Photographing Fall Colour
When Less is More
Is there a photographer alive who doesn‘t enjoy a drive or walk in the woods
when the leaves are turning? Colours are vibrant, the air has a unique smell
and there‘s a melancholy in knowing that cold rain, snow and dropping temperatures
are on their way.
But if you‘re like me you‘ll find that your fall colour photographs can often
be disappointing. The brilliant hues of a sunny Fall day can appear over-bright
in photographs, and it‘s often difficult to come away with anything other than
pretty pictures.
During the last week of October, 2002 I drove to New York city from my home
in Toronto to attend the PhotoPlus Expo
trade show and conference. The drive took Chris Sanderson (the
Director of The Video Journal)
and me about 9 hours, but we decided to drive instead of fly because the route
that we took lead us through the beautiful Catskill mountains of Upstate New
York. Fall colours were at their peak, and although this wasn‘t a prime year
for colour, the drive along Route 17 through the mountains was wonderful.
Farm & Woods
Fall can be a time of both brilliant colour and drabness. One
approach to capturing these alternate states is to find a way to contrast them.
In this instance as we were driving through the mountains we saw this field
of stubble right next to a wooded area in full colour.
Rolling Fields — New York State. November, 2002
Photographed with a Canon D60 and 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at ISO
100
I took perhaps a dozen frames, varying the perspective and composition
changing the focal length of the lens. Because there was a shear drop of about
75 feet this was the only way to achieve an effective composition. This frame
ended up being the most graphically interesting. It‘s a very unorthodox framing,
with a large mainly featureless monochromatic expanse filling 2/3rds of the
frame, but there‘s enough interest in the lower right because of the strong
textures that ultimately it works. In fact I walked along the highway for a
stretch so that I was more parallel to the rows, so that the dark earth would
show though and delimitate the rows more clearly. As with all the images on
this page it‘s worth viewing them in a larger size (by clicking on each), as
it‘s the fine detail and textures that contribute to their appeal. These are
best seen in a large print of course.
Simplicity & Texture
I am partial to that time when most of the leaves are off the
trees yet a handful stand out against bare branches. Maybe this is due to my
love for Japanese art which carries a similar esthetic. I find that it‘s contrasts
that attract the eye, and the intricate detail of an image like this also contribute
to viewer interest.
Forest Brushes — Upstate New York. November, 2002
Photographed with a Canon D60 and 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at ISO
200
Because this was more of a business trip than a "shoot"
I traveled light, with just a couple of lenses and one camera body. My longest
lens was the Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L IS and I used the D60 in preference to a
35mm film body because of its higher resolution, which I knew that photographs
like this would demand.
When shooting landscapes my preference is always to work in medium
format, but the D60 accounted itself well — though providing not quite
as high resolution as medium format. Knowing that the Canon 1Ds that I have
on order was due in a few weeks made me wish that I already had it for some
of these frames, but regardless, the D60 produced some very crisp images .
Natures Paintbrush
On the two days that we drove back and forth to New York city
via the Catskills, the skies were mostly overcast. I much prefer this type of
flat light when shooting Fall colour because bright sunlight is usually too
harsh, and creates over-bright colours with strong confusing shadows.
Sharp Yellow Branches — Upstate New York. November, 2002
Photographed with a Canon D60 and 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at ISO
100
Here again the contrast between the bright leaves and the bare
branches creates a look that is reminiscent of some traditional Japanese artwork.
I took dozens of frames like this trying to achieve at least one with graphic
simplicity that I was looking for. This is the best of the lot, though I‘m still
not completely happy with it.
Escape from New York
We left the city early for our drive home, in part to escape rush-hour
traffic but also to get into the mountains while the light was still good. We
found ourselves at the Rockefeller Turnout on the Palisades Parkway
just as the sun was cresting the horizon. This shot works because the Fall
colours are muted due to the low light levels. The sun is just catching the
top stories of the Empire State Building, and the the lights are still
on on the George Washington Bridge.
Manhattan From The Palisades. November, 2002
Photographed with a Canon D60 and 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at ISO
200
Early Snow
South of Buffalo, New York is Letchworth State Park.
I hadn‘t been there in many years so we detoured into the park for a couple
of hours. This turned out to be fortuitous because colour was at its peak and
we ran into a sudden snow squall that created almost white-out conditions for
close to an hour. If we‘d been on an expressway we would have been in trouble,
but as it was we simply cruised slowly through the park.
Letchworth Deer — Upstate New York. November, 2002
Photographed with a Canon D60 and 70-200mm f/2.8L lens at ISO
400
At one point during the heavy snow we saw two deer grazing by
the side of the road. I walked towards them as close as I could without spooking
them and started shooting. This was the first frame, and the most interesting.
The blur caused by the snow has created an unusual textured effect in the shadow
areas that makes a large print look somewhat like a pointillist painting.
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