Fall Cornucopia

A small hidden watershed in Oak Creek Canyon near Sedona, at just the right elevation, shelters a gorgeous stand of Bigtooth maples. Last fall, an early season Pacific storm had already knocked down most of the leaves and they lay strewn on the rocks, a panoply of fall color, each cradling crystal clear drops of fresh rain water.

As I searched for interesting perspectives to frame this subtle riot of color, I was struck by how much the leaves resembled cascading water, moving from background to foreground, upstream to down, overflowing in stone crevices, finally arriving in full color detail inches from the edge of the frame. Not static leaves on bluish gray basalt boulders but instead alive and flowing.

Which, of course, in the longer term scheme of things, they were. Making that short but memorable transition from living greenery to next year's peat. Hopefully instilling in the viewer a feeling of the intense but transitory beauty, almost nostalgic, that characterizes the last of fall color as the days grow shorter, the nights colder, and winter approaches.

Enjoy!!



More here: The Colors of Fall '06

For me the background is a bit too chaotic, but the foreground (roughly the bottom 2/3) is magnificent. Even a closeup of the red leaf on the wet boulder left of center at the bottom would be interesting.

Aaron Strasburg said:

For me the background is a bit too chaotic, but the foreground (roughly the bottom 2/3) is magnificent. Even a closeup of the red leaf on the wet boulder left of center at the bottom would be interesting.

Click to expand...

Well, Aaron, you make a good point. However, if I was asked, by Derek, I'd remove only th top 35% of the upper zone. That way the clutter as you call it is gone but there is a transitions and on the upper left an appearance of a river of leaves feading the cascade of richness in the foreground.

This is such a magnificent picture. With the crop it's a winner.

Asher

I didn't actually call it clutter, but I see your vision as well. It's definitely a great image with several possibilities.

I'm sorry guys
I agree with you, this is a magnificient picture, but no crop is needed!
The background brings the feeling of movement, strength and power, like a wave that will grow until it gets enormous...
The background on the lower part of the pic does bring a lot and shouldnb't be missed.
Congrats for the exact and precise framing of Derek von Briesen.

I'd like to know what camera and what lens...

Of course you are right!

I looked at it again and wow, it came to light!

This picture is great, and does not need cropping. I might have done it when tired, I admit as above, and now in the morning I know better and I regret it!

Asher

Aaron, Asher & Nicolas,

Thanks so much for the helpful critique and ideas about cropping. Although I'm pretty happy with the framing as is, you guys certainly gave me food for thought vis-a-vis a different way of looking at it.

Aaron, I too like as much as possible to edit the chaos out (I actually do call it clutter when I see it in the viewfinder) but in this instance, fall is chaotic and a bit cluttered. Maybe one of the hardest things about shooting fall color is creating strong compositions from a veritable sea of color.

For me, the small bit of background chaos represents that part of fall. But also note the beauty of the chaos in the delicacy of the suspended maple leaves. I think, even in as tight a composition as this, that the background of suspended leaves, still treebound, helps to tie in the main subject, the foreground fallen leaves, because they are literally its source!!

In the same water/leaves flowing metaphor, the suspended leaves are raining down and beginning to flow across the rocks.

Asher, I want to thank you for your efforts here to create a real collegial, seminar/salon for a serious exchange of ideas and creativity. Other sites suffer from too much "look at me," and the never ending "atta boys" and one gains nothing.

Your effort at real discussion is already netting good results. Inspired by what I found here, I made a concerted effort to really craft a description of my feelings about the piece, what occurred to me at the time of capture, and what I've seen in it since. I plan on being an active part of OPF and hope that we all can continue to make the effort (and that's really what it takes and why most other less serious sites are as they are) and really grow as photographers.

Nicolas, camera is the Canon EOS 1Ds M2; lens is EF 17-40 f/4L: settings are 17mm @ f/22, 2 seconds, ISO 100; focus was hyperfocal at around 20" giving a DoF of acceptable focus from 10"-infinity.

Thanks again,

DvB

PS: Asher, I think it would be a good idea if people posting pix would include some of the shooting data as a general rule. I think it would help all of us.