Peak fall colors ignite an aspen grove beneath the shadow of Mount Moran.

Grand Teton is a completely different park during the Fall, as the groves of aspen ever present in Jackson Hole ignite to brilliant colors.  This grove at Oxbow Bend transitions from green to yellow, orange, or even bright red depending on conditions during the previous spring and summer.  This year the predominant color was yellow, and I kept careful watch on a daily basis electing not to shoot it until I found the colors at their brightest.  I originally arrived to shoot the sunrise, and found one of the most majestic scenes as a large bull elk walked over a hill and bugled disrupting the pre-dawn silence. It was an incredible sight to behold, but I found conditions for photography to be best during this mid-day shoot.  My polarizer completely nullified sunlight upon the trees but amplified their reflections on the water, which seemed to bring out the yellow leaves with incredible detail.  I originally envisioned this to be the first in a series of annual shots from Oxbow Bend and titled it so, but for some reason or another have never really wandered back to shoot this location.  I think my photography tastes have changed as I worked on my craft, but I hope to one day re-experience this serene scene, perhaps with a different shade of aspen?