Month: March 2022

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 14 – Indiana Backroads

This is a continuation of the previous post of my fall 2021 photography along Indiana backroads.

Early Fall Forest, Hoosier National Forest, Indiana, October 2021
Hoosier National Forest, Indiana, October 2021
Bent Tree Fall, Hoosier National Forest, Indiana, October 2021

After shooting along one section of a gravel forest roadway, I continued driving looking for other prospective places at which to shoot.  I stopped at a trailhead and considered a short hike along that trail, but rain was threatening, so I decided it was best to leave this hike for another day, thinking I had time to return again, but I never got back to this location.  I will try to keep this possibility in mind for future visits to this area.

The gravel road ended at a paved roadway, which led to a more major backroad. Shortly after getting onto that route, I saw the walker that I had seen earlier on the forest road.  We waved to each other as I passed his home.  That was miles from where I had seem him hiking, so I’m assuming he drove into the forest for his exercise routine.

Clouds and Beans

Along the paved roadway, I could see the dense clouds sweeping in from the west.  I knew I had to stop to shoot the clouds over the farmland and forest, but the roadway was narrow with few places to pull over.  Finally, I found just enough space to safely get off of the roadway.  I walked across the road and a very short distance along a farmer’s field road to shoot across a bean field.

Rain’s a Coming

Back in my vehicle, I continued to wander around the country side looking for places to photograph the farmland scenes.  I passed a farm with red barns near the top of a hill.  There was no place to pull over nearby, so I drove past, turned around at a crossroads and went back up the hill, finding a place below the hilltop to pull over.  As I walked towards the top of the hill with my camera and 80-400mm lens, I spotted a bare tree and a flock of blackbirds soaring nearby with a few birds settling in the tree.

Blackbird Tree

After shooting the bare tree with the blackbirds in it and clouds for a background, I continued to the top of the hill to pick a place along a fence line from which to shoot the farm buildings.

Red Barns of Fall

Until next time,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 13 – Indiana Backroads

Indiana has much farmland and forest land, which is best observed along the country backroads.

Country Road
Indiana Backroad Fall

Driving the backroads can lead to unexpected discoveries in the many small country communities.

Ask not for whom the bell tolls

Like this old school house adjacent to a cemetery.  The weather was changing with clouds gathering, making for great sky in some images.  I wanted to be sure to have the bell visible in a photograph, so I had to find the best place from which to shoot to achieve that.  It would have been good to have had a higher place upon which to stand.  There was a stump of an old tree nearby.  I tried standing on the stump, but I could still not get the bell in a photo from that vantage point, so I had to settle for shooting standing on the ground from farther away than I wanted to shoot.

Old School

A community church shared a parking lot with the school.  There were interesting storm clouds above the church, so I had to shoot that.

Ominous

Continuing along the backroads, I took a gravel road through a portion of the Hoosier National Forest, stopping to shoot along the roadway.

Forest Road

I had passed a local walking up this road and I greeted him as I pulled my camera  gear from my vehicle.  We chatted for a few minutes and he revealed that he had relatives in the metropolitan area where I live.  It is not unusual to discover such facts from random meeting such as this, which shows just how small our world can be.  He continued his walk up the hill and I picked several spots from which to get Indiana backroad fall photographs.  The walker came back down the hill and back up again at least one more time as I shot nearby.

Indiana Backroad

To be continued,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 12 – Yellowwood Lake

After my unsatisfying photographic outing in Yellowwood State Forest, I waited for sunset on a little boat dock that barely jutted into Yellowwood Lake.  It was mostly calm and the lake surface smooth and reflective of the sky and surroundings.

Clouds and Lake

The photographer and young couple, that I had encountered as I returned from my woodland hike, had walked past me and into the area on the right side of the photo above.  I had to watch carefully to keep them out of my photo, even though I doubt that they would have been very noticeable, anyway.

I made a series of photos as the light, sky, clouds and reflections in the lake surface changed.

Softly Reflected

There were small, almost inconspicuous plants or floating, natural object in the water that made subtle foreground in my compositions.  These photos are best view on a large screen to appreciate the details.

Yellowwood Lake Fall Reflections
Radial Sunset
Radial Clouds
Yellowwood Sunset

I alternated shooting directions from along the lake to across the lake as sunset approached.  The forest blocked the actual sunset, but the cloud color and lighting changed as the minutes ticked by.

Yellowwood Lake
Radial

This end of the day shoot was much more satisfying than the hike in the forest, so I’m glad that I decided to hang out here for sunset.

Thanks for following,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 11 – Yellowwood State Forest

In the afternoon, after my morning shoot at Ogle Lake in Brown County State Park, I decided to go to Yellowwood State Forest, where I had shot last year and see how it looked this year.

I hiked the same trail that I had taken the previous fall, but this year I went a little further along the trail.  Recent rains had muddied the trail, requiring some minor off trail work to bypass the worst of the mud.

