On Saturday, hoping to catch the last bit of autumn in the Chesapeake woodlands, I took a quick morning stroll on the western shore of Loch Raven. The early light of dawn was filtering through a rusty canopy as I stepped out of the car and climbed up the dirt path that proceeds northward above the reservoir. Through the sparse leaves, I could see the shimmer of the lake and the haze of morning mist rising from its surface - a far cry from the inscrutably dense forest that I shot in the summer. After walking a mile along the footpath, its length carpeted by fallen leaves, I turned and followed a rocky creekbed down to the water. I arrived at an inlet where the creek spills into the reservoir, not far from Merryman Point. Jane and I took a selfie at this little waterfall last September; I nearly slipped and fell while running to her from my tripod. I sat on the log for awhile that Saturday morning, listening to the tinkling of the creek beneath me, the rustling of leaves in the wind, and the fading edge of birdsong in the trees.
