Photographing autumn landscape colors at their best is a matter of timing. For these trees at 8000 feet above sea level, mid-October proved just about perfect. This image is not as about color itself as it is about subtle and not so subtle variations in color. The image begins at the bottom with shades of soft lavender and brownish green. Across the middle of the image there’s a transitional zone where green, yellow, and the slender trunks of Aspen trees all come together and then explode into a rich outpouring of deep yellow tinged with orange. Yet the eye goes to the variation that is most pronounced – the five or six large evergreen trees that proclaim their individuality but stubbornly refusing to change color. The tone and intensity of color usually depends on the nature of the light that strikes it. In this case, the light was flat – the day had turned cloudy and snow was moving in. To compensate for flat light on a color subject, I depend on rich color saturation here to pick up the slack. I enhanced this image in Photoshop to re-create the same sense of depth, richness, and contrast of coloration I saw with my own eyes.