For a landscape photographer, autumn in Northern Michigan provides a three to four-week window of opportunity, with colors peaking in the inland and higher elevations quite earlier than by the shorelines of the Great Lakes.

This image was made in the late morning on a bright day at a popular overlook of the Manistee River Valley. The variations among species always provide ample color, with the red and orange maples, yellow beech, and birch leading the still-green oaks. The saturated colors were gone one week later, the oaks turning brown.