Fall seems to be coming early this year with trees turning easily two weeks sooner than they did last year. I had started to notice the maples around town showing off their bright red colors and decided to drive around town on Saturday to see if I could find any to photograph.
As I drove up Washington Street and passed Abbot Hall on my right, I saw a flash of red in my peripheral vision. I quickly made the right to circle around and found this tree on the grounds of Abbot Hall at peak color. The problem was finding an angle to properly capture this scene. The straight shot was interrupted by power lines and would have meant a strong angled view and resultant distortion of Abbot Tower due to perspective shifts. As I kept looking around, I found this house across the street with great big windows reflecting the tree and Abbot Hall.
I played around with the angles and focal length for a while and sought to make Abbot Hall and the tree the main elements of the scene while keeping cars and other distracting elements to a minimum. This was the best angle I could come up with and the use of a circular polarizer on the wide angle lens allowed me to accentuate the reflections seen. Hope you enjoy this first (of many) views of Fall colors in Marblehead.
*If you have or know of a great tree in town that is reaching peak color, please contact me – I would love to capture it.
