It starts with a deepening of shadows as the daily path of the sun passes closer and closer to the horizon. Vivid fall shades of gold-yellow and crimson start to appear at the edges of the green late-summer leavers.
Geese and gulls pass overhead well into the evening hours, calling to each other in the settling darkness with a cold northern wind at their backs.
The garden slows, enormous summer leaves of the rhubarb parting further with each frost, revealing bowed scarlet stems as they settle toward the waiting earth. Bulbs are planted beneath a blanket of fallen twigs and foliage. Flowers go to seed and the hibernating bees choose their dens for the winter.
Sunsets soften and linger in the treetops, where the last bright green leaves flutter in a cool breeze. The tree canopy transforms into an almost architectural experience. Trunks and branches are revealed through colourful patches of thinning leaves, like stained glass suspended within the cathedral framework of urban forest arching overhead
All of the photos in this post were taking in September and October of 2022 for a personal project. As I followed the beautiful light and details through the autumn season, themes of transition, loss, and regeneration emerged. Portions of the work I created during this time have become a study of a particular kind of moody fall aesthetic.
This is a season as much about colourful leaves as it is a time of deep preparations; migrations or shifts to dormancy are measures taken to survive the coming winter, while the fallen leaves are beginning the process of decaying into nutrients needed for new spring growth. Without these changes and periods of hibernation, the raucous energy of spring would not be possible. Just as necessary is the abundance of summer, providing the raw materials of fall when it arrives again.
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