I published a number of Substack posts (kenkemp650.substack.com) with images of fall leaves. This post contains a subset of images from my Substack series “Grounded Leaves”.
These photos depict ordinary scenes one can see in the fall, especially on a forest floor. Which means these are not unique artistic creations and are only a capture of the ordinary, natural beauty we often take for granted, while we trample these fallen leaves beneath our feet.
Stay tuned for “Hanging Leaves”,
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 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
Again, mostly photographs and few words.
Just one comment to wrap up this post. Viewers will note that I’ve include color versions of a few images that were then converted to black and white with selective colorization to add emphasis.
Stay tuned for the wrap up for my September 2020 Rio Grande National Forest visit.
Ken
For our late day shoot, we decided to drive back into a higher elevation portion of the forest. I’ll refrain from using too many words to wrap up the final shoot of my last day here, so these last several posts will consist of mostly photographs.
To be continued,
Ken
I continued to shoot, under the overcast sky, in an upper elevation Aspen forest, where the ground was covered with fall leaves and an abundance of old logs and stumps of fallen trees.
The stump above reminds me of the skeleton skull of a longhorn steer that one might find in a desert setting.
I found a batch of young evergreens among the large Aspens decorated by fallen Aspen leaves.
This wraps up the mid-day exploration and shoot and I want to remind viewers that the images look much better on the website or on Flickr (if posted there) and on a large screen, rather than in an e-mail or small mobil device screen.
Thanks for following and stay tuned for the final late day shoot,
Ken
After our morning shoot, my son wanted to explore some of the other Forest Service Roads nearby, so we drove along several of those and into higher elevations, where most of the trees had already lost most of their leaves.
It was an overcast day and the dispersed light was good for photographing in the forest.
With the trees mostly bare, the forest floor was covered in fallen leaves.
A vertical shot with a wide angle, standing to the side of a batch of Aspens, made those trees appear at an angle, rather than vertical.
I found many stumps of old fallen trees with the roots sticking out at various angles that made interesting subjects.
And old logs covered with fallen Aspen leaves.
To be continued,
Ken
Looking for small details in a vast forest, sometimes one finds natural abstracts.
This weathered tree stump with map like contours caught my eye. Here is a black and white conversion:
The Aspen leaf in this photo had not quite completed its color transformation, before it fell to rest upon a mossy bed.
I prefer to photograph these little details as I find them; but sometimes I’m tempted to move things around. I did not move anything in the photo above; but I can’t help but wonder, if I should have. Should I have removed the blade of grass pointing at the Aspen leaf in the middle? Or does that blade of grass serve as a useful pointer in this photograph? Would this image be better, if I had cleared away some of the debris around the edges or the scattered leaves, leaving just the single leaf in the center? What about that little twig resting on the stump to the left of the center leaf?
I have no objection to “posing” a natural scene for artistic purpose and I have removed man made items from natural scenes and I’m quite ok with this. I’ve occasionally removed a twig, a fallen tree limb or a blade of grass, if I thought those were distracting in a scene. But nature is not perfect, so will “cleaning” a scene make it unreal? Is unreal ok in this sense? No one would know the scene has been modified, if not so informed by the photographer. Is it acceptable to “manufacture” a natural scene?
And I will wrap up this portion of this morning’s photos with one final forest image, which I just noted this morning was chosen for Flickr’s Explore page.
Stay tuned for the rest of today’s story,
Ken
This post is a continuation of photography in the Rio Grande National Forest, Colorado during the final morning of photography this September.
Many of my photos from today are of more of the small details seen in a forest.
Stay tuned for mid-day and afternoon of our final day in the Rio Grande National Forest,
Ken
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.
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.
The small Aspens in full color beneath the much taller ones were eye-catching.
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.
To be continued,
Ken
