Travel related information
After my sunrise shoot, I hiked a short distance along the north side of Ogle Lake in Brown County State Park, Indiana getting a few fall images.
That’s it for this morning’s shoot. Until next time,
Ken
Even though I’m usually sleeping well in the early morning hours, I force myself out of a warm, comfortable bed, because my favorite time for photography is in the early morning hours, especially in popular places, because the normal tourist don’t usually get out early and one doesn’t have to worry about people getting in the way of ones photography.
When I pulled into the parking lot at Ogle Lake, I was the only one there. As I prepared my camera and tripod, a lady drove into the lot and stopped to ask me about the best place for sunrise here in the park. She and her husband were staying in the park lodge, but they had apparently not had time to scout places for sunrise photos. I told her I did not know what place was best, but it might be good here and it was too late for her to get to another good place before sunrise. I suggested that she might photograph from the dam or from the north side of the lake for the best sunrise views.
She commented upon my camera, thinking it had an unusual lens. I was using my large 14-24mm wide angle lens with a Progrey filter holder mounted on it. Due to the bulbous 14-24mm lens, it is not possible to use screws in filters, requiring a bulky filter holder attachment. It is the filter holder that makes it look unusual.
I headed for the dam, where I thought I might have some fall foliage for foreground and good reflection on the lake, leaving the lady behind in the parking lot.
It was a cloudy morning, the sky color was spectacular. Sometimes we get lucky.
The morning color came on quickly and disappeared as quickly as it came, but the clouds in the sky still made it possible to get interesting photos after the color faded.
After finishing my shoot from the dam area, I decided to take a short walk along the lake shore. There is a hiking trail that goes all around the lake, which I’ve done in previous visits here. I knew the south side might not have the best views this morning and it was probably muddy in portions, so I headed for the north side.
As I approached the trail head, I encountered the lady from the parking lot again. We chatted for a few minutes. She was thrilled with her sunrise experience. She was shooting with a Canon R6, which she had not had for long. She is a retired portrait photographer, previously from California, living in Kentucky with her husband. I’m assuming her husband is not into photography or else he would have accompanied her this morning. She asked about my filters and I explained why I used these for my landscape work. I was surprised, when she revealed that she had not previously known anything about this subject. I never thought that a professional photographer of any speciality would not know about the use of these specialty filters. However, I have observed professional portrait photographers shooting in the outdoors without any filters. I’ve also noted the over exposed backgrounds in many such portrait photographs. I suppose some filters might be difficult to use for people subjects, but it can still be possible to compose outdoor photos and avoid overexposed backgrounds, unless one is doing that purposely.
Photos from my short hike around Ogle Lake next,
Ken
I found this old, abandoned house just a short distance from the cabin in which we were staying in the fall of 2022.
I returned this fall (2023) to photograph it again. The fall leaves had mostly fallen the year before, when I found it. This year the fall color was good and not yet peak.
The house is little changed since 2022, but the weeds around it were taller and thicker, as if the lot is more neglected now.
More Indiana Fall to come,
Ken
A good way to enjoy fall color in Indiana is via a simple drive along the tree lined roadways, especially the backroads, where there are few houses or commercial facilities to spoil the views. The roads make good leading lines, but I do worry about having too much road in the images, since the most interesting subject is not the roadway.
It is not always possible to find a safe place to pull over off of the roadways, but where possible, one can get fall forest images right beside the road.
Until next time,
Ken
I first photographed this small, old, abandoned, leaning house in the fall of 2022. It is just off of the highway running through Bean Blossom and Morgantown, Indiana. My wife and I drove past it a number of times this fall (2023) and I stopped once to photograph it, while the trees still retained most of their fall foliage.
There are other homes and buildings nearby this house, which I tried to keep as much out of the photos as possible. That limited how I could compose these images.
As I returned across the highway to my vehicle, a woman leaving the parking lot stopped to tell me that there had been more old structures where the parking lot and a store were now located. All those had been taken down to put in the store and parking lot. I wish I had been around to photograph those now missing structures.
More fall photos later,
Ken
As has become a tradition, my wife and I spent a couple of weeks in Indiana in the fall of 2023. We stay in a cabin just a short distance outside of Brown County State Park, a popular park for fall leaf peepers.
I visited the park. on a number of our days in the vicinity, for photography and even when traveling to another destination, we most often took a route through the park just to enjoy the beautiful fall color in the park.
All of the photos in this post were shot at or near one of the overlooks within the park.
We had an interesting encounter at this location. I noted a park visitor on an electric bike and I asked him about his bike. He was kind enough to give me much information about the bike, its features and even how much he paid for it. When my wife joined in the conversation, she discovered that the biker and she had attended the same high school. Even though they attended the school some years apart, they knew some of the same people that were students at that school. Such a small world consequence!
Until next time,
Ken
In rural U.S. it is not unusual to see bullet holes in abandoned objects and road signs. This is perhaps a sign of the U.S. love affair with guns. Shooting at such objects as this abandoned vehicle could put other in danger, since there are still a few people in this area and many vehicles pass through on I-40.
One can see in the image above an indication of the traffic along I-40 through Cuervo. I usually tried to wait until there was no traffic in the background of my shots, but sometime that required more time than I had the patience for.
I made the shot of the kitchen area of this abandoned house through an open window, I think (or doorway, I don’t recall which).
I made this last shot as I walked back towards my vehicle.
This concludes this series on the mostly abandoned community of Cuervo, New Mexico. More history of this ghost town can be found here.
Thanks for following,
Ken
To be continued,
Ken
More photos of abandoned houses in Cuervo, New Mexico, taken as I was passing through, returning from another landscape photography destination.
To be continued,
Ken
This is the old church that first drew my attention to Cuervo, New Mexico, as I drove by along I-40, some years ago. This time I took time to stop and photograph portions of this mostly ghost town.
To be continued,
Ken
