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.
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.
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!
After our morning shoot, we drove around to explore the local area, getting to a couple of places with overviews of Marble Canyon in the distance. At one of these areas I photographed a couple of interesting trees with the cloudy sky and/or the canyon in the background.
Tree and Clouds, Original Color Version
This lopsided tree was easily isolated against the cloudy sky.
Tree and Clouds, Black and White Version
I think the black and white version of this image is more dramatic.
Enduring
I captured several compositions of this deformed or broken tree with the clouds and canyon in the background.
Deformed Tree, Canyon and Clouds 1Deformed Tree, Canyon and Clouds 2, Vertical Shot.
I like the third image (vertical) of the deformed tree best, with the first (horizontal) a close second.
The longest hike we did while at the Grand Canyon North Rim was one that generally followed along the canyon rim, but was mostly in forest with occasional good views of the canyon.
View from a trailClouds over the Canyon
The first three images contain the same canyon features with varying compositions and view points.
Intimate Moment
The tree leaning into another reminded me of a couple sharing this grand view.
Clouds and Canyon
The sky was mostly cloudy, as was typical during our visit, and the canyon was hazy.
Along the TrailNear a TrailStorm over the Canyon
Again today, there was a storm in the distance and rain threatened to catch us on the trail.
Storm CoudsTrees, Canyon and Storm Clouds
I will continue with more photos from this hike in a subsequent post.
We woke up to a heavy snow cover in our campground the second morning of our visit here. We had been watching the weather forecast and expected snow over a large area, we just could not judge how much would fall at our location, which was a higher elevation than that used in the weather forecasts .
Snow in Bandelier Campground, March 2021, iPhone PhotoSnow in Bandelier Campground, March 2021, iPhone Photo
Judging by the depth of snow on the flat surfaces, it looks like 6-8 inches of cover.
After making a few early morning iPhone photos and taking care of a few housekeeping chores, I began to walk around the campground area with my DSLR.
I managed to isolate a few individual, snow covered trees against the overcast sky.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Tree and Clouds 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Tree and Clouds 2.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Monochrome Tree and Snow.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Skeleton Tree in Snow.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Towering Tree in Snow.
As I walked around, I tried to capture a few small features in the snow covered landscape.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Grass in Snow 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Grass in Snow, Monochrome.
And anything else that looked unique or interesting.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Crawling Snow Covered Tree Creature.
A distant mountainside was visible through the forest and I tried to frame that in a few photographs, but the 24-70mm lens did not allow for close ups of the distant mountains tops.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Distant Mountains 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Distant Mountains 2.
I think the individual trees are the best images that I captured here; but here are a few miscellaneous other images to give a feel for the general look of the snow covered forest area around the campground.
Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 1.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 2.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 3.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 4.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 5.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Snow Forest 6.Snow covers Bandelier Campground, March 2021. Old and Fallen, Old and Standing.
It is good that I got out early to capture the snow, since it began to melt away even as I made my way back to my van. It was essentially all gone by late morning.
By the time this final post, covering my fall visit to the Rio Grande National Forest, is published it will be late spring of 2021. It would have been good to have been able to publish all of the fall photographs in the fall, but it takes time to review and edit so many photographs and there are always other trips, events and personal matters that delay getting posts prepared.
Maybe I should take fewer photographs? But photography of natural places is my hobby and I get to do too little of it as is, so I will continue to make as many photos like these as often as I can get away to do so.
Fall Forest. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 3200.Red and Green Leaf on Log. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 3200.
Dark Red. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 3200.Fall Forest Roadway. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/500s, f/11, ISO 3200.Leaf on Log. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 3200.Leaves and Moss on Stump. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 3200.Leaves and Stump. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/80s, f/11, ISO 3200.Trapped. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 6400.
I’ll finish with a final photograph that I think is appropriate for wrapping up this trip.
The heart shaped scar on this tree appears to be natural and not one of the many carved ones that I encountered.
As soon as I publish this, I will begin preparations for another trip to begin in a few days. I have much to do and still have to select a primary destination. Maybe by next year, I will even be posting photos from that trip. (I still have other events in the queue to work through before getting to anything new)!
Shelter. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/100s, f/11, ISO 3200.Trunk Trio. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 52mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 3200.Hint of Fall, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 400.Sanctuary. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Forest Road and Barren Aspens, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 52mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 2000.Advanced Fall, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 2000.Advanced Fall. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 2000.Hanging On, B&W with selective colorization. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Stump with moss and leaves. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 32mm, 1/320s, f/11, ISO 3200.
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.
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.
Aspen Fall. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2500.Aspen Leaf and Evergreen. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 1600.Leaf and Bark. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/80s, f/11, ISO 320.Fall Forest. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 24mm, 1/125s, f/11, ISO 1600.Leaf Hoard. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/200s, f/11, ISO 2000.Leaf and Bough. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Golden Forest Floor. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 26mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Gnarly. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 32mm, 1/250s, f/11, ISO 2000.Soft Landing. Nikon D850, Nikon 24-70mm @ 70mm, 1/160s, f/11, ISO 3200.
