A Firestorm Of Color

What an absolutely breathtaking sight this was. This trip, spent amongst the forests and rivers of Siskiyou and Shasta Counties in Northern California amongst The great giant, the volcano known as Mount Shasta, and a good amount of time spent in Jackson County in Southern Oregon, was one of the most spiritual weeks I've ever had alone in the wilderness. The ongoing theme with my photography and life in general lately seems to be yet again....... failure. Or is it? The two goals I had on this trip with the former being Plan A was to photograph Mt Shasta, whose peaks continue to elude me through the thick of the clouds the last few times I've been here and tried, including on this trip, with Plan B being to shoot the fall color in the trees as I knew it would be peaking in certain areas around where I'd be exploring. I was successful to get a plethora of the latter and this shot I am positively over the moon for. Once again, I had originally come to this area for Plan B and the sub-cursor idea behind that was to find areas along a creek thick with vibrant Indian Rhubarb flush with colors reminiscent of this shot. I was clearly late for the rhubarb as most of it had already past peak color and had begun to die off. But my timing couldn't have been better for the deciduous trees! Yes! Amazing fall color can be found in California too! The lovely contrast of the old fire scorched trees amidst the bright colors of the deciduous trees to me is what really made the color POP! This photo is a great example of secondary succession after a forest fire, where the forest starts to regrow and colonize the once charred landscape until eventually reaching the stage of a climax community.

    On this excursion, countless miles and miles of lonely backroads and forest roads on whom I didn't see a soul on 95% of the time, high mountain meadows and alpine aspen groves, heavenly hikes amid high desert valleys, isolated creeks along verdant stretches of rainforests, brilliant hues of Autumn around every bend and a single starry night sky were the highlights of this experience. All the while, it rained on me steadily 5 of the 6 days I was here. I've never gotten my camera and gear so wet before but it survived. We fail and we persevere, we fight through the un-comfortability, formulate a new plan and make the most out of it. Sun up To sun down every single day on this trip, I'm exhausted, but it paid off. This is what makes us proud to be landscape photographers and these experiences are what we live for, It's a love almost beyond words. I sincerely hope you all enjoy viewing this photograph as much as I did capturing it!

" Wildfire, A Kaleidoscope "

              Of Succession

Nikon D750

ISO 100

1/13th Sec

105mm @ f/16