IT’S FALL, BUT STILL FEELS LIKE SUMMER

We went out this evening to look for the last signs of summer although fall is officially here. 

The numbers of blooming flowers in the remaining tall grass prairies area are dwindling but a few pretty ones can still be found around here.

We didn’t have a cold snap yet and it was a dry year, which means fall colors may not be as vibrant as we hope. Many leaves have hit already the ground but it is nice to see a few peaks of yellow or orange in the trees.

It seems like it is a better year for bees, wasps, and other pollinators. Not just in our yard, also on the prairie I recognize much more activity than during recent years, and that’s a good thing!

FALL COLORS - NORTHEAST IOWA AT ITS BEST

Turkey River, near Motor Mill, Iowa

The five photos I show you today don’t need a lot of text. Gorgeous weather and fall colors probably at their peak last weekend in Northeast Iowa. We pitched the tent for a night at Motor Mill along the Turkey River. Finding the colors wasn’t the problem, finding a way to let the light tell the story is the challenge that is left to us…

As always, a click on each photo gives you an enlarged view.

AUTUMN IN MINNESOTA #3

Fall colors, Itasca State Park, Minnesota

When you go in October to the Northwoods the colors of autumn will probably be on your mind. We definitely wanted to be amongst the leaves and suck up every drop of light pouring through them. Two ingredients, a wet spring and a cold snap, are necessary for a good fall color show. When we left Iowa it was very warm but we were hoping to find colors further north in Minnesota.

Already at our second camp, in Itasca State Park, we found what we were looking for. Fall is a great time at Lake Itasca, at the headwaters of the Mississippi River (more about this in a later post). We hit the peak, while later, further north, more trees had already lost their leaves. I hope you enjoy this photo and some more that will follow in the next time…

 

FIRST FALL PHOTOS

We pitched our tent in Wyalusing State Park, Wisconsin this weekend and were rewarded with wonderful and sunny fall weather. Located at the confluence of the Wisconsin and Mississippi rivers, the bluffs and valleys of Wyalusing belong to the same drift-less area we call home. The leaves just started to change colors although many are still green. The air was crisp and clear, other than the haze we see often during the summer, and this gives the light a different quality. I wanted to challenge myself and took only one prime lens with me during our hikes in the park, the SIGMA 150/ f2.8. My older version of this lens is a little slow with focus, but this doesn’t play a big role when hunting for light and colors in the woods is the goal.

 

SPRING IN THE VALLEY

Little Maquoketa River Valley, Durango, Iowa

I love my little walks during the evening with our dog and with the camera in my hand. Sometimes its all about looking for birds and critters and sometimes I just chase the light. It’s a great way to wind down from a day behind the desk. 

Last night when the sun hit the horizon the magic of light unfolded down in the valley. The trees along the Little Maquoketa River received a nice shaft of warm light. The color of the leaves, the bare field in the foreground, and the pale stems of last year’s reeds and grasses, they all help to tell the story about spring in the valley. There are only a few days during the year when this picture can be made, maybe it was only yesterday. Last week the leaves were not really out. Later, when the leaves are darker and fully developed, when the field is planted, and when the sun sets in the northwest, it will not be the same mood anymore. Today I was at the river again but a gray overcast painted already a total different picture. Didn’t even think about to make a click…

SPARSE FALL COLORS

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North unit

The grasslands of the Dakotas are not a prime destination if you want to shoot nothing but fall colors. However, any time we saw a Cottonwood or any other tree that had some fall colors we stopped and tried to integrate it in a landscape photo. Nothing tells the story of fall season more powerful than the changing colors of leaves.