Zooming In

A macro focus on fall leaves.

The brilliance of autumn colors always overwhelms me. Leaves are sheer reds and golds and can be covered by a white deluge of snow, sometimes plunging limbs into back-breaking arches. It’s this time of year that I peer closely into the kaleidoscope of color with macro photography, and every year, my perspective instantly changes when I see the world up close.

Looking through my viewfinder, my subjects become swirls of shades with muffled edges. Shapes and colors emerge into an intermingling of hushed forms depending on where I focus. If one edge curls and leads me into a leaf, a three-dimensional form emerges, but other times a flat leaf with veins on full display takes center frame. Regardless, the edges dictate, organize, and define my subjects, which I then craft into balanced compositions.

All of these intricacies are exposed depending on the light. Most often, I photograph under overcast skies or in places where my subjects are in the shade. A muted light allows me to see the details of the leaves without overexposing the subtleties of colors buried within them.

By early September, vivid red, rosehip berries sprout squid-like tentacles in a background sea of green. Then, by mid-October, color is at its peak when the leaves are enhanced by red and gold veins and serviceberries are suspended from red limbs. But quickly, as cold sets in, berries and leaves shrivel for winter hibernation. Upon looking closely at the withered, frosty leaf edges, another “dimension” between colors and seasons appears. It’s a dimension only visible upon close inspection: a miniature, ephemeral world buried in the leaves. By December, the display is over, and I must wait another year to witness the spectacle once again.