Vintage Fall Leaves

September 2010 · Experience series

By September the first leaves had started to come down. Not many, and not the full colour yet — just the early ones, the ones that go before the rest. I picked up a handful from the pavement outside and brought them in. The surface was a piece of reclaimed timber from a project the month before, warm brown-orange with its own grain and history.

The edit on this one leaned into the warmth rather than fighting it. Lifted the shadows, reduced the clarity slightly, let the orange tones run warm. The result has the look of something printed in a book from sixty years ago — not because anything artificial was done to it, but because autumn light and old wood already look that way when you stop trying to make them look contemporary.

Part of the Experience series. The vintage design guide has more on the aesthetic that runs through a lot of this work. Prints are available at the prints page; the portfolio overview and work page have broader context.

Related

• Experience — full series
• Flower — another September 2010 piece
• Claire / Mirror — September 2010, Reflect series
• Vintage design and photography guide