In Brown County State Park I walked along a creek capturing fall color alongside the creek bed.
Having an interest in geology, I had to include some of the rock layers exposed along the creek bed.
There were only a few shallow puddles of water in the creek, so walking in and along the creek bed did not require getting my feet wet.
More fall in Indiana later,
Ken
I found the T. C. Steele Historic Site marked on an online map of the area around my operational base in Indiana. I had never heard of T. C. Steele, so I did what I usually do in such situations. I searched for information on the internet and discovered that T. C. Steele (1847 – 1926) was an American Impressionist painter, and a member of a group known as the Hoosier Group of painters. I decided it worth while to check out this historic site.
The site is located at the actual home and studio in the countryside, where T.C and his wife lived and worked. There were maybe a couple of more visitors at the site, when I arrived at a fair sized, newish looking parking lot that even had an electric vehicle charging station.
As I walked towards the visitor center, I stopped at the wagon with iron rimmed, wood spoked wheels that served as T. C.’s portable studio. The wagon is a custom built, enclosed wagon with a wood burning stove in one corner. I made a few iPhone images of the interior and exterior, but none were sufficient to fully capture the utility and quaintness of the vehicle.
There is a modest fee, payable at the visitor center. There are scheduled tours that one can take to see the interior of the studios and there are hiking trails around the grounds, garden and through a portion of the Hoosier National Forest across the road from the site.
I elected to walk the grounds on my own, then take a trail through the forest.
The grounds and gardens are attractive and pleasant to walk through. I was impressed by the large hardwood trees on the site, but my attempts to photograph those trees and showcase the grounds did not work out well.
I chose a forest trail and hoped for better photographic results in the woods.
The sheer volume of objects in a forest make it difficult to get really unique images (at least for me). I went through my photos a number of times, thinking most were a lost cause, before finally beginning to choose a few to edit.
Photos in forest can seem so much alike, that I get easily discouraged trying to capture the scenes.
In the end it seems that forest photos are mostly about colors, textures and light, since most of the objects in the photos are so much alike. I struggle to come up with good titles for images, especially the forest ones. I could not decide which title was best for the image above, so I gave it two.
To be continued,
Ken
A continuation of photos captured during a morning hike in the Charles C. Deam Wilderness area of the Hoosier National Forest, Indiana.
That’s it for this hike.
Until next time,
Ken
I returned to the old outlook tower that I found earlier, where a trailhead into the Charles C. Deam Wilderness originated. This time I was prepared to hike with my DSLR.
To be continued,
Ken
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.
Fog remained just above the lake surface in the shadows near the end of the lake.
This ends my hike and morning photography at Ogle Lake.
Until next time,
Ken
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.
My first composition this morning is my favorite one of this morning shoot.
After shooting a few images from the dam, I walked on to the hiking trail around the lake.
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.
Enough for now. I will continue this hike and photography in the next post,
Ken
I continued hiking the trail around Ogle Lake and shooting images in and around the lake.
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for following,
Ken
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.
From the dam and the hiking trail, I shot across the lake into the forest on the opposite side.
That’s enough for now. I will continue this photography hike in the next post.
Ken
To find places to get out into nature and find prospective places for outdoor photography, I frequently look at maps, either paper maps or digital maps with satellite views. Using this method I found that the Yellowwood State Forest was only a few miles from the cabin, where we were staying. So I had to take time to explore that area.
There is a sizable lake in Yellowwood State Forest with a trail that goes around the lake. The first part of the trail beginning at a parking lot was not of great interest. It was sandwiched between the lake and a roadway for maybe a half mile before it began to depart from the roadway at the end of the lake.
Near where the trail turned away from the roadway, I found an old dead tree that looked like a good photography subject.
On the opposite side of the lake from the parking area, a branch went away from the lake; but I continued along the trail that followed the lake shoreline. The trail became more scenic there with the lake on one side and deeper woods on the other side.
It was a little early in the afternoon for the best light for outdoor photography, so including any portion of the sky produced unpleasant results and I did not try to use any filters, while shooting handheld. I posted a cropped version of the hiking trail image (above) on Flickr. I think you will agree that taking out the sky improved this image.
I found the growth pattern of the vine in the above photo interesting. Why did it make those right angle turns? It eventually went up the tree in the normal direction. Maybe it got its directions from Apple Maps.
I began to look for ways to exclude the sky from my compositions. Sometimes portions of the sky were necessary to get the desired parts of the landscape into my compositions with my lens of choice, then I cropped the sky out in post processing.
There is also a cropped version, isolating the back lit leaves on the forest floor, of the image above on Flickr.
The toadstool image here is a cropped version of one that is posted to Flickr. I thought that there were distracting parts of the original image, so I severely cropped it; but I actually still prefer the original version.
Fall in Yellowwood State Forest, Indiana
The portions of my images from this trip that include the upper parts of the larger, more mature trees, show the lack of foliage on them. This would have been a much more successful visit for outdoor fall photography had I been here a few days earlier; but that is the gamble one makes, with long range planning. One has to adapt and being outdoors in natural surroundings is always a joy.
Thanks for following,
Ken
I left Ogle Lake and drove back towards the main roadway. I stopped at a pull out before getting to the main route and walked along the roadway to shoot more just off the road. As I walked beside the road I came to a trail, so I decided to take a short walk along the trail.
The trail was covered with fallen leaves along much of the route that I walked. The trail is just barely discernible in the lower left of the image above.
It was mostly overcast on this day. The dullness of the sky in the background gives the images too much of a fuzzy look for my taste; but it was what I was given today.
My short walk along the trail turned into a longer hike than I had planned. The trail meandered through the forest with frequent changes in direction, eventually following high above a ravine. The trail followed the ravine for quite a way, then crossed the ravine, then went along side the ravine in the opposite direction. I eventually came to a junction in the trail near a park roadway. I walked out of the woods to the road. I did not know which road I was on, but I knew the direction I needed to go to find my vehicle. I walked the roadway to a junction, which turned out to be the route to Ogle Lake. I only had to walk a short distance along the road towards Ogle Lake to my vehicle.
On my way out of the park I stopped to shoot at an overlook.
That’s it for this shoot,
Ken
