Finding the feeling behind the image

  I walked under blue skies and through a skiff of snow today.  The trail up S Mountain didn’t offer anything to my camera that was structurally interesting.  A few lazy shots of lichen or a frost pattern, but nothing which grabbed at me.  Later, examining images taken over the holiday, I found little inspiring, yet could not escape the feeling that the landscape, the brisk air, leaves drying and partially covered by snow, and the brilliant Colorado sky had filled me with pleasure that should find some expression.  I began experimenting with an image of tree stump 

 

 

among a few leaves.  The roots had character.  There were suggestions of color.  As I turned the image, applying different filters, then reblending the layers, I saw what had been hidden.  It was the colors … the colors of fall slowly disappearing as winter became ascendant.