After stoping at a number of pull outs along the main roadway in Brown County State Park, I continued to Ogle Lake and hiked the loop trail that goes around the lake.
At the end of the lake nearest the parking lot, I went off the trail down to the waters edge to get this image:
Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park, Indiana
I walked along the edge of the lake towards the north until I got back to the official trail, where I stopped to photograph reflections in the lake.
Fall Reflections, Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park, Indiana
There were not many others here today, so it was not difficult to keep a safe distance from others and I only had to standby occasionally to let others clear out of my compositions.
Brown County State Park, IndianaBrown County State Park, Indiana
At least a couple of hikers asked what I was photographing. The first to ask seemed to think that there must be something special that was not apparent along the trail to photograph. The second was a photographer with a long lens. He was photographing birds and thought I must be doing the same. I guess we all have our own thoughts about what is worthy of photographing.
Brown County State Park, IndianaBrown County State Park, Indiana
As I rounded the end of the lake and began to hike along the south side, I noted some very nice reflections on north side of the lake.
Fall Reflections, Ogle Lake, Brown County State ParkFall Reflections, Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park, IndianaFall Reflections, Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park, IndianaFall Reflections, Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park
The reflections in the lake seemed to me to be the best images that I’ve gotten so far and I struggled to make interesting compositions for the rest of the hike.
Brown County State Park, IndianaBrown County State Park, IndianaGrafiti Tree, Brown County State Park, Indiana
I visited Brown County State Park on the second day of our Fall of 2020 visit to Indiana, where I photographed near a number of pull outs along roadways through the park and while hiking a couple of trails in the park.
This post will consist of the photos made near the roadway.
Dew Drops and Grass, Brown County State Park, IndianaIndiana Fall, Brown County State ParkBrown County State Park, IndianaBig Fall Leaves, Brown County State Park, IndianaAutumn Gold, Brown County State Park, IndianaYellow and Green, Brown County State Park, IndianaA Trio of Fall Maple Leaves, Brown County State Park, Indiana
In 2019 we were in Indiana the third week of October, which was at least one week early for the peak of fall color. So we scheduled our 2020 visit for the last week of October, which was projected to be the peak time for fall color there. Wrong! The peak came one or two weeks earlier in 2020, then storms the week prior to our visit, removed leaves from most of the mature trees. Fortunately, there were still a few trees, mostly the ones in the forest understory, with fall foliage remaining.
We stayed in a cabin a few miles from Brown County State Park, which is a popular place for fall foliage viewing. The first day in the cabin, I walked around the wooded area on which the cabin was located, making images of the remaining fall color.
Fall Woods, Indiana
It was windy and I was shooting handheld, so I used much higher ISO than I liked to get a sufficiently high shutter speed to freeze the motion of the leaves. Unfortunately, this results in noisy photographs.
Fall Leaves, Indiana
I did what I could to reduce the noise, but there are tradeoff in this process. Too much noise reduction makes the fuzzy images even more fuzzy.
Fall Woods, Indiana
The high ISO can also result in blown out highlights in portions of images. I did not use graduated neutral density filters, since these are problematic in wooded areas with no clearcut line between bright areas and darker area in a composition. I did apply software ND effects, which helps, but software filters are not as good as real physical filters.
Fall Woods, Indiana
To avoid the blown out highlights, I sometimes eliminated the sky in compositions and sometimes cropped out as much of the blown out portions of the images as I could, while trying to maintain a “reasonable” composition.
Fall Woods, Indiana
I was not pleased with many of my photos, even most of the ones that I elected to process, due to these conditions.
Fall Woods, IndianaFall Woods, IndianaFall Woods, IndianaMossy Log, Indiana Fall
I ventured back into the forest on the morning of September 24, 2020, initially taking a similar path to the route I had taken the previous afternoon, wanting to see how the light and forest scenes would differ in the morning light.
Sometimes I photographed essentially the same scenes, which looked a little different with the light coming from a different direction.
Aspen Trunks and Shadows. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 34mm, 1/8s, f/11, ISO 200.
There is something magical about being in a forest with sunlight filtering through the leaves and the tree trunks creating bands of shadow and light and
Evergreen with Aspen Leaves. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 46mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 2500.Forest Light. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 48mm, 1/400s, f/11, ISO 2500.
fallen tree trunks creating an array of geometrical shapes.
With all the big trees, back lighted leaves and starburst effects, it is easy to overlook the myriad small details. There are often interesting little things that make good images.
Aspen Leaf on Log. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 2000.Aspen Leaf on Log. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 2000.
The juxtaposition of color and texture in small items can be as intriguing as a wide angle image of the forest.
Grain and Veins. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 200.
Autumn is my favorite time of the year. I like the colors of fall and the crispness and smell of fall. Yet it is also a strong reminder of our mortality. I’m wondering, do we become more colorful in our autumn or just wrinkled and weathered?
I began my late day photography in the Rio Grande National Forest by walking briefly through the forest near my campsite before crossing FSR 380 into the forest on the opposite side of the roadway.
The first image here is a shot down FSR 380, just past my campsite. It is obvious from this image that there are some Aspens in peak fall color, while many others are just beginning to show signs of changing from green to yellow.
Aspens tend to grow straight and tall, self pruning as they gain height, but some grow in strange ways, such as this one on the right side in the image above, with the loop at top, where it turns sideways.
Aspen trunks have always fascinated me. They are usually tall, slender and grayish-white with hints of green and sometimes other colors, with smooth to rough trunks with dark black marks, where limbs have fallen off as the trees matures.
A forest is also a good place to get a starburst effect; but I think the one in the image above is too large and distracting. A smaller aperture would have given a smaller, sharper starburst.
Leaves and Trunks. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 400.Signatures. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 800.
I do not know what made the curved traces on the two trees in this image, but they are remarkably like data plots that I interpreted as a part of my work before my retirement. I posted this image on LinkedIn, where I knew others would see those traces as I did, and as of this writing it has received 15,275 views, 252 likes and 56 comments.
Under the Canopy. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 800.
The small Aspens in full color beneath the much taller ones were eye-catching.
Under and Over. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 800.Leaning into Fall. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 60mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 800.Aspen Sky. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 50mm, 1/500s, f/11, ISO 400.
A skyward view beneath the tall Aspens can be awesome, especially if the Aspens are in full fall color, with the yellow leaves set against a blue sky. There is a full range of color in the images here, since “peak” color is not yet here.
Even without the peak color, the aspen trunks with green and yellow foliage and scattered evergreens beneath them provide beautiful fall forest scenes.
After breakfast this morning, I decided to drive on FSR 250 back towards Platoro Reservoir. I found a convenient pull out and entered the forest on the south side of the roadway. I wandered around in the forest shooting photographs in the mid-morning light.
This unfortunate Aspen shows damage from the violent storm that blew through here in early September. Readers might also note many downed branches in some of my photographs in this area.
