Happy Sunday! Joanne from Joanne Mason Photography is guest-hosting this week’s Lens-Artists Photo Challenge. What a fun topic, Joanne! Everyone should see this!

At work on Friday, I told a colleague I went fall color chasing for my birthday. I don’t know where I had heard that phrase used but I guess it’s what people say when they go see fall colors in nature? Where I go to see fall colors each year is dictated by a fall foliage map and approximate calendar I find online, so technically, it is a chase. Do you agree?

Anyway, he didn’t understand what I was talking about. He thought I was doing like a paint-by-number sort of thing but with fall colors. Perhaps, there was a mis-enunciation of the word “chase” on my part, since I don’t speak English at home because if I did, I would have to be a grammar nazi and correct my mom’s every sentence.

In northern Utah, typically, the fall foliage in the mountains peaks around the equinox and with my birthday being a few days after, it was perfect timing. It usually only peaks for a week or so, so timing is everything. This year, I started my chase in Wasatch National Forest, near Brighton, Utah, before crisscrossed mountainous roads to the town of Midway, where I continued my way toward Uinta National Forest.

The picture with the red and yellow trees is Wasatch National Forest while the other two are Uinta National Forest. I can’t tell which I love better. Both are different in their own styles and ways.

I’m still editing the 100+ pictures I took that day. I am trying to find some to delete but so far, I haven’t been able to find any. Every picture is just a work of art by Mother Nature and she wants everyone to see this.

I took a nightscape photography class a few years ago. After watching a Youtube video on nightscape photography, I became obsessed with nightscape photography. I think it’s cool and unique. There was just one problem – I am terribly afraid of the dark. My hands would start shake and my legs would start to buckle. To do nightscape photography, I must travel to one of the dark sky parks near me and wait until the sky goes dark.

When I took these shots, I was among people, so that made me feel better, knowing I won’t be suddenly attacked by some wild beast that’s roaming out in the west desert of Utah. It took me about a dozen shots before I finally got one I like and I was glad the instructor was patient enough to walk me through. There was a full moon that night, hence the bright sky, but overall, I really liked seeing all the stars and it made me want to do this again.

Finally, I think everyone should visit the Grand Canyon at least once. It’s one of those places that never ceases to amaze. I visited by myself in 2023. The sedimentary layers in the rocks were amazing to see. The camera definitely cannot do it justice. This place must be seen with the eyes and not through a lens.