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
Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 17 – Charles C. Deam Wilderness
Tag: Trees
Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 16 – Charles C. Deam Wilderness
I returned to the old outlook tower that I found earlier, where a trailhead into the Charles C. Deam Wilderness originated. Â This time I was prepared to hike with my DSLR.
To be continued,
Ken
Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 14 – Indiana Backroads
This is a continuation of the previous post of my fall 2021 photography along Indiana backroads.
After shooting along one section of a gravel forest roadway, I continued driving looking for other prospective places at which to shoot. Â I stopped at a trailhead and considered a short hike along that trail, but rain was threatening, so I decided it was best to leave this hike for another day, thinking I had time to return again, but I never got back to this location. Â I will try to keep this possibility in mind for future visits to this area.
The gravel road ended at a paved roadway, which led to a more major backroad. Shortly after getting onto that route, I saw the walker that I had seen earlier on the forest road. Â We waved to each other as I passed his home. Â That was miles from where I had seem him hiking, so I’m assuming he drove into the forest for his exercise routine.
Along the paved roadway, I could see the dense clouds sweeping in from the west. Â I knew I had to stop to shoot the clouds over the farmland and forest, but the roadway was narrow with few places to pull over. Â Finally, I found just enough space to safely get off of the roadway. Â I walked across the road and a very short distance along a farmer’s field road to shoot across a bean field.
Back in my vehicle, I continued to wander around the country side looking for places to photograph the farmland scenes. Â I passed a farm with red barns near the top of a hill. Â There was no place to pull over nearby, so I drove past, turned around at a crossroads and went back up the hill, finding a place below the hilltop to pull over. Â As I walked towards the top of the hill with my camera and 80-400mm lens, I spotted a bare tree and a flock of blackbirds soaring nearby with a few birds settling in the tree.
After shooting the bare tree with the blackbirds in it and clouds for a background, I continued to the top of the hill to pick a place along a fence line from which to shoot the farm buildings.
Until next time,
Ken
Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 13 – Indiana Backroads
Indiana has much farmland and forest land, which is best observed along the country backroads.
Driving the backroads can lead to unexpected discoveries in the many small country communities.
Like this old school house adjacent to a cemetery. Â The weather was changing with clouds gathering, making for great sky in some images. Â I wanted to be sure to have the bell visible in a photograph, so I had to find the best place from which to shoot to achieve that. Â It would have been good to have had a higher place upon which to stand. Â There was a stump of an old tree nearby. Â I tried standing on the stump, but I could still not get the bell in a photo from that vantage point, so I had to settle for shooting standing on the ground from farther away than I wanted to shoot.
A community church shared a parking lot with the school. Â There were interesting storm clouds above the church, so I had to shoot that.
Continuing along the backroads, I took a gravel road through a portion of the Hoosier National Forest, stopping to shoot along the roadway.
I had passed a local walking up this road and I greeted him as I pulled my camera  gear from my vehicle.  We chatted for a few minutes and he revealed that he had relatives in the metropolitan area where I live.  It is not unusual to discover such facts from random meeting such as this, which shows just how small our world can be.  He continued his walk up the hill and I picked several spots from which to get Indiana backroad fall photographs.  The walker came back down the hill and back up again at least one more time as I shot nearby.
To be continued,
Ken
Indiana, Fall 2021, Part 12 – Yellowwood Lake
After my unsatisfying photographic outing in Yellowwood State Forest, I waited for sunset on a little boat dock that barely jutted into Yellowwood Lake. Â It was mostly calm and the lake surface smooth and reflective of the sky and surroundings.
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. Â 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.
There were small, almost inconspicuous plants or floating, natural object in the water that made subtle foreground in my compositions. Â These photos are best view on a large screen to appreciate the details.
I alternated shooting directions from along the lake to across the lake as sunset approached. Â The forest blocked the actual sunset, but the cloud color and lighting changed as the minutes ticked by.
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.
Thanks for following,
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. Â These images are best view on a big screen to see the details.
Enough for now. Â 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. Â 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. Â 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 1
Early in our stay in Indiana in late October, 2021, I looked out the window and saw that it was a foggy morning. Â 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
Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 10 – Trees and Clouds
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. Â At one of these areas I photographed a couple of interesting trees with the cloudy sky and/or the canyon in the background.
This lopsided tree was easily isolated against the cloudy sky.
I think the black and white version of this image is more dramatic.
I captured several compositions of this deformed or broken tree with the clouds and canyon in the background.
I like the third image (vertical) of the deformed tree best, with the first (horizontal) a close second.
Until next time,
Ken
Grand Canyon, North Rim, July 2021, Part 7
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.
The first three images contain the same canyon features with varying compositions and view points.
The tree leaning into another reminded me of a couple sharing this grand view.
The sky was mostly cloudy, as was typical during our visit, and the canyon was hazy.
Again today, there was a storm in the distance and rain threatened to catch us on the trail.
I will continue with more photos from this hike in a subsequent post.
Ken