Hello again!
As the Starks say, “winter is coming” (Game of Thrones reference), but first comes the fall. And in High Level, Alberta, turns out it is a remarkably golden fall, ripe for many a photo, especially when the sunset reflects the colour of the leaves. Birch trees in the fall are awesome! Here is why I think so.
Here you can see the transition from green to gold to red. Shots like this are everywhere on many a fall outing.
While the fall may lend itself in particular to wider shots, it is always worth it to get close and see what branches and leaves you can fit into your frame. Every once in a while you will come out with something that fits really nice into your frame and makes a great picture. This works with any kind of flora really.
I love this photo especially. It emphasizes the quality that having both total white and total black in photos can give, showing a full range of the spectrum in terms of light. Though photos rarely come out like this immediately, playing with the levels function in photoshop can accomplish this effect.
There are always little, interesting things you can find on forest walks that can be fun photo subjects. Try going out around sunset or sunrise and you can see how the light streams through things like this.
This was an experiment that I have tried before in a city, but never in a forest. I placed my camera on a tripod, set my camera to long exposure and zoomed in as the photo was being taken. Can have some fun effects when you point your camera towards the setting sun.
Of course, the sunset happened to cooperate on this day, providing a lovely golden back drop to a great, golden walk through the woods.
Just as professor Keating says in The Dead Poet’s Society, “never let your (sunsets) be ordinary.” Sometimes just getting a reflection is a neat way to spruce up what can otherwise be a cookie-cutter sunset shot. Here, I also used the rule of thirds. The horizon starts at the top of the bottom third of the photo. This tends to be more pleasing to the eye … don’t know why.
And there is why I love birch trees in the fall. High Level’s golden autumn colours are fantastic, I am happy to say, and very happy to share with you.
Hope you enjoyed them too!
See you next time.
