Figure 1 – Fall’s last color, Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge, Sudbury, MA. (c) DE Wolf 2016.

Thanksgiving in the United States can be a wonderful holiday. You’ve got to picture damp, dreary, and chilly days filled with the warmth of family and fireplaces. And that is the whole point. Outside it is the “bleak time.” The sun sets early, plunging us into unforgiving darkness. The fall color is gone, well almost so. As Figure 1 testifies there are a few holdout leaves. Well maybe not holdouts so much as luck of the draw survivors.

Winter is coming and with it snow. But in the meantime we’ve got to put up with mininmalist landscapes. Of course, and on the other hand the whole forest has opened up. Familiar places become something other. And even the pale light can glow and trickle in to nooks and crannies that in summer defy illumination.The whole temperate world seems to be taking a breath before it goes about the process of storing up its energy in generative anticipation of next spring.

The picture of Figure 1, I took a few weeks ago. I loved the vivid color against black. Indeed, I would suggest that if you photograph flowers and want something different try shoot with flash at night. This picture proved very tricky to get what I saw, what I visualized, just so. But I like autumn’s swan song quite well.

Canon T2i with EF70-200mm f/4L USM lens at 109 mm, ISO 1600, Aperture Priority AE Mode 1/1600 th sec at f/7. with -1 exposure compensation.