It is the middle of November and the peak of autumn is already behind us. I spent my time photographing forests and preparing assignments for mentorship clients. It feels like this year passed me by. Life itself seems to have followed its own track and I got derailed. Life rushed through Spring and Summer and then all of a sudden it was autumn once again and I knew I had to seize these last autumn days as very soon winter would be arriving and with it the grey skies, the bland days, the silhouettes of trees, the thousands shades of grey. Winter was a prolonged period of longing for the first green leaves, the first rays of sunshine, this year. I am dreading the day the last leaves fall down and that once again I will be hoping for a new Spring. 

In an attempt to catch up with life which seems to be following its course with me on standby, I vowed I would make the most of every day that the forests would still be inviting. I love the smell of autumn, the wondrous world of mushrooms, the swirling leaves, the morning mists. 

With several mentorship clients who photograph in black and white, I started thinking about how one could make photographs tell the story of autumn without the obvious clues, the colours. For a story to be effectively told and conveyed, one needs symbols that are at least understood by a considerable amount of people. But how can autumn be conveyed in photography without that most obvious symbol? 

This picture tells the story of autumn using the most obvious clues; the colours. There can be no misunderstanding about the season with a picture like this, but what if you were a black and white photographer? How would you approach telling the story of autumn?

I usually suggest to find out what your symbols are. What are your personal symbols for autumn apart from the colours? And what about if you have to also omit the other very obvious symbol of mushrooms?

How to tell the story of a season using more subtle clues? How to approach a story from an unusual angle without losing to communicate and relate to the viewer?  

As soon as you start to ask questions your mind will come up with answers. There are many ways to tell a personal story using symbols that are meaningful to you. Asking yourself questions like those I just asked will open up new options that might just lead a more intentional approach, which in turn might just cause you to enter a more mindful state of mind. 

Another autumn picture which is far less obvious in its storytelling, yet the melancholic atmosphere and the presence of leaves on the undergrowth and the lack of leaves on the silver birch tells us that it must me autumn

Everything around us is giving us clues all the time. These days we look at our watch or grab our phones to give us information that generations of people before us just knew by watching the position of the sun, the quality of light, the appearance of the first buds, the first mushrooms of a particular kind. I am a notorious watchless person. I roughly know what time it is. The church bells might ring in the distance, the sun sets at a certain time and it will be getting dim in the forest about an hour before. As I see my shutter speeds getting longer every few minutes, I know it is time to leave. 

These clues tell a little story about the time of day. Likewise the story of autumn can be told in many ways that are more meaningful if it is told using a personal interpretation and an intentional approach. It might be an extravaganza of colour, if this is what autumn means to you and that is perfectly viable if this is how you feel. But if autumn means something else to you, you can work with the symbols that make your own story visible in your photographs.

How would YOU tell the story of autumn and how you feel about it if you could not rely on the most obvious symbols? Let your mind come up with your own personal answers based on what autumn means to you. If you were a black and white photographer, you would have to come up with strong indicators that you could use as symbols in your photographs. 

Storytelling relies on the use of symbols that can be understood. As photographers we can not rely on words to create a story. We use symbols to express how we feel and to tell a story. Venture beyond the most obvious and you will realise that many subtle clues are picked up by our brains to assess our situation, the conditions, the time or season. Try to name them, choose those that are most personally meaningful and create a story with your photograph. Even if just as an exercise. Look beyond the most obvious and find a world filled with subtleties. 

As always I would like to express my gratitude to all of you who have been supporting me, who bought one of my prints, my eBook and who have trusted me to be their teacher. At this moment there are some last minute individual workshop dates available, contact me if you would be interested in this opportunity.

If you feel compelled to support my work, please consider buying a print or my eBook The Magic of Forest Photography. Prints are now available for many more countries in the EU. If you would like to buy a print and can't find the image in my print shop, please let me know and I'll try to make it available. Join Newsletter Banner