The extended dry weather clearly had significant impacts on the trees. It was dry as a bone, and many trees had already dropped their leaves, while most of those remaining showed signs of stress. This little spot on the road into Brown Tract Pond Campground was one of the most colourful, with the cinnamon fern covering the forest floor.

This mystical version of the scene is representative of how I wished it felt; a cooler, calmer, healthier, and happier forest. I intentionally left the branches with a small number of leaves in the upper left as a ‘footnote’ to the viewer to communicate a bit of reality amidst the dream.

Commended - 7IM Abstract Views