle, and for some leaves that’s all it takes to bring them down.
Walking through a forest when the leaves are falling is fun. I can feel and hear the leaves dropping all around me and on me. I have to resist the automatic urge to bat them away, like I would with an insect. Instead, I walk into the falling leaves, feel them light on my jacket, tickle my face and then crunch underfoot. A thousand leaves are falling all at once, and you need a whole forest to get the full effect. Now’s the time to try it.
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4 comments:
A fine image with contrasting angles, Carolyn. Too bad the colors aren't even more vibrant. Keep this site in mind for next year if the foliage is better because this is a well-framed image.
By the way, Kali and I heard our first White-throated Sparrow last weekend at Tyler State Park in Bucks County, but birders have told me that White-throated Sparrows (and Juncos) had arrived a few days before I heard my first sparrow.
Love it! I want to get a good video of the leaves just falling golden all around me
Scott: I saw a flock of about 20 juncos two evenings ago. They flushed and kept heading south. I haven't found any yet at my feeders or that appeared to be settling in. So far, no sightings of white-throated sparrows
Sharkbytes: I had a severe storm just before dawn with some big winds, and the leaves were falling like it was a ticker-tape parade. i wish that storm could have waited another hour when it would have been light enough to get a photo (or video).
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