My trip to the Midwest was near its end. One of the last morning’s there, a heavy frost appeared after a night of clear skies and cold temperature. I decided to pass on landscape shots with clear blue skies, macro shots of fallen leaves covered in frost was much more appealing. The day before I had spotted a beautiful Autumn Blaze Maple Tree at my niece’s home with many of the beautiful red leaves on the ground. So off to my niece’s home!
Arriving at my niece’s home, I knocked on the door to let her know I was there and would be shooting. My 8-year-old great-niece asked to come out with me to watch me shoot. I was looking down at the ground completely focused on the frost covered fallen leaves. As I was shooting away, she noticed some beautiful light shining through the leaves on one of the lower branches. She said “that’s pretty”, and I agreed. I immediately changed my focus to this beautiful light that I knew would be gone quickly. Being she had seen this light, it was only appropriate that she give the title to this image, Early Fall Morning. She had told me that if there had been more frost and a fox by the tree that would make a pretty picture, visualization at it’s finest! Unfortunately, the fox that on occasion come into their yard, did not appear.
As it was a school day, my great-niece wasn’t able to watch me the whole time I was shooting. I continued to look around the ground for leaves with lots of frost. The sun was getting higher and the frost would soon be gone. With my macro lens, I could see the incredible texture of the leaves as well as the frost. The fallen leaves looked as if they had been coated in sugar and ready to decorate a cake.
The wind had now kicked up and the leaves were being blown off the branches of this gorgeous tree. I switched to a wide-angle lens to try to capture this wonderful scene. Working quickly, as I didn’t know how long the wind would last, I set my camera to a high ISO hoping to catch the leaves as they descended. After making several images and looking at my LCD screen, I was excited my goal had been achieved. Now, it was time to pack up my gear and go have breakfast!
Different Isn't Wrong, It's Just Different 