Driving between destinations, trying to maintain a travel schedule, I often see things that I neglect to take time to photograph. I have driven by the same places numerous times, thinking I should someday stop to get a photograph, even if it is midday with the harsh light of the midday sun directly overhead and minimum or no shadows.
If I stopped at each of these numerous places, I would obviously fall far behind in my travel schedule. Today I decided to take time at one such place that was some distance off of the highway, but clearly stood out in the wide open space in this part of New Mexico.
The architectural design of this structure suggest that it might have been a school house in this tiny community in the wide open plains of New Mexico. I probably should have stopped somewhere to inquire about this old place, but I did not take the time.
By the time this final post, covering my fall visit to the Rio Grande National Forest, is published it will be late spring of 2021. It would have been good to have been able to publish all of the fall photographs in the fall, but it takes time to review and edit so many photographs and there are always other trips, events and personal matters that delay getting posts prepared.
Maybe I should take fewer photographs? But photography of natural places is my hobby and I get to do too little of it as is, so I will continue to make as many photos like these as often as I can get away to do so.
Fall Forest. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 3200.Red and Green Leaf on Log. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 3200.
Dark Red. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 3200.Fall Forest Roadway. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/500s, f/11, ISO 3200.Leaf on Log. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 3200.Leaves and Moss on Stump. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 3200.Leaves and Stump. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/80s, f/11, ISO 3200.Trapped. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 6400.
I’ll finish with a final photograph that I think is appropriate for wrapping up this trip.
The heart shaped scar on this tree appears to be natural and not one of the many carved ones that I encountered.
As soon as I publish this, I will begin preparations for another trip to begin in a few days. I have much to do and still have to select a primary destination. Maybe by next year, I will even be posting photos from that trip. (I still have other events in the queue to work through before getting to anything new)!
Shelter. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 3200.Trunk Trio. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 52mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 3200.Hint of Fall, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 400.Sanctuary. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Forest Road and Barren Aspens, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 52mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 2000.Advanced Fall, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 2000.Advanced Fall. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 2000.Hanging On, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Stump with moss and leaves. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 32mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 3200.
Just one comment to wrap up this post. Viewers will note that I’ve include color versions of a few images that were then converted to black and white with selective colorization to add emphasis.
Stay tuned for the wrap up for my September 2020 Rio Grande National Forest visit.
For our late day shoot, we decided to drive back into a higher elevation portion of the forest. I’ll refrain from using too many words to wrap up the final shoot of my last day here, so these last several posts will consist of mostly photographs.
Aspen Fall. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2500.Aspen Leaf and Evergreen. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 1600.Leaf and Bark. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/80s, f/11, ISO 320.Fall Forest. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 1600.Leaf Hoard. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 2000.Leaf and Bough. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Golden Forest Floor. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 26mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Gnarly. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 32mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Soft Landing. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 3200.
I continued to shoot, under the overcast sky, in an upper elevation Aspen forest, where the ground was covered with fall leaves and an abundance of old logs and stumps of fallen trees.
Mossy Logs and Aspen Leaves. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 45mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 800.Glory Fades. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 1000.Death in the Forest. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 28mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 1000.
The stump above reminds me of the skeleton skull of a longhorn steer that one might find in a desert setting.
Tree Stump and Aspen Leaves. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 34mm, 1/400s, f/11, ISO 1250.Fading Away. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 1250.Old Stump and Aspen Leaves. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 45mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 1250.Colorful Forest Floor. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/640s, f/11, ISO 1250.
I found a batch of young evergreens among the large Aspens decorated by fallen Aspen leaves.
Evergreens and Aspens. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 58mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 1250.Small Evergreen with Aspen Leaves. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 1250.
This wraps up the mid-day exploration and shoot and I want to remind viewers that the images look much better on the website or on Flickr (if posted there) and on a large screen, rather than in an e-mail or small mobil device screen.
Thanks for following and stay tuned for the final late day shoot,
After our morning shoot, my son wanted to explore some of the other Forest Service Roads nearby, so we drove along several of those and into higher elevations, where most of the trees had already lost most of their leaves.
It was an overcast day and the dispersed light was good for photographing in the forest.
The Aspen leaf in this photo had not quite completed its color transformation, before it fell to rest upon a mossy bed.
Yellow and Green, Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/1250s, f/11, ISO 5000.Aspen Leaves on Mossy Stump, Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 3200.Forest floor, Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 3200.
I prefer to photograph these little details as I find them; but sometimes I’m tempted to move things around. I did not move anything in the photo above; but I can’t help but wonder, if I should have. Should I have removed the blade of grass pointing at the Aspen leaf in the middle? Or does that blade of grass serve as a useful pointer in this photograph? Would this image be better, if I had cleared away some of the debris around the edges or the scattered leaves, leaving just the single leaf in the center? What about that little twig resting on the stump to the left of the center leaf?
I have no objection to “posing” a natural scene for artistic purpose and I have removed man made items from natural scenes and I’m quite ok with this. I’ve occasionally removed a twig, a fallen tree limb or a blade of grass, if I thought those were distracting in a scene. But nature is not perfect, so will “cleaning” a scene make it unreal? Is unreal ok in this sense? No one would know the scene has been modified, if not so informed by the photographer. Is it acceptable to “manufacture” a natural scene?
Red and Green, Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 800.Aspen Leaf, Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 65mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 800.
And I will wrap up this portion of this morning’s photos with one final forest image, which I just noted this morning was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page.
We went into the forest that surrounded our campsite again this morning. It is getting more difficult to find scenes that are significantly different than others that have already been photographed.
I’m trying to give more attention to the small, intimate details in the forest.
Aspen Leaf on Forest Floor. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 2000.Aspen Leaf in Evergreen. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 2500.Aspen Leaf on Stump. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 2500.
Occasionally, I find stumps that indicate a tree has been purposely cut down. I do not know why, but I suspect they were felled by hunters to make their hunting blinds, which I have seen scattered around the forest.
I had not explored much of the forest on the west side of the utility right of way, where I was camped. So today, I decided to continue into that portion of the forest for a while to finish my late day shoot.
In the above image, I was actually trying to capture the highlights along a barbed wire fence. The intended images did not come out very well, but in this one I caught a couple of falling leaves, which are blurred due to the shutter speed not being fast enough to freeze their motion.
I will confess that I modified the scene above by adding the yellow Aspen leaf on the upper right side. I wish I had removed the twig on the left side.
The image above is my favorite in this portion of this post. I really like the late day shadows and highlights on the trunks and the streaks of light on the forest floor.
I found an Aspen tree trunk not too far from another camping area, where hunters were camped, with this message on it. I promise I did not do this and I do not know Beth!
