Aspen Leaves on Snow, Colorado

One of my best selling photographs, this closeup of golden aspen leaves that had fallen on an early October snow was taken in the upper Laramie River basin in northern Colorado.

When the fall foliage colors of any tree species are at their peak, it doesn't take much to bring the majority of them to the ground. Wind, heavy rain, snow, ice will do.

In this instance, the fall aspen colors had reached their peak in the Colorado high country. Then an early snowstorm struck, sending the golden orbs on top of the fresh snow. The next day, the storm had cleared, bringing deep blue sky and warming sunshine.

In this photo, I was captivated by the way that the sunlight was raking across the surface of the leaf and the snow. The leaves were darker than the snow, so they absorbed heat and started to melt their individual shapes into the snow beneath themselves.

The light coming through the water drops atop the leaves formed tiny magnifying glasses of intensified sunlight. A single fir needle happened to fall atop one of the aspen leaves.

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