Season’s Greeting

The colors have come and gone and I was glad to have driven to Warner Lake in the LaSal Mountains, just 30 minutes from my Moab home late last week. Work and other distractions had taken me elsewhere. Cold weather was approaching and from my driveway I could see that the colors were peaking. Warner Lake is easy access and as clouds rolled and roiled over the mountains and desert below and to the west I had the feeling that something fine could happen. I drove in a blue-grey shroud to the lake and walked to its edge. Colors, brilliant. Parking lot, empty. I’d passed a few flintlock hunters below but had the lake to myself. The open setting allowed for some straight on compositions across the lake of the stunning color. The challenge was to actually say something other than “pretty colors on trees,” with any of my compositions. I walked the edge of the lake slowly for a good 20 minutes scanning the far bank and the slopes beyond. Finally and joyously I found and made “Apart.”

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I like the way the one pine stands apart from the others. It seems to be stating its independence, but not too much as it’s still a pine! As you look at it you’ll notice that the single “apart” tree is actually composed of several trees lined up above the main trunk. The tree that stands apart appears to be in parts! It’s position offers balance. The weight of the stand of trees on the left is balanced by the single tree to the right and the attention we give it by it being singular; and the its surrounding aspen color. ATTENTION is a compositional element that has “weight.” Attention can be accomplished by ISOLATION, COLOR, CONTRAST, SIZE and other means.

Sundown was approaching and I knew that if I drove back down the mountain a few minutes that there was a dirt track leading to a small bald mound that was perched over an aspen-rich canyon that led visually up to the peaks beyond. Good choice! The descending drive revealed a mass of storm clouds slowly blanketing the LaSals from the south and east. I waited and watched a small gap in the western cloud bank open and allow a band of crimson light to finger-brush the low side of the mountain where a diverse array of colored aspen waited to embrace it…..for just moments. It was in these few moments that I made the captures that led to “Season’s Greeting.” (below)

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The composition I quickly settled on featured the mass of mountain being coldly taken over by the approaching storm and the strip of warm sunset light marking the end of fall color. (Two days later the storm winds has stripped the trees of most of their colored leaves.) The light came and went and I stayed and watched the clouds roll over as the air temperature continued to drop. It was cold, quiet, glorious end of the day.
While driving home I found myself thinking of titles. Titles can sometimes direct processing. The word “weight” kept returning. “Winter Weight.” “The Weight of Fall.” Though I eventually settle on “Season’s Greeting” (as in Winter greeting Fall as fall walks out the door) the idea of WEIGHT certainly guided my processing.

Upon opening the image in LIGHTROOM I immediately used the HIGHLIGHT slider, moving it left to see what details would appear in the sky. I selected what would work for me and made that general adjustment and then worked solely on the sky area adding some CONTRAST, CLARITY, and opening up the SHADOWS, especially among the trees on the mountain. I also played with the color of everything above the colored aspens, choosing to use the WEIGHT of BLUE to say cold, winter, heavy and to set up the contrast with the warm colors on the sun-graced trees. I warmed the aspens just a bit (as there was a blue cast to their color), and added a little CLARITY, CONTRAST and EXPOSURE. I’m quite happy with the final image and spent part of today (Saturday) printing it to 10×15 and 14×21. Season’s Greetings!

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