Red Ribbon
Growing up in the East Coast I'm pretty familiar with fall colors. It's one of the few things I actually miss about the east coast (well, maybe that people actually have *yards* too) ... and fireflies. I miss those guys). When Willie asked if I wanted to go to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks for a fall colors photo-trip, I was immediately interested!
After delaying the trip a few times, waiting for the colors to change, we finally found our opportunity, skipped work, and drove down for a quick 2 day trip. It turns out that the dry summer we had wasn't so conducive to the trees. They had gone from completely green a few days earlier, to mostly dead, brown, and leafless. We scouted this particular area earlier in the day but had left with low expectations.
By chance we ended up back here after pulling off to explore a patch of color we had seen. We had scouted this area earlier but had come in from a different angle and had completely missed the yellow and orange leaves mixed in with the beautiful Sequoia trees.
Despite the leaves looking a little dead, we were still excited to catch the yellow leaves mixed in with the red Sequoia trees -- which at this hour were starting to glow from the side light of the setting sun. I named this "Red Ribbon" because I loved the way the red trees mixed in with the rest of the forest, turning just a bunch of yellow leaves into a magical present for us!
Nikon D850 w/Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8:
86mm, f/11, 1/6 sec, ISO 800