On the opposite side of the lake from my starting point, I encountered a lone, barefoot female hiker, carrying her muddy hiking boots.  It appeared that she had walked through some deep mud somewhere along her hike and maybe it was more comfortable to hike barefoot than to suffer in the mud invaded boots.  She seemed to be carefully picking her way along, which was good, since there were plenty of natural things on the trail to stick, poke and gouge bare feet.  I did not encounter her on my hike back to the parking lot, so I have to assume she made it out.

The lack of good peak fall color in the forest resulted in a disappointing photo shoot in the forest.  Even though I was late for the previous year’s peak, the previous year’s shoot seemed more satisfying than this one.

Early Fall Forest, Yellowwood State Forest, Indiana
Yellowwood State Forest, Indiana

I stood in a small stream crossing to get the shot above, which is about where I turned back last year on my first hike in this forest.

Through the Tree

There were no really good places to get to the lake shoreline from the forest trail, so I had to shoot through trees towards the opposite shoreline.

Somewhere along the way, I managed to push through some brush to get near enough to the shoreline to get the image below.  I still had to carefully zoom and position the camera to avoid much distracting parts of stray limbs and bushes intruding into the edges of this composition.

Yellowwood Lake and State Forest, Indiana
Yellowwood State Forest, Indiana

On the hike out, at a bridge crossing of a shallow creek, I encountered a photographer and a young couple, apparently getting engagement photos.  The environment at this location and time did not look great for such photos, but I’m not that kind of photographer, so what do I know about that?

Maybe a quarter of a mile from the parking lot, I stopped at a short section of the trail that had been bridged over by a low wooden section.

Leads Darkly

As I finished a shooting here, the young couple and their photographer approached from behind.  We exchanged greetings again and I continued to my vehicle.

When I arrived at my vehicle, I was not at all satisfied with this photographic outing, so I decided to hang around on a small, narrow, concrete boat dock until near sunset and hope to get something more interesting for my efforts today.

Stay tuned for more,

Ken

 

 

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 10 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

Early Fall Reflections

It was a relatively calm morning as I hiked around Ogle Lake in Brown County State Park, Indiana. As the morning advanced,  enough of a breeze developed to sometimes make small ripples in the lake, distorting the reflections of the trees and sky.

Fall Reflections

Fog remained just above the lake surface in the shadows near the end of the lake.

Fall at Ogle Lake
Lake Pointer
Cornered
Fall at Ogle Lake
Fall Lake Scene
Autumn Lake
Squiggly Reflections

This ends my hike and morning photography at Ogle Lake.

Until next time,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 9 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

As I had coffee and a light breakfast early one morning in the Indiana cabin, I noted that it was a foggy morning and if I got out soon I might get some interesting photos before the fog burned away.

As I drove the main road into Brown County State Park, I was regretting not getting up a little earlier this morning.  I could see that the early morning fog would be good for photography and it was lifting rapidly.  The park does not officially open until 7AM, but I was told at the entrance the prior morning that the gate was always open, so I could come and go whenever I liked.  The gate keeper even offered that  getting there early would let me avoid the entrance fee, which at $9 per day was a bit steep compared to many such parks, but I never got there before 7AM, even though it would have been best for photography had I done so.

When I arrived at the Ogle Lake parking lot well after sunrise, I glimpsed the fog coming off of the lake, and I hastened to grab my gear and walked rapidly to the dam.

Early Morning Fog on Ogle Lake

My first composition this morning is my favorite one of this morning shoot.

Lake Fog

After shooting a few images from the dam, I walked on to the hiking trail around the lake.

Early Morning Calm
Sereneness
The Stick and Rippleness

A small tree limb in the lake caught my eye and I shot a couple of compositions with it as a focal point.  These images are best view on a big screen to see the details.

Early Morning Fog, Reflections and The Stick
Through the Trees Softly
Misty Lake

Enough for now.  I will continue this hike and photography in the next post,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 8 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

I continued hiking the trail around Ogle Lake and shooting images in and around the lake.

Fall Forest

The big lens allowed me to zoom into the edge of the forest across the lake, eliminating the sky and the lake from the scene.

Early Fall Color
Dreamy Reflections

Reflections in water are always a good subject.  The scene above drew me to it as soon as I noticed how the log divided the reflections and calmed the surface just enough to create the impressionist forest reflection.

Leaves and Trunk
Red Fall
Tattered

Before I left the park, I stopped and hiked along a trail through the forest.  I shot many images, but most were not all that appealing, so I’m just sharing a few of the better ones.

Forest Light
A Touch of Red
Big Red Mittens

Thanks for following,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 7 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

Brown County State Park, near Nashville, Indiana is a lovely park with hardwood forest, lakes and miles of hiking and biking trails through the forest.  We were staying just a few miles from the park, making it an easy place to access for Autumn photography.

Possibly my favorite place to photograph in this wonderful park is around Ogle Lake.

I regret that I did not get out as early in the mornings as I should have for the best of sunrise.  Even though I got up early enough to get into the park at or before official opening time, I lingered over my coffee and light breakfast too long, as it was so pleasant doing so in the cabin.

