Nice Suprises

Haley's Water

With a Fall semester class and a Spring on that follows, we get a chance to photograph completely different subjects at times.  Each semester I like to get the students down to the Listeman Arboretum just on the edge of town.  It's just a 3 or 4 minute ride and contains enough variety to give the students ample opportunities to make pictures.  The fall of course presents bright colors and in the spring the new growth carpets the forest floor.  When we make this outing, I try to instill in the students they need to try and "see" things differently-sometimes that's accomplished by changing the camera's (and our) perspective-moving in, getting down, shooting from above, backing off....whatever it takes.  Also, don't hesitate to press the shutter-out of hundreds of images, maybe there are really only a few that will make the cut.

One that really did was the photograph above-Haley had spend a good deal of time along the Black River, which runs along the arboretum.  Fall color reflected in the water so the obligatory wide landscape shots were taken (by maybe all of us) and some of the rapids that flow through here.  Haley took those, but I think one of the best pictures was this close up of the water-with color above and below the surface.    The variety of color, of shape and a near perfect composition set this image apart from so many others on this day.  I know for me-it just presents a feeling of what fall is-pretty hard to describe in words, but sometimes photographs do a much better job.  Sometimes editing hundreds of photographs and viewing more, one comes across a nice surprise-this surely is one of the best.

A Fall Sampler

The Back Yard

There are so many pictures to be made in the fall, yet sometimes it can be very frustrating because it's all been done before you know?  Not by me maybe, but by someone and when looking at others' photos I start to wonder why I should even press the shutter.  Because........ sometimes you just have to, just have to get those photos out of the way.  But to be fair to myself, I also have to because no matter how many fall photos others have made, I still love it, love the colors and smells so most likely, every year, I'll be out there clicking away just for myself.

In any regard, here are some I liked during a couple hikes lately-a week later, most of those colors are on the ground-wind and rain made sure of that quickly-sad, but it's the way of the seasons.

Molly at Attention

Red Oak Complementary Colors

Red Oak Depth of Field

Molly with Long Shadow-Arndt Road