An advantage of walking along a forest roadway in the rain is getting photos like these, while passerbys stop to make sure you are ok, because nobody in their right mind walks around in the rain with a camera.
This concludes this series on fall leaves in an Indiana creek. I expect readers are breathing a sigh of relief, but trust me the photos presented in this series is a subset of many more and since there are infinitely many ways to photograph this subject matter, it would be possible to continue such a theme forever. [And maybe I will do more in the future].
At first it was just a pretty leaf lying on a mossy rock that got my attention, but the more I looked at it the more it looked like an elegant female model posing like a naturalist in an outdoor environment. (Maybe I had been wandering alone in that creek bed too long).
Looking for ideas for a title, I found that fallen leaves are refered to as “leaf litter” or “tree litter”. Is it really appropriate to describe such natural beauty as “litter”? Can’t we show some respect for these fallen, natural beauties?
I set out one morning with a National Forest hiking path as a destination. When I arrived, there was a crew working at the limited area parking access. The young ranger in charge said they were just wrapping up setting posts for a kiosk and would be out of my way in a few minutes. So I drove on down the road to kill a few minutes, took a side road, stopped beside a creek and went down into the creek bed to look around. There was not much water in the creek, just a narrow stream with a few shallow puddles. There were many fallen leaves in the creek, which looked like good photographic subjects, so I returned to my vehicle, retrieved my camera and spent some time photographing those leaves.
Ok, I’ll admit to placing those leaves around the tire sidewall. Firstly, it is a shame that folks discard such items in manners that are detrimental to our environment. Secondly, other than photo documenting this litter, it might as well be dress up a little.
