Last chance?

Today was an outstanding day in my world. Why you ask? Because the sun came out!

It'd been dark, overcast, and rainy here for almost a month. So this morning I saw the sun and went looking for some fall color.

 

Lucky for me I found some. Like this ginormous maple tree.

 

 

 

The colors were great but it won't stay that way for long. There was frost on the ground and the trees were losing lots of leaves.

 

 

 

Here are some frosty leaves on a rose bush.

 

 

 

 

Most of these maple leaves probably won't last the day. There was just a subtle breeze, yet the tree dropped about a quarter of it's leaves while I was there.

 

 

 

This Japanese maple seemed to be fairing better than some of the others. It still had most of it's leaves.

 

 

 

This is my favorite tree of the day. Though it looks like several tree trunks in a row, it's actually just one giant maple.

 

 

 

Here's a view of it's canopy from another angle.

 

 

It's hard to go wrong with orange or yellow leaves against a blue sky in good light.

 

 

Not to be outdone, the oak trees had lots of color as well.

 

 

Like this one,

 

 

but I'll finish with another photo of that beautiful maple tree.

 

Based on the number of leaves falling this morning I doubt I'll have many more opportunities to shoot fall color this year.



 









Some more fall color. . . .

I was pretty pleased with the results I got shooting leaves and trees this fall so here are a few more photos.

Maple leaves just starting to change colors.

 

 

An oak leaf with striking edges and colors.

 



More oak leaves in super light. 



A tamarack tree catching some light just before sunset.

 

 



Oak leaves in a northern Wisconsin forest.

 

 

A sugar maple leaf hanging in there, Madison Wisconsin.

 

 

Another oak leaf in the process of change.

 

 

Maples and a blue sky on a Madison afternoon.

 

 

Tamaracks and spruce trees reflected in a small northern Wisconsin lake.

 

 

Last light on a maple leaf in Madison.

 



More vibrant red oak leaves. 

 

Yellow maple leaves and a blue afternoon sky.

 

 

Maple leaves going from yellow to orange. 

 





I hope it's not over yet. I'll be out for more as soon as I get a little sunlight. It's been rainy and overcast for quite awhile here.

Up north . . .

I was on my way to northern Wisconsin and noticed that lots of tamarack trees looked really colorful.

 

For years I had hoped to make some decent images of tamaracks and since the trees were looking so good and the sun was out I decided this would be the day. 

 

 

 

The cool thing about tamarack trees is although they're coniferous, their needles change to a beautiful golden color in the fall and then drop to the ground.

 

 

 

This particular tree was in a bog just off the road near Prentice Wisconsin. By using a circular polarizing filter I was able to capture the actual colors of the tree and sky.

 

 

 

I headed towards Clam Lake and found more great looking trees just off highway 77.

 

 

 

So I parked on the side of the road and spent the next hour trying to capture some of the beautiful colors,

 

 

 

and different perspectives and compositions.

 

 

 

Tamaracks like to grow in wet conditions so I was walking around in a bog of some type with lots of moss on the ground.

 

 

 

There was a small lake nearby and I was lucky to catch this image of the tree's reflection as light filtered through the forest.

 

 

 

I made several close ups of the beautiful golden needles against the blue sky.

 

 

 

The weather had been mostly overcast and rainy for the last couple of weeks, and I'm glad I made the time to photograph these distinctive trees while I had some sunlight and blue sky. It was a great fall afternoon in northern Wisconsin.

With a little light...

It has been overcast and rainy here for awhile and there doesn't seem to be a lot of good color this fall. Even the trees that do look good seem to lose their leaves faster than I can find some light and make decent images.

 

So I felt lucky to have good oaks and maples in beautiful light for about half an hour the other day.

 

 

I'm finding it's all about the angles and light when it comes to  leaf photos. By moving the camera just a few inches I'd lose the vibrant color on these sugar maple leaves.

 

 



And back lighting can work great for creating dramatic images, as with these leaves from a Japanese maple.

 

 

Finding a decent subject (in this case good looking oak leaves), working with the existing light, and paying attention to the background can produce beautiful images.

 

 

 

These maple leaves haven't started to change their color yet.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

A few sumac leaves isolated with green trees behind.

 

 

 

I was pleasantly surprised by the number of colorful, and striking images I was able to make. With only a half dozen trees and a little bit of time I like the results. I guess it's catch as catch can with regard to fall color in my neighborhood this year, but even a little bit can go a long way.





A little fall color...

I was up in the Clam Lake area looking for elk about a week ago. I didn't find too many elk, but I did find a little fall color.

 

Like these oak leaves in good evening light against a blue sky. 

 

And these beautiful maple leaves.

 

 

Here's a little more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Even a wood thrush showed up to hunt small insects amid the fall color. 



 

 

I went back and lucked out with a beautiful sunrise, 

 

 

and sunset. All in all I found quite a bit of fall on what seems to be not the best year for fall color in northern Wisconsin.