Indiana – Page 7 – Ken's Photography and Travel Blog

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 11 – Yellowwood State Forest

In the afternoon, after my morning shoot at Ogle Lake in Brown County State Park, I decided to go to Yellowwood State Forest, where I had shot last year and see how it looked this year.

I hiked the same trail that I had taken the previous fall, but this year I went a little further along the trail. Recent rains had muddied the trail, requiring some minor off trail work to bypass the worst of the mud.

On the opposite side of the lake from my starting point, I encountered a lone, barefoot female hiker, carrying her muddy hiking boots. It appeared that she had walked through some deep mud somewhere along her hike and maybe it was more comfortable to hike barefoot than to suffer in the mud invaded boots. She seemed to be carefully picking her way along, which was good, since there were plenty of natural things on the trail to stick, poke and gouge bare feet. I did not encounter her on my hike back to the parking lot, so I have to assume she made it out.

The lack of good peak fall color in the forest resulted in a disappointing photo shoot in the forest. Even though I was late for the previous year’s peak, the previous year’s shoot seemed more satisfying than this one.

Early Fall Forest, Yellowwood State Forest, Indiana

I stood in a small stream crossing to get the shot above, which is about where I turned back last year on my first hike in this forest.

There were no really good places to get to the lake shoreline from the forest trail, so I had to shoot through trees towards the opposite shoreline.

Somewhere along the way, I managed to push through some brush to get near enough to the shoreline to get the image below. I still had to carefully zoom and position the camera to avoid much distracting parts of stray limbs and bushes intruding into the edges of this composition.

Yellowwood Lake and State Forest, Indiana

On the hike out, at a bridge crossing of a shallow creek, I encountered a photographer and a young couple, apparently getting engagement photos. The environment at this location and time did not look great for such photos, but I’m not that kind of photographer, so what do I know about that?

Maybe a quarter of a mile from the parking lot, I stopped at a short section of the trail that had been bridged over by a low wooden section.

As I finished a shooting here, the young couple and their photographer approached from behind. We exchanged greetings again and I continued to my vehicle.

When I arrived at my vehicle, I was not at all satisfied with this photographic outing, so I decided to hang around on a small, narrow, concrete boat dock until near sunset and hope to get something more interesting for my efforts today.

Stay tuned for more,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 10 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

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

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 9 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

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.

Early Morning Fog, Reflections and The Stick

Enough for now. I will continue this hike and photography in the next post,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 8 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

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

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 7 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

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

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 6

A few days into our fall 2021 visit to Indiana, the fall colors had still not progressed very much; but I was restless and needed to get out to explore the area. By doing so, I might find areas to visit later, when the colors were better.

After consulting a map of the local area, I decided to head to Monroe Lake State Park, southeast of Bloomington.

My base was just south of Brown County State Park (the red rectangle in the upper right corner). The quickest route to Monroe Lake would be into Nashville, then west on US 46 towards Bloomington, but I had traveled that route numerous times already and I wanted to check out the backroads, so I meandered through the countryside farmland and forest, approaching Lake Monroe from the south, crossing the causeway into Paynetown.

I can’t recall the exact route that I took and I doubt that I could duplicate it even if I wanted to. Many county backroads were involved. I drove through a number of small communities, some that were little more than a few houses at crossroads.

Along the way, I found a small, abandoned country store and stopped to get a few photos.

This photo shows some fall color, but it is still not fully developed.

I had hoped there would be scenic views from the long causeway over Monroe Lake, but that was a disappointment. There were no places to stop on the causeway, so I could not have gotten any photos from there, anyway.

Arriving at the state park entrance, I paid the entry fee and drove to a large parking lot at a boat launch area. The lot was mostly empty. I walked a path towards a floating boat dock and noted that there were many geese on the shore across the inlet. So I returned to my vehicle and put on my 80-400mm lens with a 1.4 extension.

I returned to the boat dock and shot numerous images of the geese, but I was still too far away to get really good images. A group of geese swam from the shore across the inlet to the boat launch area, where I shot a few more images.

I could not get too close to the geese, as they would move away as I got too close. I thought it interesting how they seemed to follow a leader along the roadway at the boat launch. I cropped the image above from one of my shots.

