A million frozen fireflies

...Or a mess of dead trees. Take your pick.

Balsam Lake Mountain, Hardenburgh, NY

Shoulder season brings an unsettling quiet to the forest. The leaves that just days ago set their landscapes ablaze with color are withered, detached, and decomposing in the freezing mud. The trees are bare, the old ones falling, no longer able to dress the gray, naked mountains behind them. The threat of snow hangs in a heavy, cold stone air.

I felt the weight of it, making my way up the mountain that day.

With little more than 48 hours to go before winter’s official start, a storm the day before had entombed the already sleeping trees in a blanket of ice.

And that’s when it happened: As the clouds dissipated, the sun set every icy branch alight, like a million frozen fireflies.

That’s what I’d wanted to capture. It didn’t quite work out that way.