Autumn

I have been thinking about my 'Nature' series of photos and am torn between water and seascapes and Trees and plants. Autumn brings out fantastic colours in the tress and with the right sky the contrasts can be fantastic.

So, armed with my camera and zoom lens I took the dog into Hopwas Woods and looked for things to photograph. Easy. However, as the woods are so dense, you do not always get the best light or the best angle for the shot.  Ironically, I got 2 of the following when I got back home!

I chose only to take my zoom lens as  I specifically wanted to capture close up's of leaves, most of which I knew would be high in trees, or in locations that would not be easy for me to access. The downside of that, was that I was unable to capture any decent shots of the wood in all it's glory.

I am pleased with the 7 pictures that I have chosen, as when displayed side by side, they are very colourful view of the autumn.

ISO 200: f 9: 1/100: lens 55-200mm

I tried a number of shots to get this as the shot was taken almost directly into the sun. Focusing on the leaves in the foreground I managed to blur out the back of the image. However, the brightness of the leaves in the back contrasts nicely with the leaves in the foreground. 

The golden leaves in the image below contrast really well with the copper sulphate blue sky. I like the sharpness of the contrast and the detail in the leaves. You can see the real difference in the blueness of the sky as this was taken with the sun over my shoulder, whereas the first picture was taken almost into the sun.

ISO 100: f 9: 1/200: lens 55-200mm

Golden leaves are nice but there are plenty more colours and interesting things to take, so I contrasted these with some red berries and brown leaves from a tree in my neighbours garden!

ISO 100: f 9: 1/80: lens 55-200mm

I saw this broken twig on the floor with a shaft of sunlight lighting it up nicely. It stands out well from the background and creates a burst of gold against a dark backdrop.

ISO 1600: f 9: 1/160: Lens 55-200mm

I like the look of bark and in my files I have many images of tree trunks and snapped trees. Looking at this tree there was  a nice amount of reflected light which illuminated the trunk of this tree. The dark brown is in stark contrast to the lighter brown's in the dying out heathers.

ISO 1600: f 9: 1/80: Lens 55-200mm

Looking at the heather, some is dying off already and others of it are not. Picking out this leaf in particular, I was able to show it against a nice green backdrop to exaggerate the colour and shape.

ISO 1600: f9: 1/125: Lens 55-200mm

Finally, I wanted to add another dimension of additional colour and came across a bush of red berries. I took several shots and chose this one as it has a shallow depth of field, allowing one to concentrate on the berries on the left and allowing you to drift into the rest of the bush.

ISO 1600: f5: 1/1000: Lens 55-200mm