As they do every Autumn, the maple and oak trees all around me began to change to fiery colors last month. And one windy morning, I decided to go out and capture the small fragment of this beauty, for only a small fragment is captured with human machines.

The trees seemed to be more out of synchronization with eachother this year, and some were burning with bright color while others were still completely green. A particularly fiery orange maple caught my eye, and I found myself walking slowly across a deserted road towards this brilliant tree – almost mesmerized by its incredible orangeness. Few things in nature are this orange, and this reminded me of the sunset. I didn’t plan to photograph this tree from the beginning, but I allowed it to spontaneously become my subject.

The Photographer Must Move!

Looking on back on the experience now, I come to realize the importance of movement in photography. Specifically, the photographer must move, and keep moving, when photographing a subject – especially if the subject is large. I walked around the tree part-way, but I wish I would have move around more.

I hinted at this concept in my last entry through my use of insane perspectives, but movement isn’t required quite as much when photographing a shore. For most other things, however, movement is absolutely essential, and the less you think about where you are walking, the better. By just wandering, one can surely stumble upon some happy accidents.

Use Your Capabilities

I also took this opportunity to use the 10.7x zoom on my new FujiFilm camera. The camera uses manual zoom, so I can zoom in and out as quickly as my hands can rotate the lens. I love zooming on this camera, and the tree was no exception. Because the tree was rather high up, I wasn’t able to get a lot of intense detail in the leaves, but I was able to get some interesting perspective on the structure of the fiery tree. If only there had been some birds…

To recap:

• Allow yourself to be drawn to subjects spontaneously
• Move around (or inside!) your subject
• Always remember your capabilities to improve your result

Photos from this trip are in this photoset. All photos can be used as widescreen desktop wallpapers because they are high resolution (1920×1440).

But that wasn’t all I did that day. Later on, I discovered an intricate network of forest trails, but that’s a story for another time…