Bruce Peninsula Fall Color
Let me know if you have something similar happen to you. Frequently when I am heading out to photograph, I will be driving along the highway and some quick details will catch my attention. It may be something quite fleeting and subtle. Whatever it is, I do this mental grab or snapshot and begin processing it in my head. Since it is a highway, I find myself evaluating if it is worth turning around for or not. I didn’t even get a careful look at it, it was just something that caught my attention for a moment. Turning around could result in a significant diversion of time.
Such was the case with this group of trees along a highway going up into the Bruce Peninsula. I am pretty sure the white trunks are what grabbed me. They slashed through the foliage in a clean way that seemed to be different than most other sections along the road. It is a like a running movie camera in your head and one particular frame of thousands stands out from the others, and I hadn’t even picked up the camera yet. (more…)
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Red bud leaves
My approach to searching for patterns in nature is fairly simple. I look for the defining repeating elements, but then I need something to break it up, to create the focal point. If the element that breaks up the pattern is related in subject matter to the pattern itself, it works much better. I think our brain naturally wants to process visual input like this, otherwise our eyes are lost wandering.
I usually end up emphasizing one or the other in post-processing to further help the relationship in the pattern. If we remember that our eyes are drawing to the most sharp, most contrasty areas of an image first, it gives us some clues on where we need to work with the image.
I made this photo of red bud leaves some years ago, but originally released it as a monochrome shot. I just recently processed the color version. I think it works well both ways. Obviously the pattern is fallen leaves from a red bud tree, one that happens to be in my backyard. I like the colors and varied state of degradation of the leaves. The two leaves towards the center of the photo have something unique about them – they are both face up. This was a more subtle way to break up the pattern of the fallen leaves beneath.
I did have some selective burning to do on the edges of this shot since some of the leaves had bright spots on them. I did this by using the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom. By darkening these areas, I eliminated some areas of higher contrast than the two central leaves.
Returning to soil
I saw this second image while walking in the woods one day. The pattern I saw was the brown leaves, all in various states of shriveling up. It is much less homogeneous than the red bud image above, and perhaps the prominence of pattern more subtle. It is much more gritty and broken up, but I still see a pattern within. Because of that, I thought I needed to look for a stronger element to create a strong focal point. I did find a section of these leaves with a branch running through them. Some selective burning was also required in this image to eliminate high contrast areas near the edge of the frame. I titled this “Returning to soil” as all of elements here are in the process of doing just that.
I enjoy making these kind of images because you can make them anywhere. You don’t need a grand scenic or to fly thousands of miles. Often they are right outside your door.
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Cedar Lake sunrise with fall colors, near Traverse City, Northern Michigan
This weekend my wife, our malamute Willow and I stayed with some friends at a cabin we rented near Traverse City, Michigan. It is a truly beautiful area. It wasn’t primarily a photography trip, but more about taking in some of the remaining fall color there, some relaxing site seeing along the coastline, and of course visiting some of the great Michigan wineries.
I did manage to get out this morning though for a quick fix of burning some pixels. This image is from the property where we stayed on Cedar Lake, about 25 minutes west of Traverse City.
With the exposure blending options available today, I find myself much less reluctant to photograph into the sun – even after it crests the horizon. I have always liked the way morning sun makes fall leaves glow when they are backlit. This is an attempt to capture some of that.
I blended this one (7 images, 1 stop apart each) using my 15 day trial version of Nik HDR Efex Pro. So far I like it. It offers a nice alternative to Photomatix with excellent presets for very realistic looking blends. Photomatix has dominated the market for so long (for good reason), it is interesting to see the approach another company takes with HDR. I finished it up with minor additional tweaks in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5.
My Michigan Landscapes Gallery
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Fall leaves after rain on riverside slate
Despite being mid-Summer here, I am already yearning for the cooler temperatures and variety of color of fall. I am not a big fan of the heat. It saps my motivation more than I would like on a great many things – photograph – keep up with my blog, keep up with other blogs. :-)
I have always been one to try to look at any particular scene for its very basic graphical elements. Leaves certainly make for good candidates due to their very recognizable shape. This particular image I had sitting in my files for awhile, originally because it had some distortion in it from the wide angle lens I used to create it. The distortion bothered me, so I put it aside to fix it later. Well, my fellow photographers know how long the interval can turn into from putting something aside and then actually working on it.
As it typically happens, I am sorting through my files looking for something else – for a print order on another image or stock submission – and end up finding images I had forgotten about. I originally uploaded this to my gallery as a horizontal, but the more I think about it, I think it looks better as a vertical. So another one gets rescued from purgatory.
Thank you for visiting.
…more fall color leaf pictures …
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Fall harvest
My local fall shooting has been pretty dismal lately. However, rumor is we had some pretty good color in Michigan. The leaves are now mostly down, and color is well past peak. My local “harvest” of fall images, with the exception of Alaska fall colors, is quite low.
One time I did get out recently had me thinking about the term fall harvest. ”Fall harvest” is something we often associate with agriculture – apples, corn, pumpkins, etc. Provisions for winter. With each year, my harvest of images changes, different conditions, different time availability, different locations, and most notably, different ideas. Even my own backyard still produces new images limited only by my imagination in seeing them.
Nature’s fall harvest can be in the leaves and nutrients that will return to the ground to feed new spring growth. Pine’s shedding their needles creating a protective blanket underneath. This was the general idea behind this image. Harvest does not always need to be defined by taking – nature proves that it is a time of giving back to the Earth, as well as feeding our photographic souls.
This image was processed using a combination of Adobe Lightroom, Topaz Adjust, and Luminosity Masks in Photoshop CS3, capture by a Nikon D700 and 24-70 f2.8 AFS lens. You will find more of my leaf pictures in my gallery.
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