The Right Place at the Right Time – 7 – End of Autumn

Autumn is a second spring 

when every leaf is a flower 

Albert Camus (1913-1960)

(However, once the leaves are on the ground and

they all must be raked and bagged, they are something else)

The Price of Living in the Woods (1996)

Recently, I saw something close to home that reminded me of a favorite picture that was posted in 2011 and prompted the title of this entry. In my typical fashion, here I am, with winter upon us, doing another autumn story. While the 2011 post had favorite shots from travels, I want to show one shot again in support of another way to capture autumn scenes.

Gingko Circles, Columbia, MD (16 November 2014)

I suspect even more than in the springtime, people break out their cameras in the fall to capture the colors of nature. While spring can bring splashes of color with flowers, autumn can make entire landscapes and vistas colorful.

My point is that one doesn’t need trees to convey ‘autumn’. After all, the trees don’t change color...the leaves do. After that, they drop to the ground. Maybe that’s why they call it ‘fall’. The picture above, taken last month, shows four ginkgo trees just after they dropped all their leaves. Fortunately, apart from what the passing cars did, there was no wind to scatter the fallout.

One can make an image that says ‘autumn’ and not have a tree in it. One bright red leaf on a bed of fresh, green moss or a few colorful leaves floating on the edge of a pond will do it. There are times when I just want to shoot the collected leaves on the forest floor at my feet.

Autumn Ground Cover (23 November 2007)

Most of the trees around here change color and drop their leaves over time. In a few weeks, the full canopies of our hardwoods thin out and drift to the ground. Most homeowners then perform the seasonal ritual of blowing or raking and bagging. This can be a seasonal pleasure or a pain in the ass depending on your perspective and the condition of your lower back at the time.

Our lot is dominated by tulip polar trees. They are straight, tall and perpetually deciduous. Crap falls off this miserable species all year round. There are petals, pods and other flower parts in the spring, misty sap and sick leaves in the hot summer, a bleep-load of leaves in the fall and dead branches in the winter. But I digress...

Another Tulip Poplar Missile (5 February 2014)

Welcome to our home.

Please put on your hard hat.

However, some trees seem to be on a tighter schedule. Like the local gingko’s shown above, Japanese maple trees pretty much let go of their leaves all at once. All summer, our tree is full of dark, delicate leaves. Then one week in the fall, they turn bright red. Enjoy them while you can because one day, like a flock of migrating ducks, someone gives them the signal and they all fall off. Boom.

The ‘right place, right time’ reference is to note that a calm period is required so the leaves all fall straight down and carpet a circle under the tree instead of being blown hither and yon. We have lots of different trees here and the winds will blend everything that falls off them. It’s a rare treat to have the distinctive leaves of certain trees concentrated in one spot.

This happened on Thanksgiving in 2010. We were in Chapel Hill, NC. Jack and Jo live in the woods and their Japanese maple gave up its leaves after a chilly night...and there was no wind to blow them away or mix them with the fallout from all the other trees in the area. The result was special and I was lucky to capture the scene before the colors faded to brown and the leaves scattered across the woods.

Red Maple Fallout (27 November 2010)

This will be the last post of the year. With the presidents’ graves schedule accelerating my output, it was the most productive year since this blogging adventure began in 2011. The next broad quest to present will be our state capitols. I have visited 44 to date but have presented only five. My hope in the New Year is to present compelling images of these magnificent public spaces and include pithy narratives to keep it lively.

Have a safe and happy holiday and a promising 2015.
Thanks for visiting.