LEAVES UNDER ICE

I had thought that the fall color season was entirely over, particularly after a couple of early snows, as well as considerable wind that blew virtually all of the remaining leaves off the trees in our neighborhood.  However, this morning I noted that a light snow from last night, along with a bit of wind, had left a very modest drift on the small pond in our subdivision and thought there might be a photo op as we transition to winter (ugh).

So I walked back to the pond with my camera.  The drift was hardly an interesting opportunity.  I cropped the image a bit, turned it into a black and white, and increased the contrast.

Meh.  Abstracts are all right, but this one is essentially unintelligible.

However, when I was at the edge of the pond, now covered with a layer of ice, I noticed that the ice had trapped leaves from a variety of trees, including those from the trees in the neighboring woods. I thought that the distortions created by the layer of ice were interesting and gave the images an artsy look.

The definition in the leaves is dependent on how far they are below the surface of the ice.  Here is a closeup of a portion of the above shot.

I thought that the "white" leaf in the above shot added an interesting focal point.

I wish that the ice had not incorporated air bubbles, but there they were.  I think I should point out that I did ramp up a bit the color saturation and the contrast in order to bring out the colors in the leaves.

John

EARLY SNOW

We had our first snowfall of the season last night. On my morning walk I noticed that some of the trees still bore leaves, along with the 2 inches of new-fallen snow. So I grabbed my camera to capture what I could before wind and sun eliminated the opportunity. Here is what I got.

First, a few photos of the trees in our front yard.

Below is a wider shot of the pond and woods in our subdivision.  I tried to frame the shot with a foreground shrub and overhanging branches of a tree still laden with leaves and berries.

On my walk I had also spotted a couple of trees, one still bearing red berries and one hanging on to leaves on its lower branches.

I thought what helped this shot was the fact that the snow had reduced the apparent color in the shot to just the leaves and the flag.  The flag could be seen as a bonus.

My walk also includes passing by a small creek.  I enjoy the scene that the creek and woods provides, but I find it difficult to capture that scene in a photo.

I enjoyed the following tree in the neighborhood.  Even though it did not feature any leaves, I thought the complexity of tree's branch structure offered some interest.

Then it was on to a nearby park, Virmond Park, which is situated on a bluff above the Lake Michigan shore.

The park features a large open field that serves to frame a small but well-proportioned evergreen that I have shot many times previously.  I felt this shot offered some placidity.

The park also includes a nice cedar fence that is backed by a line of trees at the north side of the park.

Finally, I visited a stand of trees in the park.  I was shooting to the east, toward the lake, and it was apparent that the snow and wind had come from the west, setting up an interesting snow pattern on the mature trees.

With these shots I was interested in trying to keep the depth of field as large as possible, to keep as many of the trees as I could in good focus.  So I shot these images at a narrow aperture of f/22.  As to this last shot, I generally avoid placing the object of interest--in this case the large tree trunk--in the center of the image, but I thought that composition worked OK in this shot.   The unusual snow pattern on the tree trunks, I thought, gave these photos the appearance of a painting or drawing rather than a photograph.

John

FALLEN LEAVES

The fall color season is essentially over.  And yesterday we had a major rain and wind storm, which did its share to strip the trees of their remaining leaves.  As a result, virtually the only place left to look for color is on the ground, and that is what I did this afternoon--before another bout of rain came through.

In looking over the images that I kept, I noted that they could be divided into two sets, one emphasizing color and one texture.  First, the color.

As might be assumed, I took these shots in an area that featured a number of different species of tree.  My favorite of these is the image that includes pine straw as well as leaves from deciduous trees.  I think I should point out that these colors are natural, though I did brighten up the images a bit.

The second set of photos is more focused on texture and composition.

Even though the colors are muted, I like their complexity.

John