Family: Miles, Chase, and Josh
Scene: back yard near tree fort
Time of day: 6pm
Season: mid-fall
Atmosphere: spontaneous & charming
Racing the Sunset
On a refreshing mid-October evening, our boys and I raced the sunset across the yard and delighted in the magic of crunching leaves. My goal was to gather a few fall portraits of each adventurer before we lost the direct light. Mission accomplished for the older boys, but 14-month-old Josh couldn’t be bothered to stay put. He consistently left the leaf pile in search of nobody-knows-what.
Miles is our thoughtful and intuitive ponderer. At five years old he’s very self-aware and wonderfully sweet. Chase is a bright, energetic, and spontaneous three-year-old. He’s the master of charm and enjoys being immersed in his own little world. Josh is our youngest boy, an attentive and curious one-year-old. When we’re playing outside we can see his world expanding by the minute.
All three boys love to be set free. During warm months, often from April through Thanksgiving, our back yard is more familiar to them than the inside of our house.
Portraits in the Leaves
In my imagination, playing in the leaves is a wonderful way to wander through October days. In real life, I find the activity tedious. I’m bored by the unending and critical tasks of bringing wandering leaves back to the main pile and removing unexpectedly sharp leaf stems from pant legs and sweatshirts. Why can’t toddlers just remake their own leaf piles?
It took about 20 minutes for the adrenaline of leaf jumping to simmer down to a more workable energy level. Free play accomplished, our boys became very generous in their attitudes. Miles and Chase both plopped down in a collapsed leaf pile and threw their arms around each other. Chase is a goofball, though, and when I looked back on a string of ten pictures I took of him and Miles, I saw he’d swapped expressions so quickly that every.single.picture showed a different look. Who does that?! Miles held on for as long as he could, gracious child that he is, before flopping back in exasperation at his brother. (I couldn’t blame him.)
Throughout the 45 minutes the sunset allowed, I moved the leaf pile every ten minutes. I was determined to keep the sun’s warmth in the colors of our fall portraits. We started adjacent to the tree fort and found ourselves at the far end of what we consider our conventional back yard as the last rays vanished over the house.
Photographer’s Favorite
My favorites from the adventure? Miles burrowing into his leaf pile and offering a full-on grin, which can sometimes be difficult to coax out. And Chase wandering in endless circles before collapsing in a pile of glee and giggles.
Leaf Pile Highlights
This slideshow highlights our very favorite images.
