Tag Archives: Autumn leaf color

Photography

Sheltered Nook

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69S_3028

 

A rainy day. Out for a drive. A beaver pond beside the highway. The location is just south of Sudbury, Ontario. I have seen this site many times, but it just needed the right ingredients to work This all added up to a late fall composition. It does not come much easier than stepping out of your vehicle and setting up your equipment by the highway.

The leaves here are predominantly yellow and thinning out. This is a quiet peaceful scene that is a common scene in Northern Ontario. Yellowish brown grass to the green of the evergreens. You can view the beaver house to the right. The winter storage of food is on the left at the edge of the shoreline. As it turned out it was a cold hard winter just past.

Thank you for stopping by. I would like especially to thank those who have become subscribers. So until next time happy trails.

Photography

A Fall Day

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GeorgeLakeFall2014d

 

I arose at 6:00 a.m. last Thursday morning. Finally the weather has cleared. Packed my grub and camera gear for a trip to Killarney Provincial Park. As I drove down the Killarney Road, the first thing I noticed was how bare the trees were. Entering the park I parked at the East end. George Lake was calm with a fair amount of moving mist. I proceeded to capture various scenes around me. George Lake is a beautiful lake with the La Cloche Mountains to the North. Now it was time to pick up the trail to A Y Jackson Lake. It was time to hike over the ridge. Now this is a steep and long ridge. If you think you are in shape this little climb will tell you. By the time I got to the top my legs are aching, breathing hard. Must be my age I guess. So over the top I went and descended back down. A few minutes later I was at A Y Jaqckson Lake. One of my favorite locations in the park.  There was mist on the lake, reflections before me. I composed a number of compositions before heading back to George Lake.

Finishing my morning shot I headed for Killarney. I had spoke to Pierre AJ Sabourin and informed him that I was coming for a visit. Pierre is a well known professional en plein air landscape painter, following the Canadian School of Painting in spirit, philosophy, and practice. You can follow Pierre on his blog.

https://pierreajsabourin.wordpress.com/

Pierra is a very passionate man who loves his work. He is very knowledgeable about the Group of Severn and above all a great guy to visit. Arriving at Pierre’s Sunset Rock Studio in Killarney, I was immediately offered a hot cup of coffee. It was much appreciated. Pierre and I had a good visit.

It was soon time to head back to Killarney Provincial Park. I parked at the West end parking lots. I manage to capture a few more photos at this end of the lake. But the wind was picking up a bit. It being noon I enjoyed a lunch. Pretty quiet in the park at this time of year. Loading up I picked up the hiking trail across the bridge at  West end of George Lake. There is something to be said about walking in a Maple bush with the leaves all on the ground. The trees bare with a few leaves still falling. The forest floor covered in a thick carpet of leaves, slowly molding into the ground creating fresh nutrients  for the forest come Spring. I love to stop and admire these mature trees in all there grandeur. Magnificent in their size. Ferns dot the forest floor. Still a vivid green against a brown background. The small streams running high from all the rain. As I traversed over the ridges it was just a wonderful place to be on a warm sunny autumn day.

The trail was wet and muddy in the low areas.Thus I had to negotiate around these areas. I finally came to the trail into Lumsden Lake.  In a few minutes I arrived at Lumsden Lake. Following the shoreline I came upon the campsite. A beautiful place to set camp. Walking onto the rocks, the first thing I noticed was that there were a lot of bare trees here. There were a couple interesting scenarios here for a photos. The best thing here would to camp for a couple days next year. I found a good spot on the rocks to rest my butt and lean my back against. Put my Tilly  hat over my face and had me a short nap. Meanwhile the wind had picked up. There was a coolness on the face from the wind. A reminder that winter is coming.

Time to hit the trail again. It was late afternoon. Traversing through the Maple trees, crossing the small streams and topping the ridges I was soon back at George Lake. A beautiful fall day. A lovely hike. A wonderful way to spend a day.

Well that is it for now. Happy trails.

Photography

Capturing Waterfalls

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BirchCreek_2037Work

Waterfalls are a unique blend of rushing water, rock structures and trees. The most common trees found near waterfalls are pine and cedar trees. Most notably in Northern Ontario. You can find pockets of broad leaf trees such as Maple, Oak, Poplar and Birch. In the Fall broad leaf trees can add a dash of color to your composition as shown above.

