This year was different.
I’m lured to Central Park each autumn and in recent years I’ve walked across her 843 acres shooting photos and videos for many hours on multiple weekends in October and November.
But this fall’s colors peaked late and were short-lived, and priorities kept me from driving to Manhattan for leisure. When I finally made it to the park one Sunday, though, the late afternoon sun and blue sky would surrender to moody clouds that subdued highlights in trees still dressed in flavorful shades of red, yellow and orange.
This overcast accelerated a nightfall already rushed by clock hands turned back one hour, allowing me some 90 minutes to capture the season’s distinct beauty.
I traveled to the heart of the park that attracted enough sunlight to let me capture her colorized features—arches and terraces bathed in golden lights, walkways and hills draped by shed leaves, partially clad trees shadowed by skyscrapers.
Other trees had already fully disrobed, their bare branches reaching for the slate-gray sky where winter was still asleep.
Then night completed his fall and autumn drew her curtain.
