When the Fall Season Has Already Peaked!

Today’s Post by Jamie Zartman

As the climate continues to change, and brisk winds arrived earlier than expected, many of the golden vistas of aspen cloaked hillsides I had envisioned on the the Grand Mesa and Pinyon Mesa of western Colorado were missing by the time I arrived this year.

In some areas, the stark white skeletons of leafless aspens danced liked the ghosts of seasons past, celebrating the approach of Halloween. I had taken my Olympus E-M1 Mark II with my favorite 40-150mm f/2.8 Pro lens and backup Olympus E-M5 Mark II with a 12-40mm f/2.8 Pro lens, so I now began to look for other opportunities to photograph in the high country. If one is patient, nature always provides.

A young mule deer wondered into my viewfinder as I was looking at the light streaming through a group of aspens that still had some leaves. These three aspen leaves provided a diagonal line across a backdrop of red scrub oak and blue sky. A cold sun provided a starburst below a sparse canopy of golden leaves, a sure sign of the winter that was soon to come.

At a crystal clear mountain stream, a small train of aspen leaves were silently taking their final journey the current. Learning to see what is there vs. simply missing what is not is what makes photography such a rewarding hobby.