Autumn Tales
Photo Location: Leavenworth, WA
Fall in Washington State doesn't announce itself the way it does in the eastern Sierra or the Colorado Rockies. It arrives quietly, through a combination of fog and low light and the gradual accumulation of color that deepens over weeks rather than igniting overnight. The forests here are layered — conifers holding their green above while maple and alder and vine maple work through their entire repertoire of gold and amber and rust below — and the effect is less like a single dramatic statement and more like a conversation that keeps going the longer you listen.
I walked into this particular patch of forest on a morning when the light was still finding its way through and the color was doing something I have never seen replicated anywhere else — the warm tones of the deciduous trees reading almost luminous against the dark, permanent green of the Douglas fir behind them. Washington in October has a depth to it that the open mountain shots don't. The stories here are older and quieter and the forest tells them on its own schedule, not yours.
This is Pacific Northwest autumn at its most characteristic — not dramatic, but enduring. The kind of color and atmosphere that stays with you long after the season ends.
TruLife acrylic-mounted limited edition of 100, signed by me with Certificate of Authenticity. Free US shipping.
Image copyright © Jongas Fine Art Photography.
