Golden glow

I decided to keep things simple today by opting to photograph some of the trees on the museum's property after work; I wanted to take some foliage shots in the late-afternoon light, during what photographers refer to as the golden hour, and wasn't sure I'd have a lot of time to do so if I waited until after the drive home. I don't know if the sun was the six degrees above the horizon that some photographers specify as when the "true" golden hour takes place (I honestly have no idea how I'd even go about figuring that out), but I thought these came out pretty well anyway.

X marks the spot:



In case you hadn't already figured it out, I really like taking foliage shots from directly underneath the leaves—especially when there's blue sky behind it to provide additional color and contrast:







Little bit of green and gold:



X marks the spot again:





Finally, I stopped at the Arlington Recreational Park on my way home to take this shot; I was trying to capture the play of light along the side of the mountain, particularly off the tops of the trees. The results weren't quite what I'd hoped for (I'd have needed to climb a tree or rent a cherry picker to get the best angle), but I thought this one came the closest to what I was going for: