Not as grand as Kolomenskoye, our local Ekaterininsky park does have the advantage of being less crowded. Judith and I walked there after a day in the dorms.

Yesterday at Kolomenskoye, I saw lots of Russians taking “photos in the style of autumn,” as a friend of mine termed them. There are five main variants:

1. 1)Backdrop. This is a majestic autumn landscape, preferably taken from a hill looking out across other hills or at the edge of a body of water. It has a horizontal orientation and the subject is usually directly in the center, smiling and blocking the view.
   

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2. 2)Toss-up. The subject gathers leaves and tosses them into the air. Something about this action creates an expression of authentic joy on the person’s face.
   

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3. 3)King of the world. More commonly queen of the world, these are the pictures taken immediately after finishing a maple leaf crown. They are usually taken from a bit of a bird’s eye view, perhaps to make the crown seem even larger than it is, or perhaps because the subjects are most often children and the photographers most often parents.
   

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4. 4)Tree hugger. The subject grabs a handful of leaves then hugs a tree. This was particularly popular at Kolomenskoye because of the six-hundred-year oak trees thought to confer energy on those who touch them. A variation on this theme is to lean against the tree.
   

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5. 5)Bed of leaves. The subject lies down on a carpet of maple leaves and the photographer moves about trying various angles. This is probably meant to convey that the colors and the trees are so beautiful one could rest there forever, but instead of doing so the subject will spring up as soon as the photo-op is over. (I didn’t get a picture of any Russians doing this, but I do have our versions.)
   

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We took a lot of pictures, but didn’t have time to make crowns and used a wall of red ivy for our backdrop shots instead of the standard landscape. Ekaterininsky Photos.