Jules HoeptingThe transitional phases. You know, that time of year in fall and spring when the dominate color of the landscape is brown. The deciduous trees are leafless. The flowers are dead, but still standing. The ground has some patches of green here and there but is dominated by mud and chlorophyll-depleted grass.
What is awesome about the brown time of year is that it forces you to find something interesting. Interesting things you probably wouldn’t have noticed with all of the green distractions.
The first thing is the shape of the landscape. Think of it like this; when people wear baggy clothes, you don’t have a good idea of what their body looks like. But when people wear tight-fitting clothes, you have a good idea of what the shape of their body is. When trees and plants are in full bloom, they take up a lot of space, and you can’t get quite as good of an idea of what the land under the plants looks like. But when the leaves are all on the ground, you can see the landscape a lot more clearly.
Snow, although pretty, is concealer for the rawness of the landscape.
The brown season is the time for the subtle details to sparkle. Any color will become more apparent.
Yellow Berries in Oswego. 
Red stems in Albion. 
Red stems in Albion. 
Blue/purple berries in Syracuse. 
Red berries in Syracuse. 
Pink moss in Geneva. 
Yellow stems in Canandaigua. 
Flattened, wet plant in Waterloo.
This includes the sky. And sunrise. Sunset. Look for water. Reflection.
Canandaigua. 
Pond in Albion. 
Erie Canal, Albion.
Patterns become fascinating. I’m personally a frequent awe-er of bark.
Geneva. 
Geneva. 
Poison ivy in Waterloo. 
Geneva. 
Spiky bark in Medina. 
Inside of bark in Albion. 
Vines and mushrooms in Geneva. 
Puddle reflection in Waterloo. 
Canandaigua. 
Greystone Nature Preserve in Fredonia.
Another fun brown season thing: graupel. Because the temperature fluctuates between above and below freezing, this really cool, dipping-dot-looking kind of snow known as graupel falls out of the clouds. The miniature snowballs are a result of water droplets freezing around snowflakes. Not only is “graupel” is also a fun word to say, but being able to identify it will make you sound smart a few times a year.
“Grapple snow” by LassenNPS is licensed with CC BY 2.0. 
“Cone and graupel” by nordique is licensed with CC BY 2.0.
One more factor to not factor out: lighting. Clouds can change your perception of how magical a landscape is within the snap of a finger. Look at the picture below, how much more magical the landscape becomes when the clouds let Earth’s star shine.
But that’s not to discredit gloomy days. Cloudy skies can provide a glorious moody aesthetic to a photograph. The lack of sun also means you don’t have to worry about shadows getting in the way when you want to photograph that really cool peeling bark.
Niagara Falls on a gloomy January day. 
Hindsberg Broken Bridge, Albion.
So, you know, it all comes down to perception. Happy trails!
