This past weekend Dean Cobin and I were shooting in Long Pond Ironworks State Park and Harriman State Park in NY. We spent pre-dawn at Monksville Reservoir looking to capture some early morning light. After a successful morning at the reservoir we made our way to Harriman and were surprised at the amount of color that the trees had this early in the season. As we were driving to our location we came across a group of trees that were backlit by the bright morning sun. The colors were very intense. Backlighting especially this time of year is a great way to bring out the color and textures in the leaves. After about 30 minutes of shooting we both gravitated to the same spot in this grove. We were less than 20 feet from each other and saw the same scene completely differently. It’s fascinating and fun to see the creative minds work. Hence the title of the blog…… 2 Photographers 1 spot.
Larry-I saw the shot as an overall field of color with shapes and depth. The depth comes in multiple forms in this capture. The trees themselves. Some are closer, others further back, some have detail while others are deep shadow. 
Also the black negative space between the leaves adds more distance . However, the colors are essential here. If it were all one color in this composition it potentially could have been a flatter image. That’s not a bad thing it’s just not what I saw and wanted to convey. The red color especially adds the pop and distance that I think helps this image successful. Dean and I were talking about how light is the crucial separator in making or breaking a shot. As your out and about look for light and how it hits the landscape that your interested in. You’ll always need a strong composition but great light is what really amplifies the final image.
Dean-Its really interesting as I came over to the area I had a wide angle lens on my camera and immediately switched to a 70-200 zoom. The back lighting was really working and I saw one particular tree I wanted to capture because it had an interesting symmetry to the branches. 
I placed the the main trunk down the center and then tried to isolate a pleasing pattern of the branches for the composition. In my minds eye I saw this as an abstract color panel.It is really amazing to stand next to somebody shooting the same scene and see how different the images are perceived. I love the image Larry came away with and I also liked mine. Fall color can be overwhelming and does not make a picture on it’s own, remember to always be thinking about the basic foundations for your image of good composition and great light which is what we had to work with here.
