I have been trying to expand my collection of New England Autumn images by focusing on telling stories about late autumn, affectionately known as “Stick Season”. Last week I spent a few days in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, in search of late autumn images. At this point in the season the maples have all lost their leaves, and the only trees with color remaining are tamaracks, beeches and and a few aspen. In the Victory Basin NWR, I came across this stand of bare trees against the dark background of a mountain side. In some places the forest under story had small late turning beech trees, which still had orange leaves. These beeches made me think of them as being the last embers of the fire, before the season is extinguished.
Stick Season is Here
The Last Embers of Fall Burn
Before the Snow Falls.
Specific Feedback Requested
any critique or comment is welcome.
Technical Details
Is this a composite: No
Canon 5D MK4, Canon 70-200mm lens, at 100mm, ISO 400, 1/5 sec at f11.
Stick season is upon us as well. This is a good depiction of its early stages. American Beech doesn’t creep up this far north, but the Hornbeam and Ironwood fill that gap. Those and the oaks are hanging onto leaves, but not for much longer. Working in this kind of shot for an overall story of the season is a really nice addition. I’ve tried similar things, but none have worked quite so well. That understory just speaks volumes against the towering naked giants.
Wonderful! The dark mountain suggests a brooding sky and works so well against the orange lower foliage. The mix of light and dark bark and the gradation into smaller trees in the distance gives a great sense of depth. The yellowish tree in the BG knew just where to pose.
Love this image Ed. The “infrastructure” of the image is like a network. THe mounds of color are just enough to make this shot. Not sure I would have seen this.
Oh this is really good, Ed. It’s also flawless. You have black trees and ghostly white ones. And spatially they perfectly complement one another. Some fireworks above and flames rising from below. All on a background of white lines that are ordered in direction. I really love this. It’s exceptional.
I will admit that I would have passed by a scene like this without giving it a second thought. This is cool though. The darker trunks give structure to the image and I really like how you can still see colors in the distant aspens. Thanks for sharing, Ed!
Ed, What a great season is that “Stick season”. So many colors left to play with. Your image gives me that magical feeling. There must be a Haiku in it
Ed, this is a great “sticks and leaves” view, that speaks clearly of late fall. I’ve been watching the trees here in Montana go through the same changes, but neglected to stop for more extensive viewing/shooting.
Thanks to all of you for taking the time to leave your comments and thoughts, I appreciate hearing them. This is an underappreciated time of the season, but one that resonates with me personally. I wasn’t sure if it would have a lot of appeal to others, but I am glad that it got a good reception here.
And Ben, thanks for encouraging me to come up with a Haiku. I hope you like it.
Nice Ed. It’s certainly not and under appreciated season to me. I love these kind of shots, but I just don’t have the “vision” that you have to see them in the field.
This is absolutely gorgeous, Ed. It may be stick season, but this scene has a lot of impact. You managed to catch the transition of the seasons perfectly IMO as there is still some beautiful fall color remaining which contrasts nicely with all those wonderful details and textures of the bare limbs that have shed their autumn foliage. The spacing and the variety of different trees looks wonderful. No suggestions from me.
