Eric Bennett
As a full-time nature photographer, writer, and conservationist, I hope to share the worth that wilderness has in its pure, unaltered state. In a world the place we’re disconnecting from nature an increasing number of daily, I can’t consider one other pursuit extra worthy of my time and vitality. I consider that if I can seize a scene in the best method, my images will encourage others to guard the previous couple of wild locations we nonetheless have left.
I at the moment reside simply outdoors of Salt Lake Metropolis, Utah with my spouse and three kids. Whereas a lot of my pictures is concentrated on the unimaginable surroundings close to my house, I’ve traveled to over thirty nations to seize the varied and memorable great thing about all completely different environments.
As summer season is ending and fall will probably be making its annual look quickly, I can’t assist however surprise what sort of surroundings it is going to show. After I first moved to Utah from Panama in 2012, I took it without any consideration that every 12 months would summon a vibrant and vibrant present because the maples, oaks, and aspens would explode with dazzling hues of pink, yellow, and orange. Golden leaves would carpet the forest flooring. The daylight would flip mushy and silver because it filtered via gray clouds. The air would flip crisp, clear, and funky.
I get pleasure from experiencing and photographing each season, as each possesses its personal type of distinctive magnificence and essence—the bare timber and hushed quiet of winter; the radiant greens, rain showers, and buds of spring; the fields of wildflowers and thawing alpine lakes of summer season—however over time I’ve come to sit up for autumn probably the most. Maybe it’s as a result of I used to be born in the course of fall. Nonetheless, lately, it has turn into much less and fewer predictable as to what every autumn season will carry.
2020 was the driest and hottest fall season I’ve ever skilled. Actually, it didn’t really feel like fall in any respect. The signature colors had been absent, as timber dropped their leaves whereas nonetheless inexperienced, a survival tactic they make use of to lower their floor space when topic to an excessive amount of daylight and warmth. That is accomplished to forestall perspiring an excessive amount of moisture and to have the ability to retain sufficient water to outlive winter. Nonetheless, if they can’t photosynthesise for enough time earlier than going dormant for the lengthy winter, they could not have sufficient glucose to make it till spring. However similar to us, timber will die of thirst a lot earlier than starvation. (Here is an article on the science of autumn/fall color/shade – Tim)
