Hometown Fall Colors

January 7, 2022

San Diego, It is the place I have called home for 40+ years. My photography journey has led me to many beautiful places and many fond memories; all of which I will treasure and be forever grateful for. All that being said, there is something truly special about the place we call home. It never fails, as each trip winds down and familiar street names and local icons are back in my sight, an irreplaceable feeling of home warms my heart.

I was chatting with fellow photographer David Johnston about new photography project ideas and one that popped up was one based around fall color in our hometowns. San Diego, usually known for its beaches and 70 degree weather almost all year long, historically is not the first choice for fall color photography. As a native San Diegan, I knew there was great potential of fall color imagery here. This project would give me the opportunity to dig deeper into the area to see what type of experiences and images I would see.

From September through December, I explored various forests, lakes and other natural areas. Many of which I visited multiple times because there was just so much to see. It allowed me the chance to get really sink my teeth into these areas. I could experience certain scenes multiple times and see their colors shift over days and weeks. It was also helpful to see them in different lighting conditions.

I experienced some new hikes, made some images I was happy with but most importantly I simply had fun being outside. Truth be told, there were a few scenes where I decided not to take the shot that day in order to come back another day. Later, I would find that the scene was more to my liking the previous visit. There were even a few where so much had changed that I never made an image at all. Although those images didn’t work out, I walked away with a better understanding about these forests and how timing, weather and light work with photographing within those areas. I do my best learning from making mistakes and I certainly learned a lot during this project.

My takeaways from this project:

1. Don’t sleep on your neighborhood parks and natural areas. You would be surprised how many photographic opportunities there are just steps from your home.

2. The stress of rushing around was largely diminished as these were all local areas that I could easily return to. In turn, I was able to maintain a higher level of focus and creative flow.

3. It allowed for a healthy balance with family, work and life responsibilities.

4. This body of work has a deeper meaning to me as they are of my hometown.

5. Not every photography trip has to be 3+ hours away from home.

6. In southern California, fall colors can be experienced deeper into the year allowing for more opportunities in the field.

7. There will always be another day to make a photograph.

Moving forward, I hope to continue to build on the base I had created in my 2021 San Diego Fall Color project.

Thanks for reading. Hope you all are well. - Marco

All photographs copyright Marco Sipriaso ©2024