My first morning in the park, I decided to use my big lens, a Nikon 80-400mm with a 1.4 extension.  With the fall color still not being near peak, I figured I would try to get more intimate shots, rather than wide angle images.

Walking along the dam at the end of the lake, I took time to get close ups of some of the colorful leaves, back lighted by the early morning sun light, on small trees or bushes at the waters edge, before hiking on the trail around the lake.

Yellow and Brown
Green, Red, Yellow

From the dam and the hiking trail, I shot across the lake into the forest on the opposite side.

Fall Lake View
Early and Late
Leaning Into Fall
Fall by the Lake
Fall Impression
Across the Lake
Spindly

That’s enough for now.  I will continue this photography hike in the next post.

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 6

A few days into our fall 2021 visit to Indiana, the fall colors had still not progressed very much; but I was restless and needed to get out to explore the area.  By doing so, I might find areas to visit later, when the colors were better.

After consulting a map of the local area, I decided to head to Monroe Lake State Park, southeast of Bloomington.

Monroe Lake State Park, Indiana

My base was just south of Brown County State Park (the red rectangle in the upper right corner).  The quickest route to Monroe Lake would be into Nashville, then west on US 46 towards Bloomington, but I had traveled that route numerous times already and I wanted to check out the backroads, so I meandered through the countryside farmland and forest, approaching Lake Monroe from the south, crossing the causeway into Paynetown.

I can’t recall the exact route that I took and I doubt that I could duplicate it even if I wanted to.  Many county backroads were involved.  I drove through a number of small communities, some that were little more than a few houses at crossroads.

Along the way, I found a small, abandoned country store and stopped to get a few photos.

Abandoned Country Store

This photo shows some fall color, but it is still not fully developed.

I had hoped there would be scenic views from the long causeway over Monroe Lake, but that was a disappointment.  There were no places to stop on the causeway, so I could not have gotten any photos from there, anyway.

Arriving at the state park entrance, I paid the entry fee and drove to a large parking lot at a boat launch area.  The lot was mostly empty.  I walked a path towards a floating boat dock and noted that there were many geese on the shore across the inlet.  So I returned to my vehicle and put on my 80-400mm lens with a 1.4 extension.

I returned to the boat dock and shot numerous images of the geese, but I was still too far away to get really good images.  A group of geese swam from the shore across the inlet to the boat launch area, where I shot a few more images.

Marching Geese

I could not get too close to the geese, as they would move away as I got too close. I  thought it interesting how they seemed to follow a leader along the roadway at the boat launch.  I cropped the image above from one of my shots.

I drove around the rest of the park afterwards, but did not see anything else I wanted to photograph today.  There were only a few people in the park, but I expect this is a popular place in the warmer months.  I noted there were a number of hiking trails in the forest and this is probably a good place for a forest hike, if I return later.

I explored a side road into the Hoosier National Forest off of my return route, but cut my exploration short, since I was low on gasoline and there were no filling stations along my backcountry route.

Until next time,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 5

Antique automobile related items always catch my eye.

Sunoco and Micky Mouse?

I do not recall Mickey Mouse advertising Sunoco products.  Do any readers recall this?

Glass Motor Oil Bottles

I see lots of these old glass motor oil containers, but these were before my time. I’ve never seen these in use.  I’m guessing these date to the time motor oil came in bulk containers, like metal barrels or drums and the oil was dispensed into these containers, which were then used to pour the oil into an automobile engine.

Richlube was produced by Richfield Oil Company based in California.

Glass Motor Oil Bottles
Glass Motor Oil Bottles

Judging by the price tags, these must be popular with collectors.

Old Motor Oil Can

Maybe these galvanized cans came into vogue after the glass bottles?  I can’t recall seeing these in use, either.  The glass bottles were probably superior in keeping the oil clean and uncontaminated, but were obviously not as durable as metal containers.

Old Motor Oil Can
Glass Motor Oil Bottles

The bottles are more esthetically appealing than the galvanized cans.

Glass Motor Oil Bottles

The tiger on the Power-Lube bottle made me think this is from the early days of Exxon/Esso, but research seems to indicate that a company called Powerline (of Denver, Colorado?) may have produced or at least marketed this oil.  Anyone out there know the history of this product?

Glass Motor Oil Bottles

The Farmall bottle must have been an advertising item, since as far as I know that company never refined motor oil, but might have marketed oil with its brand on it.  I do not find any information online regarding any such motor oil product.

Glass Motor Oil Bottles

This vendor had lots of these old motor oil bottles.

Glass Motor Oil Bottles

Magnolia Petroleum Company of Texas was acquired by Standard Oil in the early 1900.

Over the years most of the early petroleum companies have been acquired or merged with others, so today only a handful of major oil companies remain.

I’ll leave with this:

Wrong Word?

This name does not seem to fit the message, but any place with this name would discourage me from visiting.

I’m finally done with the killing time photography for this trip so stay tuned for fall color and landscape photos from Indiana.

Ken