Fall Foliage

So I’ve been watching over the past few weeks of other shooters posting their fall foliage work at digital grin, and I’ve been telling myself that I have to get my butt out there out there and shoot some for my own galleries before it all falls off the trees, and I made my up Highway 88 today to see what the Aspens were doing.

I was afraid that I missed the good stuff, as I checked weather.com’s fall foliage map, and it said the area was pretty much passed its peak. To my delight, that wasn’t quite accurate. Yes, a lot of the trees were missing their leaves, but some hadn’t started to turn yet, while others had turned and others were ready to drop their leaves. Anybody who knows me knows I’m really not all that full of myself, and I really don’t have time for people who are, but I was pretty impressed with what I came back with today. It also might be because I came back with a lot of yellow, and it is my favorite color. I bet none of you knew that!

I was really taken back with how many shooters were out on the road doing that same thing I was, both amateur and professional. I was in good company.

While photographing leaves is one of my favorite natural features to photograph, there are ways to photograph them to make them stand out and “glow” using natural light. I couldn’t use that technique today because it was overcast, and I also didn’t want to wait for the sun to be in the right position if it did come out from behind the clouds – I could have been there all day, and I wanted to be home before dark. To make leaves glow, capture them with the light of the sun coming in from behind them instead of in front of them. They look so much better, and not too many people capture leaves this way, so yours will stand out.

I know my last post was related to what I do at the paper, and I don’t really like to talk about “work” on this blog, but I was out on assignment last week, and I came across previously submerged tree stumps with their roots now exposed at Folsom Lake, and I captured one of them while I was out there and added it to my personal collection. If you’re in the area, now is a great time to get out there for this kind of stuff, since the lake is so low.