Colors of Autumn

The Colors of Autumn Photography by Jerry Sieve

On the final moment of summer in the High Country, leathery leaves ripple against a blustery breeze. Soon icy winds roll in to paint the greenery. On mountain skirts, sulphur-yellows. amethyst-purples, siennas, and burnt rose appear where only summer's green held sway. An unseen palette knife smears relentlessly as less hardy leaves flutter to earth, creating a carpet of rustling color. Relentlessly south the colors advance...down off the plateaus and escarpments, down to the grasslands, and at last the desert where giant cottonwoods catch autumn's fire.

Sniffing the crisp air, desert creatures scurry to collect winter goods. Shadows grow long enhancing the color-book image.

The rush of autumn color blankets Arizona with grandiose sweeps. Layer after layer the chilling artist fills the canvas, signalling the preparation for winter's sleep.

Photographer Jerry Sieve is intimate with this land and feels the changing of the seasons in his bones. He captures the autumn experience as few can. leaving only the sound of the wind to the imagination.

Jerry Sieve is a freelancer specializing in large-format scenic photography.

(Previous Panel, Pages 26 and 27) Near Flagstaff, spreading above leathery white poles, aspen leaves reflect the last of summer's warm rays. (Left) Fallen aspen leaves at Hart Prairie, near Flagstaff, prepare for winter's slumber. (Above) The verdant ferus of summer fade to yellow, then brown as autumn approaches the Chiricahua Wilderness.

(Left) An Indian summer sunburst sets the canyons aglow in the Chiricahua Mountains of Southern Arizona. (Above) a "golden pond" of aspen leaves. Hart Prairie, San Francisco Peaks.

(Above, and Right) Autumn on the West Fork of Oak Creek, a time of bright warm days and extra-blanket nights, of lazy walks along country roads and snuggling next to a crackling evening fire. It is the season when overnight the forest turns from green to gold, and sumac in crimson garlands ignites the rocky draws.