Did you get to enjoy the fall leaves?

In the fall, I often put my camera in the trunk of my car.  Dale hate's taking a ride with me because it means driving, stopping, driving, stopping as I see something that hits my eye as a good photo.  I love the way these leaves are showing the burnt orange to red colors with the green in the background trees.



Burnt Oranges

Sometimes when the line of focus ends up in the wrong spot, it can create a look similar to a painting.  It might have been a combination between the colors, the time of day and the trees and shrubs on the of the road.  But when I uploaded the photos, I thought wow that is a nice effect.



A picture that looks like a painting

In the last photos I took on this day, the dry taller grass around the rocks on the edge of a hill.  The sun is low in the sky casting deep shadows while lighting the yellowing leaves with extra brightness.



Rich Colors at Sunset

The first photos were taken in South West Minnesota near Morton.  The next group of photos were taken at the Munsinger Gardens in St. Cloud, Minnesota. 


Sugar Maple leaves

Don't you just want to scoop up a bunch of those leaves, take them home and dip them in wax?  Have you ever done that?  I used to do it all the time.  They last for months in the house.  I resisted temptation mostly because my wax was ruined during one of my moves.

Depth of Color

The trees are most colorful when surrounded by contrast.  I love it when dark green is behind a maple leaf.  Below the late fall flower with it's fuchsia is contrasting the light greens and yellows.


A late fall flower blooming in the distance

If you catch the maple leaves on the right day you will get to see every color clustered in a section on the tree.  Some leaves aren't pretty up close because the give an illusion of interesting color in the tree that when you observe it up close, it is brown and curling up.



Every Color Present

But a Maple leaf can have the entire color change rolling across the leaf from the rich dark red, to orange, yellow with a smidge of dark green.  A maple leaf is an excellent study of color for an artist.  So if you want to understand color theory from a master artist, just study God's creation.  It falls into his design for life.


WOW - all the colors on one leaf!