On this visit to the Soldier Creek Wilderness, I was shooting with a 50mm lens at f/2, looking for ways to embrace the limited depth of field and softened rendering. This lens can be sharp wide open, but the plane of focus must be just right. I found this partially fallen tree in the shade, draped with red leaves, against a background of livelier trees. Fall colors went quickly this year thanks to some early snow. The dark shapes of the foreground tree provide contrast against the more colorful background, while the spots of red up front add a useful dynamic to create an additional plane of foreground material. Plenty of chaos within the smaller branches, but the large trunk on top anchors things.
The trail behind Sylvan Lake has plenty of leafy trees to work with, but this gnarly gnarled specimen was certainly interesting in the mid-morning light. There's plenty of chaos in the zigzagging branches and black and white tones.
I keep meaning to go up Mount Coolidge, but too often the road is closed or some other reason blocks my way. This time, I was fortunate to photograph a storm as it rolled in from the distant hills and swept over me, with all the wind and rain I cared to get hit by. This is a straightforward view of the tree canopy off toward the mountains, with the clouds capping the scene. I'm not quite happy with the colors; it's a tad blue for my liking. Next round of editing will be to warm things up a bit, which should help.
The fall colors are starting in Spearfish Canyon, and on the way to photograph moving water at a slow shutter speed, I was looking for opportunities to work with the colors. The birch-or-aspen-I-can-never-remember-which trunks serve as great anchors in the dark background, while the leaves take their place strongly in the foreground. I like the zigzag pattern created by the negative space around the leaf clusters.
Working with selective focus and background placement at Cascade Springs in South Dakota. The stream in the background has sunlight glinting on it, and at 70mm and f/2.8, and at this particular distance from the flower and water, and at that particular distance between the flower and water, you get this particular sort of background. I shifted around a fair amount to see how I could arrange the background shapes, while trying to keep the flower in focus as it shifted in the breeze. It's a fun activity.
When CSC completed its new football stadium in time for the 2018 season, I wanted to get a time lapse video of the first game, which would be played under the lights. I set up my camera before dawn that day, and recorded a good sunrise and daytime leading up to kickoff. About a half hour before kickoff, it became obvious that the thunderheads getting closer and closer were going to cause problems. Just before the rain came, I pulled the camera in, cutting the time lapse short just as the fantastic sunset clouds from the storm were coming in.
My goal then was to try round two the next year (round two in 2018 wasn't going to happen, since no other night games were scheduled). Come early morning on September 14, I set up the camera, this time so I could easily attach a rain cover and continue to shoot even during bad weather. Fortunately, the forecast was good, the sunset was great, and I got the time lapse.
The camera was a Canon G12 running the CHDK firmware and a time lapse LUA program at one minute intervals. I assembled the panorama in Premiere Pro at 30 frames per second, 1 frame per image, and 2 frames per image during the game.
This spot intrigues me because it has a variety of rocky outcroppings and dead trees in stages of decay. I just hope a wildfire doesn’t blow through here, because it would be a shame to lose the wonderfully weathered branches that are building up as prime kindling. It becomes a test of arranging the branches against the right background, watching out for too much and not enough contrast. I’m still working at it.
