An advantage of walking along a forest roadway in the rain is getting photos like these, while passerbys stop to make sure you are ok, because nobody in their right mind walks around in the rain with a camera.
I made a number of images at this location, while walking around in the drizzling rain, along Forest Service Road 250, which follows the Conejos River for a long way in Rio Grande National Forest.
Valley, River, Mountainside, Mist
This was not the kind of weather I wanted, but I knew before I began this trip that there were significant chances of rain for each day here.
With the recent and continuing rains, the local streams were flowing again after a long dry spell and there is something irresistible about a mountain stream in every season.
It had been years since I visited Colorado in the fall. Not because I didn’t want to be there in the fall, but because the timing never worked out. This year I had a narrow window of opportunity to visit Colorado and I took advantage of it.
I knew in advance that this year might not be a great year for fall color in Colorado, due to a wide spread drought; but I knew that if I passed up this opportunity, I might not get another for years. So I went.
On the second day of travel, as I neared my destination in Southern Colorado, it began to rain. Mostly, light, intermittent showers, but sometimes heavy downpours. It rained and was overcast most of the time I was there with only the last couple of days partly sunny with occasional light rain.
I’ve driven past these peaks numerous times in my trips to and from this part of Colorado. Today those heavy clouds above the peaks inspired me to stop and shoot this image.
I arrived at the south end of Forest Service Road 250 in the late afternoon and I stopped a few time along the road to shoot a few images, while looking for a place to overnight in my vehicle.
This time of the year is not only leaf peeping season in Colorado, but hunting season as well. So there were many hunters in the Rio Grande National Forest, taking up many of the open campsites. I was also surprised to see that a number of forest campgrounds that were closed the last time I was in this area were still closed. I don’t know why, but I suspect budget cuts by the current Washington regime is responsible.
And the rains made some dispersed camping areas difficult or impossible to use. Fortunately, I found a suitable place to stay overnight, although I did walk into the area first to make sure I could navigate the muddy dirt roads and puddles.
First Night’s Campsite
This is an iPhone photo with the wide angle lense distortion making it look like those evergreens are leaning in to protect my vehicle from the inclement weather.
View from CampsiteBent Aspens
I found it interesting that this group of small aspens near my campsite are all bent in the same manner. Perhaps these were deformed when very small by a snow load and maintained that shape as they have grown.
More Colorado fall photos to come. Thanks for following,
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.
