I predominantly shoot in black and white, which is my preference, but when fall arrives (or autumn, if you are in a non-U.S. English-speaking region), all bets are off and I dive straight into the vivid color presets on my camera. I won’t shy away from polarizer filters either.

Fall is hands down my most favorite of all seasons, not only for its bright colors, but also for its cooler weather when things calm and slow down as nature prepares itself for a long winter rest. It’s also a season of harvest, a payback for all the hard work through the year, if homesteading or gardening is your thing. This brings lots of memories for me personally, remembering running through the fields as a kid and climbing trees while our family would go out every weekend (and sometimes weekdays) to harvest potatoes, beets and other vegetables and pick apples and pears in our orchard to store in root cellar. Also remembering flying kites and most importantly making fires right in plowed fields to burn all the dry plant stalks. I think this is where my prejudice about baked potatoes comes from whenever we go out to a restaurant and they serve a baked potato wrapped in aluminum foil, which looks like it was more cooked than anything else. Not a fan.

To me, a baked potato is unwashed, covered in dirt (been just dug out of the ground), thrown into the hot coals until the skin is completely charred black. Pick it up 10 minutes later, open it up by gently breaking it in half (it will be very tender), perhaps add a little salt, and eat as is with a spoon or just break into pieces and eat with your fingers, leaving the charred skin behind. There is something satisfying about this and I have yet to find a restaurant that can match the rich, smoky, caramelized flavor. And yes, your hands and whole face will be one sooty hot mess, but what else has a kid got to do when playing outside?