The Colors of Fall

The Pacific Northwest has had an amazing, sunny, dry summer and fall this year. In fact, we have set a record for the number of rainless days for our part of the world. Even so, those of us who live here know that it will end soon and the rains will come and the days will be dark, cold and wet. Because we know this, we are all savoring each weekend and spending as much time outside as possible. My husband and I spent the weekend near Mt. Rainier, hiking and enjoying the signs of the changing season. Since I love fall colors, I set out to find some pretty leaves to photograph this morning before we needed to head on home to Portland.
We didn't take into consideration the shadows of the hills and I was at first disappointed that all the forest we were driving through was still in shadows even at 9:00 in the morning. Vine maple just comes alive when the sun hits it and that is what I wanted to photograph. We finally stopped at the place I remembered seeing such pretty leaves in years past and decided to just wait a bit for the sun to cooperate. My ever patient honey went to have a seat, knowing that I would be awhile!

About this time, I remembered reading about how if you slow your shutter speed down while photographing the sky at dusk, it brings out lots of pretty colors. I decided to see if the same would work on leaves in the shade. Out came the tripod.........

I loved the colors! What fun!
After I played around for awhile, the sun finally caught up with me and I did get a few brighter lit pictures. I think I might be a bit partial to the shaded ones now though!

I especially like the textures in this last one.