Fall Arrives in Texas

Fall color has arrived in Texas!

After weeks of waiting, watching and hoping-fall colors are arriving in north Texas.  I have been watching the greens of summer start to yellow and hoping something would kick them up a notch, then last week a cold snap seems to have done the trick.

I went out to Palo Pinto County yesterday to see how the last several weeks had changed the countryside.  The bright green grass of late summer had gone dry and brown.  The trees had some nice yellows.  There was even some reds in the red oaks.

Fall at last.

I started along one of the creeks in the early light.  The native trees we have here all seem to go yellow with the exception of the red oaks and the sumac.  The red oaks are a couple of weeks out although I did see a few lone trees looking bright.  What we are getting now are the yellows.

I photographed the bluffs and the trees on a clear blue sky day.  I wish it could have been cloudy and rainy but you have to work with what you have.  With the clear skies I tried to frame some views with back lit trees to highlight the colors.  A polariser helped make them pop too.

The colors were nice and are the beginning of the long fall we have here.  People do not think of Texas as a fall color destination.  What they do not realize what we have here is not a burst of vivid reds but instead almost two months of a slow rolling change.  We have our first wave now and the last one will end the week of Christmas when the bradford pears lose their leaves.

So, at last, fall is here and it means the high point of our photography season.  I plan to be in the field as much as possible chasing colors and hopefully clouds too.  Here are a couple from the day yesterday.