My favorite time of year is upon us. I call autumn the quiet season not because of a change in sound, but because the atmosphere is simple and quiet. The world just seems to slow down. Autumn is different from other seasons, it isn’t about skiing or snowmobiling, it isn’t about beach volleyball or boating. It’s about slowing down and observing.  It’s about feeling it.

As a photographer there are pictures to be found everywhere. Landscapes abound in both the grand and the intimate. If you are a bird photographer that “opposite” migration is occurring. In spring a new species seems to show up every few hours. In fall birds seem to move leisurely to warmer lands. There are no nests to build or families to raise at the end of their journey, just a long winter vacation in the sunny south.

I shunned my love for camping for many, many years during my nature photography trips. It was finally autumn and its peaceful, serene mood that convinced me that it was okay to return to making nature my bedroom (and living room and kitchen).  I would actually be living in the middle of my subject. Those final years of camping in near empty campgrounds or in wilderness sites, as fall colors evolved around me were a living, breathing testimony as to why I chose nature as my primary subject.

Let’s kick off the fall photography season with some pictures that spell autumn. For those of you who are long time readers, these pictures are old hat, but as the season progresses I will begin showing some nice autumn art from other photographers.

Falls grasses and Bighorn ewes and babies, South Dakota.

The Jim Bridger Wilderness, Wyoming.

The Chief Joseph Byway, Wyoming.

Theodore Roosevelt N. P., North Dakota

Veins

Maple leafs

Looking up

Looking down

Wisconsin landscapes

Some things I love about fall photography are for one, its beginnings, when there is a multitude of colors, green, gold, red and more……and then visually playing different colors or tones against each other……and finally late fall when “almost” everything is off the trees.

“Do not let your circumstances rob you of joy. Happiness is merely a feeling, joy is a gift from the Lord, but you still have to open that gift.”  NASCAR driver Michael McDowell

God Bless, and peace,                                                                                                                           Wayne