Autumn is my favorite time of year. Cold mornings, crisp air and colorful scenes that are dazzling. If you're like me, you wait for this time of year pretty much... all year long! Autumn doesn't last nearly long enough- but maybe that's part of what makes it so magical.
Each year I work hard to capture the feelings of the season in order to connect with those who view my work. Autumn isn't simply lovely. It's a time of change, of going inward and of imminent winter.
This is a small selection of some of my favorite images I made. Feel free to follow along with my autumn adventures on Instagram where I love to share colorful photoshoots and hikes in my stories.
Wherever you are, I hope you're able to enjoy the season!
More info: deirdredenaliphotography.com | Instagram | Facebook
This post may include affiliate links.
Snowy Mountains Sunrise
Over the span of my photography career, I have always felt an incredible passion for capturing autumn. I love how the changing leaves make the world feel magical and I look forward to that every year. Autumn is a time of year that is full of wonderful memories for many, myself included. Making time to photograph this season is my way of honoring those memories while reflecting on them.
A Pika Eyeing Up Some Prize Yellow Grasses To Celebrate
Sunrise On A Beaver Pond
When I capture fall scenes, my goal is always to compose the frame in a way that best shows off the vibrant leaves! I enjoy working hard to create stunning autumn photos, oftentimes creating these images on long backpacking trips through the wilderness. This allows me to see remote locations in beautiful autumn colors. Often I am completely alone for miles and miles and it helps me to get in the right headspace for looking at nature as pure art in and of itself!
Always A Few Orange Aspen
One of the biggest challenges I face photographing autumn color is staying warm! Like I mentioned, often I am backpacking to get my photos and this requires camping at high elevations during a time of year that is very cold! I’m often waking up to temperatures well below freezing, the days don’t warm beyond 45°f usually. One very special memory I have from an autumn backpacking trip was when I was capturing a beautiful sunrise at an alpine lake lined with autumn foliage when suddenly a mountain goat appeared! She did some posing by the lake while she grazed the flame orange grasses. It was truly a stunning moment.
An Autumn Morning That Looked And Felt More Like A Dream Than Dreaming
Purple And Yellow
To capture the quiet, inward qualities of autumn, I try to capture the feeling of nostalgia in many of my autumn photographs. To do this, I try to get myself into a headspace of memories and I think about feelings associated with those memories. Artists are oftentimes translators of ideas or concepts and I feel that my autumn photography is very much a translation of what many of us feel during autumn, captured in a single frame.
A Very Happy Autumn Moose
Spooky Aspen
When The Snow Comes
Subalpine Lake Edge
Aspen Forest From Above
Mid-Day Reflection
A Garland Of Mountain Goats
That center outcrop of rocks resembles a turtle snout poking up out of its shell!
I’ll never understand why collections like this horse get so relatively less attention but everyone wants to put their two cents in on those dumb AITA posts
These pictures made me think of this: Today is August 16, 2023. I live in Maryland, US. It has been so hot and humid the last month and a half, I have been staying inside in the A/C as much as possible. This is the worst part of the year for me, as I can take heat but not humidity (oh yes, I will be retiring to the desert, you can bet on it). It’s also the time of year when I start getting impatient for Autumn, when everything becomes cool, crisp, and DRY. Autumn, Winter, and Spring, even the very first part of Summer (basically June), are just fine here. But on into July and August, and even on into the beginning of September, the weather turns tropical, and not in a nice way. Like every year here, I will just grin and bear it until it starts cooling down and drying off toward the middle to end of September. Only about a month to go, give or take a week.
When you write - I made these pictures - did you take and heavily process them? Or did you take/compose them? Sorry, there's a big difference in making and taking a picture
Really lovely and evocative photos. I find myself yearning for fall.
I’ll never understand why collections like this horse get so relatively less attention but everyone wants to put their two cents in on those dumb AITA posts
These pictures made me think of this: Today is August 16, 2023. I live in Maryland, US. It has been so hot and humid the last month and a half, I have been staying inside in the A/C as much as possible. This is the worst part of the year for me, as I can take heat but not humidity (oh yes, I will be retiring to the desert, you can bet on it). It’s also the time of year when I start getting impatient for Autumn, when everything becomes cool, crisp, and DRY. Autumn, Winter, and Spring, even the very first part of Summer (basically June), are just fine here. But on into July and August, and even on into the beginning of September, the weather turns tropical, and not in a nice way. Like every year here, I will just grin and bear it until it starts cooling down and drying off toward the middle to end of September. Only about a month to go, give or take a week.
When you write - I made these pictures - did you take and heavily process them? Or did you take/compose them? Sorry, there's a big difference in making and taking a picture
Really lovely and evocative photos. I find myself yearning for fall.