The height of a waterfalls can vary as to location. The color of the rocks are different from location to location. At this particular waterfalls the rock formation is basically black to grey. Other waterfalls you will fine granite that is a reddish color. By photographing in the Fall you can offset bland rock color with orange and red from the Fall leaf color. This particular shot was taken late evening to eliminate harsh lighting. Take a look at  the Pine in the upper part of photo that partially overhangs the waterfalls. You will notice the beam of light catching some of the branches. You can pick up sunlight on the upper part of the falls. This adds a nice touch to the composition.

By putting the red Maple on the right hand side of the photo, I am able to create some depth. I try to shoot waterfalls at an angle to give more of a dimensional look as appose to shooting direct on. Shooting a waterfalls dead on will give you a more flat look.

Now for the flowing water. You want to give the water life in your photo. By shooting later in the evening you also achieve lower shutter speeds. When processing the work you want to be able to bring detail to the water. Give it life and action. I accomplish this by setting my shutter speed  between 1/10, 1/8, 1/6, 1/4 range. Whatever works at the time. Remember as the evening wears on the light becomes less and less. My f- stop is constant at f22. A good tripod is a must, along with a polarizing filter. One other point is that the volume of water coming over the drop. If their is too much water, most of the rock structure will be underwater. Totally different affect. Myself I prefer as much exposed rock as possible. That means that I pick my times to go during the course of the year.

Well that is it for now. Until next time happy trails.

Photography, Poetry

An Ole Shed

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SanPoche_Tone_vig

A beautiful Fall day

The air is warm

A mist upon the air

No hint of the cold temps

That will soon come

It is a late afternoon

The sun hangs low

Over the colourful hills

A lone shed nestles

Among the white birch

Having fallen into neglect

The door stands ajar

The metal roof aging

Into a rusty red

The weather beaten walls

Becoming a sombre grey

The encroaching forest slowly

Enclosing the old building

The vibrant forest behind

Of green, orange and yellow

Has taken on a soft glow

From the late afternoon sunlight

Filtering through the trees

The surface of the lake

Has a  a soft ripple

From a caressing wind

Creating an artist’s palette

Of reflective Fall colors

Photography

The Chippewa Falls

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ChipawaFalls

About 30 miles North of Sault Ste Marie, one will come upon the Chippewa Falls. It is quite visible from Hwy 17. The Chippewa River empties into Lake Superior a short distance away. On our trip up to Wawa last October, Maureen and I stopped in to have a look at the falls. There was a fair amount of water cascading down due to all the rain that fell this Fall. We parked in the available parking lot. There were fishermen here below the falls fishing the pools for fall run salmon. I walked up along the trail that followed the river to observe were I might get the best shot. I selected the above location for my composition. I had a point of rock for my foreground. This also created depth in the photo. The water exits out of the bottom left corner and enters at the top right corner.

It was still cloudy to achieve even lighting and give the colored leafs more saturation. I quickly set up my tripod and my Canon EOS 7D. I knew the lighting was going to change very soon as blue sky was appearing in the distance. The final result was what you see above. The Fall color in background to give you the time of year. The rugged rocks along the river that have very good color. The force and energy of the flowing water add dynamics to the overall effects of the composition.

Well that is it for now. Thank you for stopping by. Until next time happy trails.

Photography

Watch Your Lighting

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_MG_5112

Maureen and I awoke Tuesday morning to a beautiful sunny day. A quick breakfast at the restaurant of the Best Northern. We were soon off to Fenton Lake. Then portaging over to Treeby Lake. These lakes were within Lake Superior Provincial Park. From the parking lot it is a 150 meter carry down to the lake. We soon had our gear loaded into the Quebecor 17 canoe. Edging out from shore, we paddled along the East side of the lake. The wind had picked up by now. The good thing was we were going with it. We soon reached our first portage and unloaded. This is a 50 meter portage. With all the gear hauled over. Maureen and I relaxed for a few minutes. Maureen was still suffering from her cold. We now had to make our way along a strip of water towards the Treeby Lake portage.

The Treeby portage is 150 meters in length. The ground and rocks were still wet from the previous rains. There were fallen leaves on the trail. With care we hauled our gear over the portage into Treeby Lake. We encountered a couple of downed trees on the trail. Pushing off from shore it was time to find a campsite to spend the next couple days. The wind had by now become stronger.