I drove around the rest of the park afterwards, but did not see anything else I wanted to photograph today. There were only a few people in the park, but I expect this is a popular place in the warmer months. I noted there were a number of hiking trails in the forest and this is probably a good place for a forest hike, if I return later.

I explored a side road into the Hoosier National Forest off of my return route, but cut my exploration short, since I was low on gasoline and there were no filling stations along my backcountry route.

Until next time,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 3

This is continuation of the iPhone photography in Indiana antique stores during the early days of our two week fall stay in Indiana.

Older photographic equipment always gets my attention. I’m glad I do not have to use those items.

Some of those pictured in this poster, seem to be misclassified as Rock and Roll musicians. After noting one such collage of these bad criminals, I began to see these more often in this area.

Bad guy entertainers may be unpopular here, but alcoholic beverage items are prominently celebrated.

And Bing Crosby is ok.

I started this post with pottery items, so maybe I should end it with pottery.

More later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021 – Part 2

This is the third year of visiting Indiana in the fall. The first visit was mostly to attend a few of the Covered Bridge Festivals, visit my wife’s relatives and see the fall color. We were about a week too early for the fall colors during the first visit. We visited a little later in the fall last year and we were late for the fall color peak. Many of the larger trees were already bare, thanks to a storm that came through the week prior to our visit. We thought we had the perfect timing this year, but we were early, fall color was late. Most of the trees were still mostly green and just barely beginning to show some color.

We were staying two weeks this year, so I decided there was no need to rush out to photograph. I could wait a few days and hope for the color to arrive before we departed for home.

During the early days of our time here, I went out with my wife, sister-in-law and brother-in-law to do those things they wanted to do. The first full day we were here was the last day of the Covered Bridge Festivals, so we went to one of those that day.

I’m not convinced that this sign conveys what the creator and seller of this product intended. It seems to suggest that there may already be indications of health issues associated with tobacco smoke. Wouldn’t effective advertising avoid bringing attention to any possible risk to using a product?

The following early days of this visit we drove to antique malls or stores, which the others liked to browse. These drives allowed me to monitor the fall color progression and I used my iPhone to practice getting mostly indoor photos of various objects in the antique places.

I could, at least, reminisce about watching Saturday morning cartoons as a child.

The one on the left might shoot the other two, so maybe they were not amigos?

Surely, the Wicked Witch of the West wore these in The Wizard of Oz?

More next,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 1

Early in our stay in Indiana in late October, 2021, I looked out the window and saw that it was a foggy morning. I walked to the roadway in front of the cabin to check out the scene.

I only had my iPhone with me, so I used it to snap a few images in the early morning fog.

Just a reminder that all of the images in this post are via an older iPhone, so if that is all you have with you, use it!

Later,

Ken

Indiana, Fall 2020, Odds and Ends, Part 2

This is a continuation of my iPhone photography in Indiana Antique Stores in October, 2020.

I think the camera in the middle is an Argus brand. I had an Argus C3 that I acquired, when I was in high school. I do not know what happened to that camera.

There are always lots of old jars, bottles, dishes and glassware in the antique malls. Sometimes the displays make interesting photograph subjects, sometimes not.

Lard was a common cooking item up until not so many years ago and I suppose some people may still use it. It was a common item in my childhood home.

One of those tools looks out of place. I even have a rusting Sears Craftsman handsaw in my garage, that I’ve not used for many years. It does not have the carvings on the wood handle that this older one has.

More bottles and jars.

An old Automobile Service Station Jar, iPhone Photo

Was this bottle used to contain gasoline or motor oil?

Antique Wood Spoke Ford Automobile Wheel, iPhone Photo

This wheel was still attached to an old automobile or truck in the backyard of an antique store in a Indiana small town. The blue bottles in the photo above the wheel photo were in the same outdoor space near the automobile.

That’s it for the antiques and this wraps up photographs from our fall trip to Indiana.

Ken

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Tag: Indiana

Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 11 – Yellowwood State Forest

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Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 10 – Ogle Lake, Brown County State Park

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Indiana, Fall 2021 – Part 2

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