Autumn
Deep Red Down
A bright, red maple leaf found its final resting place on the white stripe of a wet, city parking lot. The contrast in colors and textures caught my eye.
This is a rare posting from my cell phone’s camera. I don’t usually post cellphone photos because I prefer the higher quality of my DLSR, but I didn’t have my DSLR with me.
I was in Appleton for work and had just finished a quick lunch at a Panda Express. It was a cool, gray, drizzly day. While leaving the restaurant, I noticed this bright spot on the ground next to my vehicle. The only camera I had with me was my Samsung S6 cellphone. The leaf was resting on a stripe of the parking lot.
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Fall from Grace
On a recent hike through the woods – on the hunt for some autumn colors – I stumbled upon this colorful leaf resting on a branch and a log covered with a carpet of green moss.
The color combination and variety of textures caught my eye. There wasn’t much that caught my eye on this outing. The woods were not very vibrant. I was expecting to see a lot more color. I’m not sure our fall colors are going to be as brilliant as in the past few years. There’s still some time. We’ll see.
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The Autumn Heart
An early morning sunrise, shining behind this leaf on one of our lilac bushes, brought out its brilliant fall color and intricate detail.
This is one of those times where something just caught my eye. I was walking by a window, just about sunrise, when I noticed this bright leaf on a bush. I quickly grabbed my camera, hoping to catch the beauty before the shaft of light piercing the bush moved off this leaf. I was there in time.
I love big landscape vistas. I also love the smaller vistas. As I always say – whatever catches my eye.
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The Fall Bloom
One of the favorite flowers of autumn are now in bloom. Mums are colorful, prolific and as popular as pumpkin spice and apple orchards in the fall. In fact, these mums were photographed on a recent visit to an apple orchard in central Ohio. These were one of many colorful varieties of potted mums they had on sale. I selected these beauties because of their fall-like colors and the various stages of blooms in this bunch; from buds to the full flowers.
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Limited Shelf Life
On one of my recent hikes through the autumn woods, I snapped a brightly colored maple leaf that found a resting place on a shelf mushroom.
For those not familiar, shelf mushrooms (or bracket fungi) grow on the side of trees (living and dead). When you find them, they’re usually attached to rough barked trees.
There are dozens of shelf mushroom varieties – different sizes, shapes and colors. They are known by a variety of descriptive names – beefsteak fungus, sulphur shelf, birch bracket, dryad’s saddle, artist’s conk, and turkey tail…and others.
The classification, Polypores, is often used for the type of the hard or leathery fungi (like the one pictured here) that lacks a stem, growing straight out of wood. The polypore’s woody fruiting bodies are called conks.
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Blush of Fall
The last leaves of autumn provide a colorful contrast to their bleak, forest background.
For me, the colorful contrast and moody nature make this a worthwhile image. I think the leaves, with their smattering of red on orange, are beautiful. Take those quintessential autumn leaves and set them before a shadowy, bluish background and I think the eye-appeal soars. It’s a contrast of light and dark – bright and moody.
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Gone to Seed
At the end of its season, the milkweed distributes the produce of its summer labor – the potential milkweed crop of next season.
I snapped this image on a recent trip to the woods in my area. I was out to capture some fall color and this milkweed caught my eye. I found it on the edge of the woods, as I was leaving. The fine fibers of the seeds were slowly undulating in the light breeze. It may not be as exciting as brightly colored leaves, but I thought it was a very cool, and beautiful, view of nature.
The milkweed, is an American genus of herbaceous perennial, dicotyledonous plants that contains over 140 known species. Milkweed is an important plant because so many species of insects depend on it. For example, monarch butterflies, milkweed bugs, and milkweed leaf beetles only eat milkweed, and could not survive without it.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Happy Hollow Scene
Who wouldn’t love to be in the woods on a beautiful autumn day, strolling through the hills and hollows, on a colorful carpet that provides a comforting crunch with each step. It’s a magical time in a magical place – the woodlands of northeast Wisconsin.
This is one of those images I like the more I gaze upon it. This is a patch of woods beyond the field behind our house. It’s full of colors and contours and peace.
It’s difficult to get a view like this in the middle of the woods. This wasn’t a clearing. I couldn’t get any distance between me and the trees…because the trees are everywhere. To get this wide view, I had to turn my camera sideways, to a portrait orientation, and take six overlapping shots that I combined into one.
This is the kind of image I wish I could print billboard size…or large enough to fill an entire wall. It would be spectacular…like being there. Needless to say, the larger you see this scene, the greater the experience. To get a full-screen view, click on the photo.
If you’d like to put this on your wall, all of the photos I post are available for purchase. To buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Curvaceous
A number of people have told me this stretch of highway, just before you reach Gills Rock at the northern tip of the Door County, WI peninsula, is the most photographed road in the world. I don’t know who’s keeping track, but a number of people stopped and got out of their cars to snap a quick photo while I was there. In fact, I left my home before sunrise just to get there and this shot in the early morning light.
My intent was to make it an “Autumn Colors” tour and get some great fall foliage. I didn’t get much else worth noting. Once the sun was up, it was clear and bright – creating too much contrast and washing out the colors.
I spent a good deal of time in processing this image. A lot of that time was spent removing a power line that stretched across the upper part of the image. Thanks to the magic of software…with a bit of skill and a bunch of patience…an unsightly distraction was eliminated. I thought about removing the mailbox and For Sale sign on the right, but decided it wasn’t too distracting and probably added to the rural feel.
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All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.
Woodland Litter
The fallen leaves are almost as beautiful on the ground as they were on the trees. I’m glad I didn’t have to rake this clearing in the woods.
To view a larger version of these fall colors, click on the photo.
All of the photos I post are available for purchase. If you’d like to buy one, click on the blue “Buy this Online” bar below for a variety of print and frame options or contact me for digital purchase and licensing options.