Fall Excursion
Testing out the new lens in Letchworth State Park. What better time than during peak leaf season?
Using a longer lens helps isolate the subject in your shot. This can be good and bad. The good is that you only get what you want in your photo. The bad would be that your subject is alone with no context. This can easily lead to boring and repetitive photos. I added depth by including the stone wall with a clear delineation of the subject, along with the background of crisp fall foliage.
At some point you need to simplify your photos. Seeing vibrant oranges and reds in fallen leaves always brings back fond memories of playing outside in the fall weather. Being a completely candid photo, this leaf seemed to jump out at me and beg to be captured. Simple, yet conveys the integrity of the autumn palette.
Sometimes, when you are out taking photos, you just see something extraordinary. Other times, it’s just trees. From across the gorge at Letchworth State Park, while running over to take a photo of something completely different, these two bright orange trees surrounded by white tree trunks caught my eye. Like something out of a Bob Ross painting, I managed to compose this image to near perfection. Easily one of my favorite photos taken this year.
Light is pretty important. It helps us see the things around us. Photography in its truest form is simply capturing what the light allows us to see. When it is illuminating in an interesting way, you are able to capture only a mere glimpse of what you saw.
It’s hard to get over the subtleties of fall. The stark contrast of light, brightly colored leaves partially covering the flat, cold, natural stone is a common sight in Letchworth. Fortunately, the longer lens allowed me to eliminate much of the distractions surrounding this scene.
Longer lens also give you the opportunity to be near something that is far away, allowing you to experience a unique perspective. Middle Falls, from Inspiration Point, looks like a dot on the horizon to the naked eye. However, at 200mm, you can compose the rushing water between the gorge walls.
The face in the falls, one of my favorite views in the whole park. Standing to the side of Middle Falls during lower water levels reveals an eerily accurate profile of a man staring down the gorge. Longer exposures on your camera allow the face to stand out, while converting the image to black and white increases the contrast.