Fall colors of this year

The summer is over and I’m putting together a plan to photograph the fall colors of Colorado. The whole transition from green to yellow, then from yellow to red before the leaves fall off from aspens happens in a very short window of time, lasting 2-3 weeks maximum. If it gets rainy or windy, the leaves fall off even quicker, leaving very little time to photograph the magic of the fall.

It was still about a week early as of last weekend, with the greens getting lighter in color and some trees already getting some yellow tint:

Shot with the Nikon D5000 and 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G VR lens.

Another week until the green colors are completely gone and all leaves get yellow. One more week after that and the yellow will turn into red… I’m planning to go to Maroon Bells once again to see if I get lucky enough to catch some clouds at sunrise, with the beautiful colors of the fall. Here are the Bells in summer:

No fun without clouds…the reflection looks too boring.

And here is a marmot, enjoying a warm morning:

Due to my hectic schedule this year, I completely missed the wildflower peak of mid July. Hopefully it won’t be as bad next year…