“Time leaches the colors from the best of visions. The world becomes grayer. Entropy beats us down. Everything fades. Everything goes. Everything dies.”
― Robert Silverberg

Back outdoors again, in the midst of a January thaw, too much of a thaw, actually. As I set out on the trails, expecting ice, which I was prepared for, I was faced with deep, slushy, wet snow, tough to walk in and impossible to grip, even with my ice cleats. It made for a fairly exhausting hike, but I was determined to complete my usual five kilometer loop today and make some photos along the way, if they offered themselves.

The day started out moody, dull, and foggy, which inspired me to get out to photograph for of this atmosphere, but by the time I drove to my destination, the fog had dissipated, so I proceeded to hike.

Mild temperatures and showers over the past few days had knocked many of the last remaining leaves to the ground and they rested on the grainy, wet snow. An interesting effect of the moisture and changing temperatures was that many of them seemed very ‘thin’, diaphanous, as they littered the snowy forest floor, slowly decaying. The snow itself was not a pure white either, rather, spotted with particles of dirt and dust which had accumulated so far this winter. I would have prefered a pure white background, but the spots enhance the image a bit by showing through the leaf.

Nikon D800
Tamron SP AF 90mm f/2.8 Di Macro 1:1 (272ENII)@90mm
1/160 sec, f/6.3, ISO 200

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