I took this shot using Fujifilm 400 ISO, a blue filter on my Cokin mount, my 50mm 1.8 Nikkor lens, and a shaded patch of rain soaked grass as a background.

The Fuji, hungry for the blue, combined with the water, the overcast sky, and the shade all account for the surreal and strange blue colouration of the photograph. Its partner, Oak Leaves in Fall II, was taken using the same set-up.

Typically, fall shots are a flaring of colour, or whole forest fires of red and orange and yellow, with perhaps just a slight dabbling of green to remind us what was, and most often with a splash of blue water or sky to heighten the sense of colour of the leaves and fill out the range. This photograph differs from the typical autumn shot by adding a sense of quiet melancholy to the inherent beauty of an oak's fall bloom, that soon there would be no leaves and a dangerous cold would paralyze the tree and all others like it.

For more information about the processes churning within leaves as they change colour, please visit http://www.na.fs.fed.us/spfo/pubs/misc/leaves/leaves.htm.