Steven October 28th, 2009
Wisconsin’s fall color season is quickly coming to an end, and with hight winds forecast for Thursday and Friday, it will be over by this weekend. With that in mind, I decided to get in one last day of fall color photography and headed out to Petrifying Springs Park yesterday.
I would say that about 70% of the trees are now bare in the park. There are more leaves on the ground than in the trees. What’s interesting is that I found myself noticing things that I didn’t notice when the colors were at their peak. Without my eye being drawn to the amazing colors overhead, I was able to see the smaller beauties that were all around.
The image above is a good example of that. At first I was drawn to the area by all the leaves on the ground, but as I walked around I noticed the contrast of the tree’s dark color with the bright leaves and really liked it. I wanted to emphasize that contrast so I lowered my composition to inches above the ground and framed the shot so the tree took up a large portion of the picture. My first shots had more sky in them, but the sky was kind of a distraction so I came in even tighter and left most of the sky out. I’m pretty happy with the final result.
You can see more images from yesterday on my SierraVisions post, Fall 2009, The Last Hoorah
Steven October 1st, 2009
Here lately, while I’m waiting for the fall colors to really get going in Wisconsin, I’ve been going through some of my old images from the Eastern Sierra. Mostly images from the fall of 2005. I shot a lot of photos in Sept. and Oct. of ’05 and I remember being disappointed in many of them at that time. Looking at them now, four years later, I’m finding that I really like many of these images.
What I’m seeing are images that were composed nicely, but have some exposure and color issues. I’m sure at the time I was disappointed in these images because of that. I knew Photoshop very well in 2005, but I wasn’t nearly as knowledgeable as I am today. Now I can fix exposure and colors issues without even thinking to much about it. Another big difference between now and ’05 is Adobe Lightroom. It wasn’t even out back then. I think it came out in 2006 if I’m not mistaken. Lightroom has now become my main tool in post processing. It gives me the ability to fix the white balance and exposure issues that many of these images have just by moving a couple sliders.
This image of an Eastern Sierra aspen grove is a perfect example. The white balance was very blue on it and it was slightly underexposed. I shot this image as a JPG, not a RAW, but I was still able to fix the white balance and exposure in Lightroom. Just by adding yellow and magenta I warmed the picture up and with some contrast made it look as I first envisioned it.
It’s pretty awesome to go back through my files and find these types of hidden treasures. I’m finding that as I become more knowledgeable with Lightroom and Photoshop, I can save images that I thought were lost. Sometimes I turn them into black and whites, and sometimes I’m able to make them look as I wanted them to look when I first shot them.
Steven September 9th, 2009
Sometimes when I’m out shooting I find myself overwhelmed by the beauty that’s all around me. This often happens in fall when the trees are all changing at once. There’s so much beauty that it’s hard to focus on what to shoot. At times like this I try to remind myself to simplify and look for something that stands out from all of the beautiful chaos. Maybe the curve of a tree trunk, a patch of color that’s different from the rest or maybe a single leaf lying on the ground.
Today’s image was taken in Yosemite Valley on a day like that. We were walking a trail not to far from Bridalveil Falls, the colors along the trail were breathtaking and I was having a hard time shooting because if it. Then I noticed this leaf from a Big Leaf Maple. It was just lying there on top of many other leaves and seemed like nothing special. But I liked the way it stood out from the other leaves. Most of them had been on the ground for awhile and were turning brown, but this one was freshly fallen and still had good yellow color.
Using the macro setting on the camera, I moved in close to the maple leaf to make it stand out and to simplify the chaos of the forest floor. Then I used the smallest aperture this camera has, f/11, to make sure all of the leaves came out sharp. Luckily there wasn’t any wind because my shutter speed was close to half a second.
Of all the pictures I shot that day, this is one of my favorites. Not only does it show the simple beauty of nature, but it helps to remind me to simplify when surrounded by chaos.
Technical Details:
Minolta DiMAGE A2
Shot at 25mm
ISO 64
F/11 at 0.6 Sec.
Tripod Mounted
Steven September 8th, 2009
Fall is a great time of year to try new creative ideas. The colors of the trees open up many possibilities that aren’t there the rest of the year. A good example of this is back lighting. Bright sunlight shining through the canopy of the trees creates a great contrast between the gold leaves and the branches of the tree. Many interesting compositions can be found within one tree. When you add in a whole grove the possibilities become endless.
This image was shot at Humbolt Park in Milwaukee, WI. After shooting many interesting landscapes in the park I began to look upward into the canopy of the trees. Using a wide angle lens I was able to pull in a large part of the canopy. Exposure on a back lit shot can be tricky sometimes. For this image I set the exposure for the sky and then underexposed 3 tenths of a stop more to make sure my highlights didn’t get blown out and my shadows stayed nice and dark. I really like the black branches silhouetted against the bright gold leaves with the blue sky shining through. I placed the sun is behind the main trunk and put it at the bottom of the image to create the nice gradient in the sky.
This year while you’re out shooting fall colors, remember to look up every now and then. You never know when a great image will be just above your head.
Technical Details:
Canon Digital Rebel XTI
EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS
ISO 100
f/6.3 @ 1/400 sec.
Exposure Bias -0.3 stops
Tripod Mounted
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