Figure 1 – First touches of fall, (c) DE Wolf 2013

I tend to write my blog a week or so ahead.  So this picture was taken in late September.  Some of my readers may have seen it already on Facebook, but I wanted to share it with all of my readers.  Fall is a poetic time for New England photographers.  There is rich golden morning light and slowly the beautiful colors evolve.  This picture was taken along the Charles River Reservation below the Watertown Center Bridge and shows “the first touches of autumn.”  I was taken by the pastel beauty of that particular afternoon:  The fading summer lily pads, the leaves starting to turn, the wonderfully blue shy reflected in the water, and the dull brown tones of the rocks beneath the surface.

In processing I allowed myself a little bit more color saturation than I would usually use.  In general when toning a black and white or adjusting color in a color image I cut back a bit from what strikes my eye, in fear of the color looking artificial.  Here I liked the effect.  The image seems to me to be more a painting than a photograph, or maybe a tribute to Claude Monet andmodern impressionist Debra Gold.