After my trip to Hanksville I found myself extremely busy trying to catch up with everything. I had client work, a Santa set to construct, marketing and sales meetings – not to mention some sleep to catch up on. I woke up early on Thursday, decided to drop some of my plans and head up American Fork canyon. The fall leaves are brighter than they have been in several years. I’m always busy in the fall preparing for our Storybook Santa sessions so I don’t get out as much as I would like. But this time I was bound and determined. Packing up the camera gear, I loaded the truck and headed out. I had to. There was a storm coming in and a good chance the color would be gone if I waited. Arriving at the summit I parked the truck and decided to hike up to Horseshoe flat, a location I hadn’t been to in a number of years. After some huffing and puffing I found myself alone in a world of pure gold. It was spectacular. Unfortunately the light was not quite there. After waiting for a while I put the camera and tripod over my shoulder and started down the mountain, after all I had work to do. I didn’t get far when things began to change as the sun popped in and out of the clouds that were passing overhead at a rapid pace. Patches of light would pass through the scene so fast that if the camera was not ready to go with your finger on the trigger I missed it. But I kept at it, even hiking further up the mountain. I had planned to be home by 9 or 10am, but it turned into about 1:00pm when I finally sat down in the kitchen and had my first meal of the day. My busy calendar didn’t go away, but sometimes you have to suck it up and take some time out and go for the gold.

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