LATE FALL PHOTOGRAPHY; COMPOSITIONS ON THE GROUND

Our fall colors, here in Ada County, Idaho, came quickly this year. The yellows—like our river Birch—went yellow and dropped while the trees that go to reds were still green. We had a great assortment of fall colors this year to photograph and I’ve gone out several times to all my favorite locations and discovered some new spots as well!

As I’ve said in previous blogs I prefer to photograph details—I rarely photograph a whole tree much less a forrest—since I can reveal the most about a natural object by zooming-in on its details. Instead of backing off to photograph a whole tree (a very static image) I like to walk in under its canopy and look up or out with the sun backlighting the leaves. 

So, once the trees have dropped their leaves and they still have their colors I go to compositions on the ground. It’s a great exercise in “seeing”, as you look through the viewfinder, creating artistic compositions….

f14.0 @ 1/250 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 48mm

We don’t have to go far to find great fall colors here—I got this composition right outside my studio (Eagle, Idaho). It’s a natural fall of leaves on a French drain made of river rocks. The hard part was limiting myself as there were so many possible compositions!  Ok, I take that back, maybe the hardest parts were not stepping-on some great leaves, finding stable rocks to stand on, and not getting my big feet in the shot!

At another great spot where the Boise river flows through Eagle, Idaho, with lots of trees…

f13.0 @ 1/60 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 50mm

I really like using fallen trees as a base for my leaves on the ground images. I like the contrast in textures and color between the decaying tree bark and all the fall colors. You may notice in my image data that I use a small aperture (e.g. f13.0, f14.0) to get lots of depth-of-field. I want my leaves to have detail—you can’t show detail with out-of-focus leaves! So, I will use whatever ISO I need to get me to a small aperture and a hand holdable shutter speed.

How about this for a study in textures…

f8.0 @ 1/250 sec., ISO 400; Lens @ 200mm

This is my symbolic ”Last Leaf of Fall”, taken at sunset, on some nice tree roots. Yes, on this image I placed that leaf there so it would pick-up the backlight from the setting sun.

What can I say; I’m not a purist nature photographer I want Great Lighting, and Composition at the same time! How about you?

’Til next week…

Author:  Jerry W. Venz, PPA Master Photographer, Craftsman

Training site: http://www.LightAtTheEdge.com

Client site: http://www.TheStorytellersUsa.com