I took my camera.....

and spent a little time in northern Wisconsin.

 

I stopped near Pattison State Park to photograph these pumpkins for sale along the road.



 

For years I had been noticing this type of ornamental grass along Wisconsin roadways. Today I took the time to make a few images of what I think is feather reed grass.

 



 

 

 

Then I made my way to Little Manitou Falls in Pattison State Park.



 

Capturing the falls with some fall colors behind.

 

 



 

I took the scenic route via highway 13 along Lake Superior towards Bayfield. It was windy and overcast along the lake so I turned south at Cornucopia hoping for some light before sunset.

 

 

Lucky for me, the sun made it through somewhere near Siskiwit Lake and I was able to capture some colorful maple trees near the road.

 

 

 

 

 

As I continued south towards Washburn I stopped one last time to capture the well lit leaves just before sunset.

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a day well spent.

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.

 

 

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.



 









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.



 



 

No pain in the aspen

Many trees had already lost their leaves by the time decent fall color showed up near Clam Lake Wisconsin.

So I was pleased to find this stand of quaking aspen

 

 

 

 

 

Looking resplendent in gold against the blue afternoon sky. 

 

I was near Clam Lake to try and photograph wild Wisconsin elk and finally found a lone bull just after sunset.