I had driven from Houston to Indiana, to visit my parents, and to do a side
trip to Chicago to acquire some photo gear from the big Calumet store that
was there at the time. I was delighted to be back during the autumn, my
favorite time of the year, and which I very much miss, as we certainly don’t
enjoy it like that in Houston.
I honestly don’t remember exactly where I found this cluster of red and gold
leaves, it was a while ago. I do know that I grabbed my camera, loaded with
my favorite film, Kodachrome (cue Paul Simon). Using a moderate telephoto,
I made several exposures as I lay on my stomach. It was this one, with the
dark leaf seeming to gesture with its stem, nicely framed against a light field
of tones in the background, and juxtaposed against the brilliantly backlit
yellow one, that was “the keeper.”
Seeing it always takes me back to my youth in Indiana, where we would pile
up the leaves, and run and jump into them. And where, at that time, you could
still burn them in the gutter in front of your house. Which of course is no
longer possible.
But I will occasionally grab a few leaves, such as I can find down here, and
light them in a small container, just to get “that” smell again, which instantly takes me back to childhood.
