More color...

The weather was good and I had time, so I went back to capture a little more fall color.

 

The sun and a beautiful sugar maple tree.

 

 

 

This red maple still had some color.

 

 

 

I used wider lenses to capture more of the tree and I like how it turned out.

 

 

 

I really like the shadows as well as the branches and colorful leaves in this image.

 

 

 

By standing near the trunk and shooting up I was able to get a frame full of gold.

 

 

 

The yellow leaves look great against the blue sky.

 

 

 

As it got a little later in the morning I took a break under the maple tree. I left and ran a few errands and returned to see what I could do with the afternoon light.

 

 

Just in time....

I went out to find a little fall color.

 

As it turns out, I almost missed it. 

 

 

Most of the trees had already lost their leaves.

 

 

 

But not all of them. I found Japanese maple trees (top) still looking good, Some sugar maples (second) and oaks (above).

  

 

The weather was good, but it was a little windy. I had to wait for the leaves to stop moving before I could capture these images.

  

 

All and all it was a good morning. I spent a couple hours finding the color that was left and came away with some decent images.





 







Dots of color.....

A few days ago I was in northwest Wisconsin on my way to Pattison State Park. I wasn't familiar with the road I was on and found myself driving past a prairie like grassland with individual pine trees sprinkled across the landscape. Every so often I thought I was seeing vibrant dots of orange amid the green grass.  

 

I slowed down to better see what the color was, and finally pulled over to find beautiful wood lilies in full bloom under big billowy clouds.

 

 

 

Lucky for me the flowers were growing at a state wildlife area and the land was publicly owned.

 

 

 

So I grabbed a camera and a couple of lenses and went to see what I could do.

 

 

 

I had a 180mm macro on, but quickly realized I wanted to capture the flowers in their environment not tight images of the blooms.

 

 

 

I switched to a 10-22mm lens and got low to the ground to try and capture the color of the flowers and the drama of the sky above.

 

 

 

It was 75 degrees and got pretty hot laying in the grass and waiting for interesting clouds to form and blow over.

 

 

 

I tried a few images with fill flash and a reflector off to the side to bounce some light under the flowers.

 

 

 

I spent almost two hours trying to capture the colors and skies.

 

 

 

Before I left I did take the time to isolate individual flowers with the macro lens.

 

 

 

The breeze was pretty persistent and it took some patience to make sharp images but,

 

 

 

the time was well spent and I was really happy with the images I captured.

 

 

 

I'm thankful for happy accidents. Like taking an unknown road and finding vibrant dots of color.

















Coneflower colors....

 

My son and I spent a little time at the UW Arboretum in Madison Wisconsin and found this purple coneflower.

 

 

 

 

 

It was an overcast day which made it easy to shoot flowers and get nice saturated colors.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like the oranges, greens, and pinks.

 

 

 

I found these raindrops suspended on a spider's web just a couple of inches above the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Every time I go out with a macro lens and a little time I'm surprised by just how many beautiful photos I can come back with.

 

Fourth of July...

 

fireworks.

 

 

I was in Ashland Wisconsin on the fourth and here are some of the images I captured.

 

 

 

I only had a 100-400mm lens with me which limited the compositions I could make.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ashland is located on the south shore of Lake Superior and they shoot the fireworks over the lake.

 

 

 

Normally that would lend itself to lots of pictures with color reflected in the water, but with the big lens I really didn't get that this year.

 

 

 

 

 

All I could really do is isolate shells as they burst in the sky and hope for the best.

 

 

 

 

 

I set the camera on bulb and shot at f/10 for about 2 seconds each exposure.

 

 

 

 

 

I hadn't planned to photograph the fireworks this year, so I just grabbed the camera and headed toward the lake shore.

 

 

 

I found a spot amid some trees and weeds, set up the tripod and did the best I could.

 

 

 

 

 

It started to rain pretty good and the bugs were bad so I quit shooting before they got to the finale.

 

 

  



 

I hope your fourth turned out as well as mine.