The fall colors are here and the leaf-peepers, including me, are out in force with their cameras in hand. Hundreds of people are out driving in the mountains taking in the autumn beauty. Many will see spectacular colorful landscapes that cause them to screech to a halt, jump out of their vehicles and snap off a few pics. Then they will jump back into their car and look for the next aspen covered hillside to photograph.

There is nothing wrong with doing this, of course, as going for a drive to view the brilliant autumn landscape is a fun annual tradition. Unfortunately, some folks will be disappointed when they look at their photographs at home. It will seem like every picture looks the same: fully illuminated yellow, green and orange mountainsides below blue sky. Kind of pretty, but the colors will be a bit harsh from the midday sun and the photograph will lack depth.

There are many things that can be done to add a little extra zip to photographs of fall colors. For example, simply taking pics of the aspen with side or back lighting will improve color saturation and depth compared to those taken with the sun at your back.

My favorite thing to do is to remove the sky from the photograph. In other words, aim the camera a little lower. Whereas including the sky in a landscape photograph is often called a grand landscape, taking the sky out is called an intimate landscape. I believe creating an intimate landscape makes me automatically pay more attention to what I am photographing. I tend to slow down and spend more time really looking at the elements in the viewfinder and how I am framing them.

Textures, lines, patterns and colors are important elements in all photographs and can make for exceptionally powerful intimate landscapes. The rough texture of a rock or smooth texture of aspen bark can create a feel to a picture. The curved lines of a creek or straight line of a fallen tree in the foreground lead a viewer into the photograph. Repeating vertical lines of aspen trunks or the concentric circles of ripples from a pebble thrown in a pond create pleasing patterns. Vibrant colors excite the viewer and complementary colors, that is, colors on opposite sides of the color wheel create contrast and stand out. Red and green, orange and blue, yellow and violet are examples of complementary colors.

The rule of thirds is a useful guideline to help compose intimate landscape photographs. The basic idea is to divide the frame in thirds vertically and horizontally with lines and then place the primary subject of interest at one of the points where the lines intersect. It can also be used to provide a pleasing balance. For example, placing a tree in the foreground along the left vertical line while the rest of the scene fills in the other two thirds of the frame. The rule of thirds works well, but don’t get locked into it, as this is one rule that is meant to be broken.

Intimate landscapes can greatly vary in size. They can be large pieces of a grand vista, such as repeating ridge lines on the Sangre de Cristo Mountains or an entire slope of different colored aspen stands above Shallow Creek. Or they can be smaller, such as a winding trail through an aspen forest or just a few leaves lying on the forest floor.

Grand landscape photographs provide the viewer a look at the big picture, while intimate landscapes tell the story of what lies within. It’s fun to work with both. If you post your photos to social media, try leading in with a grand landscape picture and follow it with several intimate landscapes of the area.

Many people may take similar looking grand landscape photos, but intimate landscapes are your unique view. This year, try to go beyond just taking pictures of the big view and focus on intimate scenes too. I think you will be happy with the results.

Mike Blakeman is the public affairs officer for the Rio Grande National Forest.  He spends much of his free time scrambling around the mountains with a camera in his hand.