Mississippi River overlook near Guttenberg, Iowa ----------
My business commitments required a trip to La Crosse, Wisconsin today and driving the “Great River Road” along the Mississippi towards Minnesota is probably my favorite drive from Dubuque, Iowa. Last weekend Joan and I where just up in this most beautiful part of Iowa again for another camping trip. We had great weather, still warm and sunny, but I didn’t bring home many pictures that told the colorful story of fall.
Four days can make a big difference here at this time of the year. We had a lot of rain in the last days and many of the leaves in our valley came down. Most importantly those leaves still hanging from the trees got finally a real color change. On my way back this evening I stopped at several places at the big river to look again for migrating birds and took the time to capture the essence of autumn. We had a heavy overcast and even some rain sprinkles today but the range of light was reduced to 3-4 f-stops, which to me means “great light” for revealing the warm colors without glare.
All images: Nikon D750, Nikkor 24-120mm / f4
The water level of the Mississippi raised again after all the rain of the last couple days. Many islands and parts of the backwaters are submerged in water. I have seen this fallen tree sticking in nothing but mud before and would have never thought of getting the camera out of the bag. Well, it is impossible for me to just walk by if nature reveals its beauty in such artful way. I know, some may see only a dead tree sticking in the muddy waters of the Mississippi…