It was starting to rain on a late autumn afternoon as I hiked through the Sturgeon River Gorge Wilderness in Michigan's Ottawa National Forest. It had already been raining for days; lots of colorful Bigtooth Aspen leaves had fallen and were still waxy enough to ball up the rain drops like the hood of a freshly waxed car.

Then I intervened. Finding the best drop-covered leaves, I carefully picked them up and carried them to a lichen-covered rock. Of course, whenever I sneezed or tripped, the drops would roll off a leaf. But I persevered, eventually collecting enough beautiful leaves to create this photograph.

There was a time when I refused to intervene in a natural composition, proud that I had photographed untouched nature. But now I look at nature and me as collaborators celebrating the very possibilities of beauty and grace.

Lee Rentz