At the end of September this year I was out photographing in Colorado specifically looking for scenery to show off the beautiful fall colors we get in our state. The day was almost over, so I started looking for a camp site I could stay at for the night. I found a gravel road that went up into the forest. While driving up the road for 10 or 15 minutes, I spotted a curving dirt trail that went up into an area covered with a canopy of very tall aspen trees. I followed the trail and found a nice little spot secluded in the forest.

While I was setting up camp just around dusk, I noticed how thick this forest was and the fall colors were looking amazing. I woke up the next morning to a very bright yellow glowing light all around my little camp site. I jumped out of the tent and grabbed my camera and tripod. I have been looking for a scene like I captured in this image for a while. So one of my goals that morning was to find a view of the trees and the leaves that didn't include the sky or any clutter in the background. Just aspen tree trunks and yellow leaves.

I used a telephoto lens so I could stand at a distance and zoom in on the scene I wanted to capture, while using an f-stop that blurred the background leaves a bit. The little branch and leaves just in front of the tree trunks was a bonus that I thought added to the photo.