After my unsatisfying photographic outing in Yellowwood State Forest, I waited for sunset on a little boat dock that barely jutted into Yellowwood Lake. It was mostly calm and the lake surface smooth and reflective of the sky and surroundings.
Clouds and Lake
The photographer and young couple, that I had encountered as I returned from my woodland hike, had walked past me and into the area on the right side of the photo above. I had to watch carefully to keep them out of my photo, even though I doubt that they would have been very noticeable, anyway.
I made a series of photos as the light, sky, clouds and reflections in the lake surface changed.
Softly Reflected
There were small, almost inconspicuous plants or floating, natural object in the water that made subtle foreground in my compositions. These photos are best view on a large screen to appreciate the details.
Yellowwood Lake Fall ReflectionsRadial SunsetRadial CloudsYellowwood Sunset
I alternated shooting directions from along the lake to across the lake as sunset approached. The forest blocked the actual sunset, but the cloud color and lighting changed as the minutes ticked by.
Yellowwood LakeRadial
This end of the day shoot was much more satisfying than the hike in the forest, so I’m glad that I decided to hang out here for sunset.
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, IndianaYellowwood 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.
Through the Tree
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, IndianaYellowwood 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.
Leads Darkly
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.
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.
Fall Reflections
Fog remained just above the lake surface in the shadows near the end of the lake.
Fall at Ogle LakeLake PointerCorneredFall at Ogle LakeFall Lake SceneAutumn LakeSquiggly Reflections
This ends my hike and morning photography at Ogle Lake.
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.
Early Morning Fog on Ogle Lake
My first composition this morning is my favorite one of this morning shoot.
Lake Fog
After shooting a few images from the dam, I walked on to the hiking trail around the lake.
Early Morning CalmSerenenessThe Stick and Rippleness
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 StickThrough the Trees SoftlyMisty Lake
Enough for now. I will continue this hike and photography in the next post,
I continued hiking the trail around Ogle Lake and shooting images in and around the lake.
Fall Forest
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.
Early Fall ColorDreamy Reflections
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.
Leaves and TrunkRed FallTattered
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.
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.
Yellow and BrownGreen, Red, Yellow
From the dam and the hiking trail, I shot across the lake into the forest on the opposite side.
Fall Lake ViewEarly and LateLeaning Into FallFall by the LakeFall ImpressionAcross the LakeSpindly
That’s enough for now. I will continue this photography hike in the next post.
Glassware of all sorts and colors are in plentiful supply is such places.
RedsSilver RingsGlassware B&W
Monochrome conversions often work well for images of the glassware.
Pink GlassPink GlassSoft Drink Crates
Wooden crates are common offerings in antique stores. I’m old enough to recall the time when these crates were used and most soft drinks came in glass bottles, rather than cans or plastic bottles. These crates were useful for sitting on, when placed on end and it was not uncommon to see these used in such a fashion.
Campbell Soup Crates
I do not recall these Campbell soup crates in use.
Cool Vinyl Storage
Instead of an RC cola and a moon pie, how about an RC and a vinyl record?
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.
Foggy Roadway
I only had my iPhone with me, so I used it to snap a few images in the early morning fog.
Morning Fog and Sun RaysFall FogDiffractionMorning Forest FogMorning Fog and Sun Rays
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!
As sunset approached, I hiked back into the area around my campsite with my DSLR for a sunset shoot. As usual, I went out earlier than I thought necessary. Even so, my timing was off. Some of the features that I had anticipated shooting, were already in shadow, well before sunset. So I had to give up on some of the preplanned shot locations.
Golden Hour, Palo Duro Canyon
My first stop was at this vey tilted rock or hoodoo nearest to the campground. It was in full late day sunlight and I could see that there were already shadows on the big hillside in the distance.
Cacti and Red Hill, Palo Duro Canyon
I found this batch of prickly pear cacti that were still getting some late day rays, with the red hill behind them mostly in shadow.
Tiny Desert Tree and Red Hill, Palo Duro Canyon
Even though the light was much less than I had planned to see, I like this composition with the small, weakly lit tree and the big red hill in the background.
Late Day Deep in Palo Duro Canyon
I like the sinuous leading line formed by this drainage with green grass contrasting with the red earth and the change in lighting from the right side to the left of this image
Boulders and Red Hills, Palo Duro CanyonMoon over Tilted Hoodoo, Palo Duro CanyonDesert Evening
I converted this final image, made from the top of the hill from which I had photographed during my scouting hike, to black and white, to get a more dramatic late day image.
I tried capturing more images of the moon over this hilltop, shooting from a location on the side of the hill with tilted rocks pointing at the moon, but I could not get a good image with the lens I had chosen to use today.
On my return trip from the Grand Canyon North Rim, my first overnight stay was near Gallup, New Mexico at Red Rocks Park. There were large red rock formations around the park and I thought this would be a good place to check out. It was not a bad place to stay for one night, but much less interesting than I had anticipated. At least the weather was mild, due to overcast and rain during the day, just before I arrived at the park, then a booming thunderstorm at night.
My second overnight was at Texas’s Palo Duro Canyon State Park near Amarillo. I had been through the park many years ago, but never spent much time here. My campsite was deep into the canyon. Even though it was late July, the weather was only mildly hot in the day and cooled down nicely at night.
After settling in, I walked around the area to scout potential locations for sunset and possibly sunrise photography. All of the scouting images in this post were made with my iPhone.
The Sportsmobile in Palo Duro Canyon Campsite.Small Cacti in Palo Duro Canyon
As in most western US deserts or arid places, cacti abound and one needs to watch where one steps.
Dinosaur Grafiti, Palo Duro Canyon
Visitors to this area have a penchant for carving into the rocks, which I assume must not be very hard rocks. I found this image of a dinosaur in a narrow space between large boulders.
Rock Grafitti, Palo Duro Canyon
Many of the boulders near the campsite had graffiti, initials, names and/or other scratched in symbols.
Rock Signings, Palo Duro CanyonBoulders and Hillside, Palo Duro CanyonBoulders, Palo Duro Canyon
I captured images, testing compositions and to use as reminders, at locations that I thought might be good to return to with my DSLR at sunset.
Palo Duro Canyon ScenePalo Duro Canyon TopagraphyLife on a Rock, Palo Duro CanyonCacti and Red Hill, Palo Duro CanyonCacti and Red Hills, Palo Duro CanyonScrubby Vegetation and Red Hills, Palo Duro CanyonTilted Hoodoo, Palo Duro CanyonTilted Hoodoo Palo Duro CanyonHilltop view near campsite, Palo Duro CanyonPalo Duro Canyon Pano
I posted this panoramic image to Flickr, not because I thought it was a great image, but to share with others that may want to know what the area looks like and because I intended to use it in my blog and wanted to have a link to a larger image. Much to my surprise, this image was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page and is now my most viewed and faved image on Flickr. Maybe I’m just physically abusing myself carrying around that heavy DSLR camera and other gear, when a simple iPhone image garners this much attention.
Rock Registry, Palo Duro Canyon
Apparently, lots of people have scrambled up the steep slope to the top of this hill, since the boulders there all had some initials, names and dates carved into them.
