Photography is emotional to me, full of symbols and meanings, visible and hidden. I was standing out by the rear fence with my monochrome camera and used Zeiss portrait lens when I saw this solitary maple leaf, standing straight up against the pasture fence, snow and ice flakes falling around it.

I was struck by the veins and spine in this body. I walked away, then returned, and  I saw an angel, spreading her wings, about to take off and fly away, another final goodbye to the season of light. I listened for some sign, a song or flash of light or sparkle, but when I looked back in a few minutes, she was gone, just another leaf from the big maple tree.