Microscapes of Autumn

18 days ago in a Post ‘It’s Autumn – but not as we know it’ I described Autumn as a non-event.  Well, I was obviously being impatient. In the last week there has been an extraordinary surge of color and Autumn has now arrived in a blaze of glory.

Beech Leaves - click to enlarge

Where I live, we are not blessed with panoramic views of woods and forests nor woodland glades with gently flowing water as portrayed brilliantly in some of the Posts I have been following recently. So, a different technique is required and one that I enjoy employing to capture the seasons: getting close and finding beauty in the detail.

Oak Leaves - clicl to enlarge

A while back, I came up with the word ‘Microscape’ to describe this type of approach to image capture, because essentially what I try to do is put the Landscape under the Microscope pictorially: by finding those small particles, or vignettes of the broader Landscape and capturing them for their individual beauty.

I’m not doing anything that hasn’t been done before, nor claiming any originality: just hoping to raise the concept of this approach to Landscape.  I tend to combine this idea with shooting towards the Sun – that way the foliage is back-lit and really lights up.

Oak Leaves on the turn - click to enlarge

All these images were taken five days ago with a 24-85mm lens on a DX camera on the Ashridge Estate on the edge of the Chiltern Hills in the space of about an hour.

Click to enlarge the images below

Beech

Sycamore

Beech

Red Oak