Finding autumn colors ... and looking up

On Tuesday, I experienced another one of those 52-minute walks that ended up taking me an hour and a half to finish. (smile)

That’s because after starting to take pictures of geese in the pond at Yates Mill Pond Park, I decided to make my regular walk another photo adventure, challenging myself to find autumn colors (there are some, but they aren’t plentiful yet) ... and to look up for tree and/or color compositions. 

Most of those “looking up” shots ended up giving me nice silhouettes and/or shots with a beautiful blue sky as background.  

The batch image-size shrinking I did (using the IrfanView app, which was free, by the way) to get copies of the pictures to put in this post counted 200+ images in all that I made Tuesday. That easily exceeded my two recent previous hour and a half walk/shoots at the park, which had numbered in the 120 pictures realm or thereabouts. I tried to keep the number that I used in this post to 170 (just kidding!). 

I stuck to the challenge for most of the 3.1-mile stroll, but as always, I found a few compositions outside those boundaries that I couldn’t resist making. 

The photo leading off the post was part of the challenge. Those leaves were still on a tree, and I found them while “looking up.” Most of the colored leaves I found were on trees along the pond side of the Millpond Trail. I wondered if having ready access to water like that — during a summer of protracted drought — might explain why the leaves are turning colors before leaves on other trees. 

And about those geese ... unlike others I’d come across on the pond in the past, these four in the smaller portion of the pond along the main boardwalk did not seem to care how close on the boardwalk I came to them. It appeared they were too busy grooming to care, actually. 

As always, to view a larger version of a photo, simply click on the image. To view a full gallery of images I took Tuesday, follow the link in this sentence.

Acorns, berries, shadows, lines, stumps, trees, leaves, gnarliness, bokeh and more

I went through another round of exploration of shadows, lines, shapes, leaves, acorns ... and anything else of interest I could find while doing my walk through Yates Mill Pond Park on Wednesday.

I’ve been experiencing a feeling that I used to have in my multiple trips to Garfield Park in Indianapolis while I was living there and indulging in photography for some 20 years or so. And that is, no often how often I returned to a familiar (and favorite) haunt, I always found new, different or variations of a photo subject(s). 

One example is the photo leading off today’s post. I’d never come across these berries until a recent visit a week or two ago. But the plant with berries I came across Wednesday had a better leaf accompaniment. So, I made a picture. 

I didn’t come across a lot of people on the trails as I made my pictures Wednesday. I did pass a few folks before and after I made them, so I felt fortunate about that timing. I don’t like to be someone who impedes a walker or running from pursuing their own pursuits. 

As usual, to bring up a larger version of an image, simply click on the photo. This often helps for people accessing the blog via a mobile device. To view a gallery of all the pictures I made in Wednesday’s shoot, follow the link in this sentence. 

Above and below are different perspectives of the same subject/object. 

Above: This almost-silhouette lifted my spirits when I first spied it. I felt compelled to make its picture.

Above: A classic gnarly network of tree trunks, branches and limbs. You come across a lot of these in Yates Mill Pond Park. As a result, I decided to compose its orientation in a gnarly-like manner.   

Above and below are two similar (but different) “finds.” As you can tell, I used the left fork for my focal point in the one above. For the one below, I went into portraiture mode on my iPhone 13 Pro and focused on the vertex point.  

Above and below: I used the park’s hiking trail verification emblem for subjects in a few pictures, including these two. The camera is in portraiture mode in the one above. 

The photos above and below are an exercise in using different focal points while in the iPhone’s portraiture mode. The focus above is the end of the limb closest to the viewer; the focal point below is the vertical limb stub in the background. Notice how the bokeh is not as sweet in the one below because the focal point is farther away from the camera. 

I got a two-in-one combo in the above photo, with the subject/focus centered on the striking shadows on the tree trunk. I used the snaking, planked walkway on the left as secondary element. 

Above: Some more tree trunk-and-limb gnarliness going on here. Below, yet another trunk getting doused with a splash of leaf-heavy shadows. 

Above: This might be my favorite tree trunk shadow composition of the day, thanks to some real limbs and leaves intersecting with the shadows to a decent extent. 

Luck and fortuitous timing gave me this pair of tree-trunk leading lines directing the eyes to the bridge in the distance. 

And speaking of fortuity, how incredible it was to find a ground shadow forming an arrow pointing to the right (above) and another shadow forming the letter E (below). 

Above: A distinctive shadow cast on this tree trunk. I couldn’t find the source of the hooking shape at the top, but it sure caught my eye. 

Above and first two photos below: Some more distinctive shadows-on-tree-trunk compositions. 

Above: The combo of silhouetted limb in the center juxtaposed with a limb getting a splash of sunlight just above it made me smile. 

Above: A couple of Ys forming from the same piece of limb. 

Above: Contrasting leaf lighting is aplenty here. 

Above: Just a routine “look upward and see what I might find” shot. 

Above: The sun was highlighting these leaves against a deeply shadowed ground background.

Above: A solitary gnarly timber growth surrounded (if not overwhelmed) by some very vertical and thin growths. 

Above: This is a shot I debated whether to present here. I’m in portraiture mode, with focus on the center section, which was closest to me. But I have a sense the remainder of the plant’s out of focus portion is distracting. 

Above: A mature tree trunk surrounded by its younger, thinner subjects. 

Above: Another portraiture mode feature composition of a stump. 

Above and below: More gnarliness to appreciate ... and perhaps wonder how it all happened. 

Above: This tree root in the middle of the trail path looked to me like a fossilized creature from the ocean. 

Above and first two photos below: I spent a little time Wednesday exploring some more acorn shots. Believe it or not, the first photo below is exactly how I found both the leaf and acorn shell. 

A little color to spruce up the post today, starting with the leaves above, followed by the pond reflection of leaves changing color below. 

Above: Speaking of the pond, I paused to grab the above about three-quarters through the Millpond Trail. 

Above: Finishing with another acorn composition, which turned out brighter than I wanted because I had to boost the shadow slider to bring out some detail in the nut.