One of the problems with stockpiling November images is the ephemeral nature of the season. Autumn is a transitional time, so what you photograph today might literally be gone tomorrow.
I shot both of today’s photographs in Newton last weekend…and this morning, I noticed that both the maple and dogwood pictured above have almost entirely lost their leaves. What was gold, red, and green last weekend was simply green and twiggy today.
Last year, I explained how I typically worry I’ll miss the peak autumn foliage, as if somewhere or sometime else, there’s scenery that looks prettier than whatever I’m contemplating at the moment. And yet what other time do we have than the present, and what other image do we have to contemplate than the one that presents itself both Here and Now?
I think I snap frequent fall photos in part to stave off this anxiety that I’ll somehow miss the subtle shift from one season to another. If I can flip through photos and see the change from Last Week to Today, surely I’ll see the mystical moment when Summer crosses the threshold into Autumn and the similarly slippery instant when Fall slips into Winter. And yet this pursuit is itself doomed because time cannot be stockpiled. As much as I perpetually pursue the enigma called Today, she always manages to transform herself into Tomorrow, guaranteed.
Hoarded Ordinaries 
Nov 7, 2010 at 7:12 pm
Yeah, I thought about too, this year. Even thinking that there might be a single peak in color is wrong-headed down here, where the black gums and other early trees peak in September, the maples and birches in early October and the oaks in mid to late October. Just driving from one forest type to another can make one think one is traveling forward and back in time.
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Nov 8, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Yes. I think the whole “peak foliage” thing is geared toward tourists, and the peak for them is early October, when the maples are glowing gold and red. I actually prefer the late-October-into-November palette of copper oak leaves, with the brilliant reds and yellows already fallen. I guess that makes me a post-peak kinda gal, with my preferences leaning heavily toward muted earth tones versus brilliant ones.
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Nov 8, 2010 at 2:04 pm
You know this reminds me of my determination to be totally aware of the slow transition from Winter to Spring and the time many years ago I was in a wheelchair with two fractured legs healing and I thought I have nothing else to do except look out the window. NOW I’ll do it! Well, every single day I looked out that window and watched and watched BUT Spring crept in very s-l-o-w-l-y and before I knew it, IT was there!
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