Autumn seems to be the shortest of all seasons in North Dakota, at least the portion of it in which the foliage turns color. For instance: a few days ago I was up at Fort Lincoln taking sunset photos and eyeballing the colors of the leaves on the drive up the hill to the blockhouses. Tonight, as my little four year old and I drove up that same road, the trees were already quite barren. Some areas still thick leaves, but be warned: they won’t hang around long.

The above shot is an example of why you want to take a polarizer with on a sunny day of foliage photography. The shot on the left and the right are taken with identical settings mere seconds apart. The photo on the right, however, is with a circular polarizer. It’s obvious that, given the right angle, a photographer can really deepen the sky and make those fall colors pop! Once again, I advise doing so quickly. It won’t be long before the only place one can photograph those leaves will be on the ground.