Treeby is a lake with approximately 23 islands. That was one of the reasons for coming here. Maureen and I set up camp on a point of land on the West side of the lake. The winds blew and gusted day and night until Thursday morning.  I awoke Thursday morning at daybreak. Peeking my head out the tent I saw the leaves were not moving. Looked out upon  the lake to behold the calm water surface. All was not perfect as there was a slight breeze skipping and dancing here and there on the lake. From past experience you learn to be patient and wait. In the mean time you set up your gear. The sky was getting brighter by now.

The above photo was captured as the sun splashed the hillside to illuminate the Fall colors. That is an island in front. I needed sunlight on this little island to make it stand out. Again you wait. This is what makes wilderness landscapes challenging. The long waits, the right conditions. When all the pieces fall into place, you have achieved your goal. The most important thing is you are standing on the shorelines of a lake taking in all the beauty, color and grandeur that can be found in our North country.

Well that is it for this post. Until next time happy trails

Photography

A Fall View

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johnscreekMatte138

A winter storm has blown in this morning. Spring has been cold here so far.So I thought I would post a lovely Fall scene. This composition was taken at the bottom of The Ladder on John’s Creek in the Onaping area. There was not full color of Fall. But enough color to highlight the scene. I captured the slow moving water  with its unique patterns from the water flow. The rocks in foreground  give depth. Gorgeous colored reflections and color on the rocks. This scene was also taken in late evening. A lovely composition to enjoy on a stormy day.

Below are two painting produced by local Sudbury artist Bill Whitaker.

For more of Bill’s work check here.

http://billwhittaker.scarf.ca/

Well that is it for this week. Until next time happy trails.

Photography

From Dark to Bright

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BirchCreek1984

I have been going through my files and redoing a lot of my work. I now have Adobe CS6 loaded on my desktop. Cs6 has been greatly upgraded to the better. I highly recommend upgrading to it. Let me tell you, CS6 will improve on your work.

Getting to the photo above. This was taken on a Fall day trip a couple years back. The left side of the shoreline had some interesting rocks covered with green moss as well as a mossy ground cover. Some fallen leaves to break the color. But the problem was that the foreground was sheltered by overhanging trees. Being late afternoon it had become quite dark there. The background was the other extreme. Due to the low sun shining on the background creating a very bright scene there.

I set up my tripod very low. This meant that I had to lay on the ground. I proceeded to take a number of exposures at different shutter speeds without changing my f-stops, that were set at f22. Uploading the files I selected the dng file I wanted and came up with the above composition. It was a matter of opening up the foreground to what I wanted. The flowing water I wanted to have character there. This has all to do with your shutter speed. I wanted to show the power of the water here.

I was selected to the 2013 Quest Art 9th Annual Juried Art Show Midland. The show runs from Mar. 8 – May 4. I will be at the reception. If anyone that comes here for a visit please come to the reception and we can have a chat.

Well that is it for now. Until next time happy trails.

 

Photography

Color Along The River

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Westbranch7801

Last Fall Paul Smith and I were wandering along the Wakanasin River. Paul and I had looked at this scene many times but could not put it together. We looked at it during many seasons other than Winter. Up the Westbranch there is not a lot of Maple and Oak for the red and orange Fall colors. There is mostly Evergreens, Birch and Poplar in this part of the country.

I stepped out in the water to set up this composition. Having placed the tripod and camera I set about composing the above scene. There was cloud cover, which cut the glare of the sun on the running water. You can just make out some reflection, reddish orange on the right in the crystal clear water.

Well that is it for this week. Until next week, happy Trails.

 

Photography

Earth Tone Colors

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The point of land you see above, juts out into the Vermillion River with a bay in behind. What attracted me to this particular scene was the earthly colors of the grass growing along the shoreline. With tones of brown, yellow and green creating a wonderful softness. By using that shoreline for my lead in and keeping the water to a minimum, I made a tight composition. There was a lovely yellow leaf covered tree here that I just had to incorporate into this scene. It really adds to the composition. The sky has a unique band of clouds. The morning mist adds to the mood. There is Fall color on the far shoreline with just a hint of reflection

Well that is it for now. Thank-you for stopping