Moon over Yates Mill Pond Park

Sometime pre-2012, in the middle of the new millennium’s first decade, while I was still living in Indianapolis (and working full time), I was out for a very early morning run through Garfield Park, which was very close to where my house was. 

And on the tail end of the run, as I was climbing the hill on Pagoda Drive, I noticed off to my right that the moon was perched perfectly over the campus of Emmerich Manual High School, which sat on the park’s western border. The visual excited me, and for 30 seconds, I gave thought to sprinting home, grabbing my DSLR camera (I did not have a cell phone at that time), and running back to capture pictures. I even quickly came up with an alliterative headline on the blog post bearing the resulting photos: Moon over Manual.  

I was deterred, however, by the thought of possibly missing the moment in the time it would take me to run home and run back. But I also worried that doing so would make me late for work. 

So instead of throwing caution to the wind, I sighed and told myself I would get it the next time it happened. 

As you might guess, there was no next time. 

I later did some Internet research to try and learn how often the moon could land in the exact same visual position like I had seen that morning. And the response was demoralizing. Today, I don’t remember exactly what the answer was, but it basically foretold that years of waiting would be involved. 

On Aug. 31, when I arrived at Yates Mill Pond Park for my regular walk, I had my iPhone with me ... and an angel nudging me in the form of the man you see in the lower right corner of the photo leading off this post. 

I wasn’t looking up at the sky as I made my way down the main boardwalk over the pond, taking pictures of reflections on the perfectly still pond. But the man saw I was a picture-taker and directed my attention to the placement of the moon right over the short overhang on the boardwalk. I looked up, and there it was. I took three pictures integrating the moon into the landscape (the two others are the first two photos below). Below those are the reflection shots.

Twelve days later, on Sept. 11, I was again in the park for my walk and nearing an end when I came across the striking colors on a tree growing from the pond (first photo below). I took the other pictures closer to the tree. I wasn’t as impressed with those, but ... for the sake of wrapping up the story, I present them here, too.

Check out my traveling photographer blog, Travelin’ Shutterbug

Leaves on the ground, 2025 edition

It was 2020 when I first did a post on what I might describe today as a "study" of fallen autumn leaves on the ground. The idea came to me spontaneously while out for my daily two-mile walk. I liked it so much, I actually did two posts on the subject, and they went live on back to back days. 

A few days ago, the urge to repeat the exercise came to me, again while I was out on my walk, so I decided to do this post, a 2025 version ... and possibly make it an annual autumn tradition at Photo Potpourri. I'm going to limit this year's study to just one post.

Most of the leaves in this post were taken at various points on my own property or the street in front of the house. A few were captured elsewhere in the neighborhood, but probably not more than four or five at most (and probably fewer). 

I made a point to integrate a half-dozen or so shots of very small leaves, something you might not be able to detect unless I otherwise indicate. The last five in this post were among that group. 

One other thing is new to this shoot, and it came in post-processing. I boosted contrast in the majority of the shots to give them a different look. And in the case of the photo leading off the post, I also boosted the saturation to flesh out the multiple colors that attracted me to the leaf in the first place. 

To view the full gallery of leaves I shot on this year's project, follow the link in this sentence. You'll notice that I added six leaves at the bottom of this post in November, including the last one, which is a poison ivy leaf.  

THE FOLLOWING WERE ADDED ON NOV. 14, 2025

CHAPTER 13Four Seasons: Autumn

 

All photos in this chapter are © by Joe Konz 

As the array and variety of photos in this post might attest, autumn was an exciting time of year for me to be in the park taking pictures. 

For many of my working years, I took half of my annual four weeks' vacation in autumn — partly to look in on the Major League Baseball World Series (I worked nights many of those years). But also because of how much I enjoyed taking long walks through Garfield Park and beyond, along Pleasant Run Parkway and even to downtown Indianapolis and back, primarily to soak in the splendor of autumn colors.

The first image below, which I took Nov. 1, 2016, came the closest to accomplishing my ideal target capture in autumn photo pursuits: a wide perspective shot depicting the breadth of space and colors, both on trees and on the ground, but also including at least one person in the image to give it perspective… and a personal touch. The fact that the individual was walking two dogs and wearing a bright color (blue) that helped stand her off in contrast from the autumn colors was icing on the cake. Again, at least for me. 

I first saw the individual walking about 8 seconds before taking the shot, so I used the interim time to compose and frame everything and to wait for her and the lead dog to get past the lamppost before tripping the shutter.    

During the same shoot, I lucked out with another favorite, the shot of the arts center stairs and adjacent lawn doused in season-colored leaves (second photo below). Please note that you can click on any photo to see a larger and sharper version.

The photos above and first two below were captured in my first full autumn shoot in mid-October 2004. The image above is MacAllister Amphitheater, framed in seasonal colors and a nearby tree trunk and branch. 

The first shot below is special because within two years after this was taken, one of the two trees in the center of the image — just left of the orange-leafed tree focal point in the distance  — was cut down because of disease or storm damage. So technically, this scene can never be rephotographed exactly as I got it.

The tree in the second image below is the one I'm using in the "Garfield Park in Pictures" logo on the top of every chapter in this series. This grand maple is special for me, too, because I managed to get this in one of its last fully healthy years. In the years since, it has been slowly dying. Its leaves and colors are no longer as full and resplendent.  

