This was another teaching assignment from a previous student with a special request, fall colors. So after a bit of online planning we choose the obvious answer, Leavenworth Washington. This was quite a bit different than our last trip to the Palouse as I had never photographed or scouted in the Leavenworth area.
One of the aspects of landscape photography that often goes unmentioned is the importance of scouting. I would guess that most landscape photographers spend as much, or more, time scouting than actually shooting. I know that's the case for me.
So the major lesson for this trip was scouting. To that end we shoot every morning and evening and scouted as much as possible in between.
One of the challenges of planning and shooting fall colors is timing. And as it turns out we were a bit off of peak colors. So often we looked for vignettes of color to shoot and framed with the mountains and the clouds. And in a way I find that more of a learning experience since one gets to work harder finding compositions.
We ended the week with a quick afternoon trip up to Blewett Pass to check on the Golden Larches. Our just a bit too early theme continued as the Golden larches were still a bit off their peak color. Still stunningly beautiful.
