Photographer’s note: Thoreau’s essay “Autumnal Tints” describes his impressions of the infinite subtlety and beauty of the colors of New England in Fall. Who can not be startled surrounded by fiery woods, or seeing maple or liquid ambar exploding in October’s sun?

russet sycamores, Gila country
The dry southwest colors—dun streaked, white gold, russet, browns, oranges and tans—present even more subtlety, and the challenge is to see beauty, even intense beauty, in the the homely spine of a barbed cholla, with the Autumn sun glinting off of a rusty colored cholla branch, or in the tangled, abstract, found art of Rice Grass in the late afternoon. The trick is to see with westward looking eyes.

Cholla, desert colors, New Mexico

Cottonwoods, Aztec National Monument, New Mexico

Autumn light on the range, southwest New Mexico

Seed head, Rio Grande bosque (woodlands), New Mexico

Flower seeds, New Mexico

Chiricahua National Monument AZ muted colors

Autumn Asters, Colorado

Arizona Sycamore, Fall

Indian Rice Grass, New Mexico
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