This is the second part of my post on abstract images of fall trees via ICM (intentional camera movement).
These two images (above and below) are the same but with different editing applied. These are not realistic natural images, so I’m not bothered by artistic renditions via edits.
The same scene can yield very different results, depending upon the camera movement.
I must admit that I had fun creating these abstracts. Maybe I should do this more often and I like the vertical motion abstracts of trees much more than those created via horizontal camera movement.
One day at the cabin, I went out into the area around the cabin to shoot some scenes that had caught my eye due to the lighting on another day. However, today the light was not the same and the shots of those previously interesting looking scenes were not interesting.
My stroll around the area eventually led me into a wooded area behind the cabin and I still was not getting any interesting images. So I decided to try getting abstract images via intentional camera movement (ICM), a technique that I seldom use.
Usually, the most interesting images can be obtained via vertical camera movement with trees as the subjects. But I did manage to get a few interesting images by panning the camera horizontally.
I think the monochrome version works best for this horizontal panning motion.
Prior to any road trip, I always check the weather forecast for my destination, so that I know how to prepare for the expected weather. I’ve also learned to heed the season and expect the unexpected change in the weather.
This fall, the first few days of our visit to Indiana, the weather was much as forecast, then an unexpected cold front came across most of the U.S., dropping temperatures well below my allowance for cold outings. I had brought my typical normal cold weather gear and even a few chemical hand warmers, since my fingers tend to get cold even in mild winter weather. And once my fingers get numb with cold, I can’t easily operate my camera controls.
I knew I would still want to get out in the cold weather, so I purchased additional cold weather clothing and more hand and foot warmers in a local store.
Halloween morning was the first below freezing weather we had during this trip. I knew the cold front coming in over the warmer landscape and warmer bodies of water would result in early morning water vapor condensing into mist or fog. So I went out again to Ogle Lake in Brown County State Park early in the morning of October 31.
It was, indeed, a heavy frost morning and mist was rising from the lake surface.
By the time I had obtained these few images, my fingers, even with the hand warmers in my fleece mittens with the exposable thumb and finger tips, were so numb that I had to give up shooting. I retreated to my vehicle, started the engine and sat there until my fingers were warm enough to drive away.
I really would have liked to spend more time photographing frosty scenes around the park this morning, but I knew I could only shoot for a few minutes at a time due to the cold weather effect upon my fingers. I settled for getting one shot at an overlook in the park, before heading back to the cabin.
Even on days when I did not venture out for photography, my wife and I often drove through scenic Brown County State Park on our way to or from some other destination.
Occasionally, we might stop at
an overlook and sometimes I took time to get a photo.
This is a continuation of a foggy morning shoot in Brown County State Park near Nashville, Indiana.
There were occasional breezes through the trees and I did not try to adjust my shutter speed to freeze the wind induced motion, so some of the images may show that motion, such as that in the image above.
I initially photographed along a roadway through Brown County State Park on a foggy morning, then took a long hike through the forest. Photos in this post and a number in the previous post (part 22) were taken along that forest hiking trail.
The fog was getting thinner now and it became more difficult to capture the fog in my images. I elected to stop photographing as it was getting late in the morning and I was getting hungry for breakfast and caffeine. I’m sure the hiking trail was not of great length, but it seemed like it took me a considerable time to get back to a a roadway. Then I had to hike a considerable distance along a roadway to return to my vehicle.
Another early morning photo shoot in Brown County State Park, Indiana. I got lucky this morning. It was a moderately foggy morning with heavy fog in some areas. Foggy mornings here are not unusual and I had hoped to get at least one foggy morning.
The last two images here are essentially the same composition, but the last one obviously has a foggier look. That is due to shooting it farther away from the tree line and having more fog between the camera and the trees.
One has to be careful when shooting in the fog and when editing the foggy images. It is not always easy to get the exposure right and editing can take out the effect of the fog, if over done. I can’t claim to be an expert at either of these skills, but fog surely can add magic to some scenes.
Early morning photos in Brown County State Park, continued.
Remains of trees laying where they fell in the forest among the trees that are still standing and maybe ones that took the place of their fallen comrades.
There is probably a story behind the distortion in that bent tree trunk. Maybe a life’s event deformed it, in the same way that life’s choices, obstacles or stresses might change a person’s life path.
I went into Brown County State Park again early on the morning of October 28, 2023, first stopping at Ogle Lake. It was a bland sky morning, heavily overcast and no sunrise sky color. I made the image above, which is similar to ones made a couple of days earlier, except for the sky, then the blandness of the sky prompted me to leave the lake and wander through the park looking for better fall images.
Do you think I got enough leaf strewn roadway as leading lines in these images?