In my early autumn shoots in Garfield Park, I found that the prime time for colors was in mid-October. But later on, I discovered I could wait until early November (such as the two photos at the top of this chapter) and still get decent autumn colors. The bright red-leaf tree in the photo above was showing this brilliance on Nov. 7, 2013. I really like the dark, gnarly trunk and trunk extension of the tree in the left foreground, too.

The first image below, taken from the east ridge overlooking Conservatory Drive and looking northwest, was another from the October 2014 outing.  

Above and below: These shots, both at the north end of the park, along Raymond Street, were taken on Oct. 21, 2010. And yes, that's Fire Station 29 in the one above. 

About the photos above and the first three below ... This is another grouping from that October 2004 shoot. The one above is significant to me for two reasons. One, there is a runner on Conservatory Drive, just right of and slightly above center. If you look closely, you can see her in a white top and black pants. She is a small speck in the photo, but she is there. Two, the modest brush you see along Bean Creek in the foreground is quite low here. Remember, this was in 2004. Today, the view you see here beyond the creek while standing at the same place I was standing when I took this photo is impossible because the brush is enormously tall. All you would see today is, well, enormously tall brush.

The first photo below is a shot I wanted from the get-go: Autumn colors dressing up the pedestrian roundabout near the former site of the Monument to Confederate Civil War prisoners at the south end of the park. The tree in the second photo below can be found along the path behind the Burrello Family Center not far from the stone pedestrian bridge over Bean Creek along Conservatory Drive. 

The third photo below was taken near the lawn stairs leading from the arts center parking lot up the hill to the south end of the arts center. I liked how the leaf colors, green lawn and dark shaded branch on the right complement the amphitheater in the distance. Plus, leaves on the dark-shaded branch are framing the structure. 

Above is the arts center parking lot, where the park’s original Olympic-size pool used to be. Below is a landscape composition looking northwest into the park from near the park's south access along Southern Avenue. Below that, an art-inspired closeup of a solitary leaf on a patch of dirt.    

The photo above looks out into the commemorative Grove of Remembrance at the north end of the park, west of Fire State 29. Below, looking south near dusk toward the Confederate Prisoners of War Monument that stood at this park site from 1928 until it was removed in 2020. 

Above and first two photos below, all from from Oct. 21, 2010: I remember spending an inordinate amount of time on the tree above, making all sorts of pictures of those color-mixed leaves juxtaposed with the trunk and branches. I believe the tree is a sycamore, but I'm not positive. The two compositions below came when I turned to exploring variations of a backlighting situation. I was particularly taken by the bizarre artwork that nature created in the second photo below with the arc of leaves and a short, slender branch in the foreground. 

Above and below, from Oct. 15, 2014: Occasionally I liked to shoot in the park on overcast days, to see how colors might be affected by the diffused natural light. I couldn't believe the rich color I got in the trees on the shot above, one of those heavily overcast days. I even tried lowering the saturation in post-processing, but it had an adverse effect, in my opinion. So I dialed it down a tad. This view looks north from the pedestrian roundabout at the park's south end. 

The tree in the image below stands just outside and east of the amphitheater, close to the asphalt pedestrian path, and the view looks northeast. I was intrigued by the way the sundry dark branches manage to hold their own (in prominence in the composition) against the leaves' spectacular orange color. On another occasion, I photographed this same tree but from a different vantage point and with its leaves largely stripped (second photo below).  

Above: A shaded lawn of fallen leaves from the October 2004 shoot. This site is just west of the park's south access off Southern Avenue, looking toward Allen Avenue in the Garfield Park-South neighborhood in the background. 

Above and below: Two photos from Oct. 26, 2009. The one above looks north down Conservatory Drive from north of the Bean Creek bridge at the drive's fork in the road. The photo below is a "perspective" shot from a bench along the pedestrian path alongside and behind Burrello Family Center, not far from the asphalt basketball court. 

I had only modest luck trying to photograph squirrels or birds in the park. The photo above was one of the few exceptions (in another, I photographed a frost-covered squirrel during a winter shoot, so check the Winter seasonal chapter to see it. And in still another, I got a squirrel creeping very close to me in spring, so check the Spring seasonal chapter to see it). This is a crop from a larger frame during my shoot on Oct. 21, 2011. 

Autumn during the day in Garfield Park is one thing. Beholding fall colors at dusk and after dark  — and a nice rain — is quite another. 

The pictures below were taken on my strolls to and from night meetings of the Indiana Photographic Society at the Garfield Park Arts Center in October 2011 and October 2012.

Next up, Chapter 14: Four Seasons: Spring

Previously in the Garfield Park in Pictures series:

Introduction

Chapter 1: “America, We Remember”

Chapter 2: The Garfield Park Arts Center

Chapter 3: Bean Creek and Pleasant Run

Chapter 4: New Bean Creek pedestrian bridge

Chapter 5: Blake’s Garden

Chapter 6: Burrello Family Center and James Garfield statue

Chapter 7: Conservatory Crossing yuletide decorations

Chapter 8: Conservatory proper

Chapter 9: Conservatory permanent tropical plants and rain forest exhibit

Chapter 10: Garfield Park Farmers Market

Chapter 11: Fire Station 29

Chapter 12: Fireworks