Autumn is my favorite photographic season: the range of color is amazing; the light is varied and often perfect; and there are no mosquitoes to bug the photographer or get in front of the lens.

Colorado's aspens make a wonderful autumn subject. Walking through a golden aspen forest at their peak of color is magical - it has to be the most heavenly light on earth!

When I took this photograph in Colorado's San Juan Mountains, it was the end of leaf season. In the distance is a mountainside in shadow; look carefully and you can see aspen trunks, all barren of leaves, and looking for all the world like a painter's brushstrokes. The background is blue because none of the yellow sunlight is reaching the deeply shaded mountain, and the scattering of shade light at high elevation records as deep blue on film. The magic in this picture is the contrast of yellow and blue, of course, as well as the poignant feeling that comes at the end of autumn.

Lee Rentz