Hello Reader !
Tammy and I.
We went for a Sunday drive.
You know the ones where you slide into the car with zero plan, no destination circled on a map, just… wherever the road wants to take you.
It was one of those beautiful October days.
Peak fall colors were exploding everywhere.
The kind of day that makes you feel like you're driving through a postcard that's almost too saturated to be real.
So we decided to just… go.
No plans. No pressure.
Just "should we turn here?"
"What about those trees on top of that hill… look at all that color."
Nah.
So we kept rolling.
Three hours later we found ourselves deep in new territory.
Unfamiliar roads.
Fresh trails begging to be explored.
We parked and started wandering.
Up and down and all around… trees everywhere.
Colors screaming from every branch.
But nothing grabbed me.
Same beautiful fall scene you've seen a thousand times.
Same golden yellows.
Same burnt oranges.
Same fire-engine reds.
Nothing worth stopping for.
Nothing worth pulling the camera out of the bag.
Nothing that made me feel anything.
However… as we were descending into the forest, I spotted a leading line.
So I pulled out my Nikon z6 + 20mm and dialed in: f/5.6 | 1/100 | ISO 100
Good.
But not great.
Once we hit the forest floor, I found this scatter of fall leaves tangled among some gnarly tree roots.
Kinda interesting…
Good.
But still not great.
A few minutes later we nearly walked right past this massive boulder...
...completely blanketed in thick green moss with a few autumn leaves clinging to the surface.
I stopped.
Something about it pulled at me, but I couldn't figure out what.
So I took a quick throwaway shot just to see what I was looking at.
That frame gave me something crucial: it narrowed my focus.
With that image locked in-camera, I could now zoom in on this one thing instead of getting overwhelmed by the million other elements screaming for attention all around me.
So I pressed the viewfinder to my eye and studied this scene... blocking out every other distraction in the forest.
Then I asked myself the question that always cuts through the noise...
"What is, or what should be, the star of this photo?"
And that's when it hit me.
The thing that yanked me toward this boulder in the first place wasn't the moss… at least not by itself.
It was the contrast.
The clash between the electric green moss and those warm, glowing autumn leaves.
A single leaf was destined to be the star of this creation.
So I picked the brightest, most vibrant one I could find and placed it among a patch of moss that had the most interesting texture.
Time to experiment.
I tried the rule of thirds first.
Nope. Felt off-balance.
Too much empty space competing with my star.
How about a vertical?
Nope. Even worse.
How about dead-center... break all the rules?
Still nope.
I ran out of ideas standing there in the forest.
Packed up.
Drove home feeling like I'd missed it.
It wasn't until I sat down at my computer, staring at these frames, that it finally clicked.
A square format...
Suddenly everything locked into place.
The star got the stage it deserved.
Wouldn't you agree?
Sometimes less is more.
And sometimes you gotta walk away, come home, and let the image tell you what it needs.
Have an awesome day!
Chris Parker
Parker Photographic
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