Looking for color...

led me to a local cemetery and golf course.

 

I only had about 45 minutes before sunset so I headed towards a colorful maple tree and got to work.

 

 



 

Isolate specific good looking leaves, watch out for the background and depth of field, and always be conscious of the light.

 

 

 

Sometimes just shoot it while it's there and find out it's not quite right later. I think looking up these trunks gets a little busy.

 

 

 

 

 

Keep looking for the color and pay attention to the light and once it's gone, keep moving.

 

 



 

Shadows fell over the maple tree, but the sun was still hitting some oaks on a nearby golf course.

 

 





 

I really liked the colors on this specific group of changing oak leaves.

 

 

 

 

 

As the sun dropped towards the horizon I had to keep moving to leaves higher on the tree and still in the light.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Find some good looking leaves, wait for the wind to die down, focus and shoot.

 

 

 

My shutter speeds were getting slow and I was hand holding this stuff so I turned up the ISO and kept working.

 

 

 

I was switching between three different lenses and just did the best I could.

 

 

 

The light was fading fast.

 

 

 

 

So I worked near the trunk and shot almost straight up at the leaves catching the last light up near the top. And then it was all over.

Last chance?

Today was an outstanding day in my world. Why you ask? Because the sun came out!

It'd been dark, overcast, and rainy here for almost a month. So this morning I saw the sun and went looking for some fall color.

 

Lucky for me I found some. Like this ginormous maple tree.

 

 

 

The colors were great but it won't stay that way for long. There was frost on the ground and the trees were losing lots of leaves.

 

 

 

Here are some frosty leaves on a rose bush.

 

 

 

 

Most of these maple leaves probably won't last the day. There was just a subtle breeze, yet the tree dropped about a quarter of it's leaves while I was there.

 

 

 

This Japanese maple seemed to be fairing better than some of the others. It still had most of it's leaves.

 

 

 

This is my favorite tree of the day. Though it looks like several tree trunks in a row, it's actually just one giant maple.

 

 

 

Here's a view of it's canopy from another angle.

 

 

It's hard to go wrong with orange or yellow leaves against a blue sky in good light.

 

 

Not to be outdone, the oak trees had lots of color as well.

 

 

Like this one,

 

 

but I'll finish with another photo of that beautiful maple tree.

 

Based on the number of leaves falling this morning I doubt I'll have many more opportunities to shoot fall color this year.