Autumn in the South

I arrived just before midnight in the dark, so I had not yet seen the autumn colors of the woodlands until I woke up. I could see that this time the colors had arrived in full force, it was indeed very beautiful.
The first day I spent along the forests in the ridgelines, while I took many photos I was happy with, I revisited the same compositions the following day, in better conditions.
I decided to go down the canyon and follow the flooded trail along the river.

In the valley, there were more variations in the color, some oranges, but mostly yellow and green.

A longer exposure created beautiful strokes of orange leaves and white bubbles in the river.
The following day, the valley and horizon were filled with mist, and there was some rain coming and going. On my last trip, I found a new lookout of the valley which I really enjoyed. I decided to go there again and to get a good look at the mists.

The valley consisted of mostly dark red and deep orange colors, with some trees having lost most of their leaves. I really enjoy how well you can see the river and the curves of the valley. To the left upper corner, you can see some mist going into the woodland, so I decided to go towards that.

The mist poking into the woodlands from the valley makes the landscapes a lot better. I really enjoy the variation of color in this scene, especially the contrast with the green leaves. What caught my attention first was the look down into the small stream, with the fallen tree and deep yellow colors. However, getting a tight composition of that proved difficult, so I ended up with a wider scene, which still worked out great. I like the contrast of the very sparse woodland to the left, while to the right the woodland is a lot tighter.
I had some breakfast and waited for the mist to roll deeper into the woodland, thankfully I did not have to wait long.

The small stream adds some great interest and detail to this scene, but the mist is really what makes me like this photo. I enjoy how the trees frame the scene, and how the branches leave a gap just where the mist is the thickest, so we get a beautiful view of the distant woodland.
I went towards a tree I have photographed many times, in many different seasons. I had taken a picture of it in autumn 2021 but failed the composition slightly. This time there were more leaves in the valley, and I was determined to get a good composition of the tree.

Photographing along the ridgeline makes for great compositions, and this tree is just so well placed at the edge. The colors were amazing in this scene, especially to that tree sticking up alone, higher than the rest. It had a beautiful fade of colors from dark red to yellow. One challenging part of the composition is the right upper corner, as the sky comes in, this time I tried covering it up more with leaves from a nearby branch, and I think it helped the scene a lot.
However, while trying to pull the branch slightly more into the frame to cover more parts of the sky, my tripod fell over, and since my hands were occupied with the branch, I was unable to catch it in time. Luckily my Sony A7ii survived, but not my Sony 16-35 F4. It has been with me since 2019 when I bought it used for 9000 SEK, but luckily my insurance paid out the full amount I bought it for, so I have been using it for free for 4 years, not too bad!