When I think of fall, I envision a scene something akin to this.  Sparkling gold leaves, bright blue skies with dabbles of red and green thrown in as almost accent colors.  Even as I look at this picture now, I find myself smiling slightly and remembering the day I shot it…

… which was about 40 and incredibly windy.  In short, I was miserable while taking this.  Looks beautiful/felt horrible is definitely the correct order of those two sentiments (looks beautiful/felt beautiful is basically a unicorn) but it never ceases to amaze me how many of my photos are a product of wildly uncomfortable conditions at the time I’m shooting them.  I’ve often stated that I try to take pictures of things the way that they should be seen, not the way they actually are and this is quite fitting with this concept.

Also worth noting: I had driven out east to shoot fall colors and hadn’t gotten a lot of great results.  When I returned home, this was the scene near my house.  C’est la vie.