This corner in mount auburn cemetery was covered in freshly fallen leaves,and the fence surrounding this plot featured ornate axes which stopped me in my tracks as I came upon it. Slightly foggy conditions and a fresh rain had everything saturated and glistening for a picture perfect moment. The cemetery uses street signs that have an appeal to them which adds to the unique feel you get here.
Mount Auburn cemetery is as much a cemetery as it is a garden and park and this view down one of the avenues reflects its beauty. Graceful old trees and plantings are done in a way that inspire the visitor to linger and enjoy the scenery. Mount Auburn is considered the pioneer in garden cemeteries and inspirational views are around every corner. Fall color begins to emerge in this image captured under my umbrella in a rainy moment.
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I just returned from a four-day trip to shoot fall foliage in new england and this is the first image I am sharing. The foliage was a disaster but my friend Morrie and I took a day to shoot in Mount Auburn cemetery in Massachusetts. The place did not disappoint and this image features the Bigelow Chapel,which is a centerpiece of the cemetery.Originally built in 1846 in a Gothic Revival style, Bigelow Chapel is a central structure illustrating the Mount Auburn Cemetery’s importance of linking a network of building landmarks to the landscape. The Chapel, constructed of Quincy granite, has served as a non sectarian chapel for funeral and memorial services. The building has had a full history of renovations, beginning with a complete dismantling and rebuilding just nine years following construction due to structural problems, a complete interior remodeling in 1923, and the addition of a crematory annex in 1970. The only regret I had was not being able to see the place lit inside to show off the stained glass. I light painted the scene with about ten pops of the flash. This cemetery is very large and well maintained,and while we were there a maintenance crew carefully raked the stone walkways free of debris,which surely must be done everyday in the fall. We were also told not to park on the grass at the road edge because they are very particular about keeping things perfect.
This small roadside stand is packed with a variety of items for decorating the home. From colorful mums, to gourds and pumpkins. to corn shocks, and even hay bales,there is something for every decor. My current favorite is the cinderella variety perched on the hay bales. Sitting in the lower left corner are apples and pears that have the most appealing scent.
I actually got out of bed to shoot a local farm stand before sunrise. I had been counting on a colorful sunrise but never expected the sun to rise exactly in the spot it did and for a layer of fog to spice up the shot. The hardest part was trying to focus in the dark before hand.
This farm wagon is overflowing with a variety of unique pumpkins for fall decorating. From the green one that looks like an apple to the white ones devoid of color,there is one for every taste.They say this was a great year for pumpkins,so prices should stay very reasonable.
This Amish family is hard at work on a warm september day harvesting their corn crop. One wagon moves along to catch the freshly cut stalks until it is full, and the next empty wagon is heading up the field to take its place when needed. This year has been a banner year for corn and fields will be a buzz with activity in the coming weeks.
Each year around this time I find myself scanning the landscape for fall displays to photograph. I passed this farm stand on my travels and stopped to get permission to try a shot. The owner was more than willing to allow the endeavor and said to stop anytime. I decided to try a shot before sunrise this past weekend and assumed I would be there in the dark all by myself for a while, but to my surprise and delight,work was already under way in preparation for customers when I arrived. The owner was washing the driveway down,and to be honest I was originally going to crop the building on the right off my shot,but when the wet surface reflected the stand light,it seemed time to change my plan. So with sunrise still an hour away,I began to compose and fine tune things before the light got good.
The gorgeous sky lit up first and lasted maybe 5 minutes,but that was more than enough time to capture it and the expanse of mums that stretch toward the barn. While I was waiting for the light to begin shooting, the owner pulled up with a large produce wagon pulled by two horses and he backed that wagon into the second door as easily as driving a car,which really impressed me. Between the sky,the reflection, and the mums,I was very happy with my result. The bottom image is the angle I originally wanted to shoot for comparison and you can see the horse and wagon sitting in the field on the left.
A calm pond reflects autumn colors contrasting against pine trees and birches.All I need is a moose standing there in the water and I would really be happy.
Fall foliage shimmers in the golden light of a late autumn afternoon while snow covers the mountaintop above. Shot near Lake Placid in the Adirondacks
This is a view along the way up to the summit of Whiteface mountain near Lake Placid. It cost twelve bucks to drive up to the top and it was a nice drive but photo ops were tough.The valley had decent color but the distant views were somewhat hazy. This is the kind of road you pray all the way up and down that your brakes don’t fail. Sidelit pines add a little foreground interest to the view.
Some of the last fall color for this year still hangs on along this row of trees. The fence adds a bit of appeal to the shot and leads your eye into the photo.
I decided to light paint this arrangement as the end of fall is rapidly approaching,and images of autumn will be getting more scarce by the minute. Spiders crawling on the house and fall leaves around the scene rounded out the composition.Shot this about a half hour before sunrise,and used about 10 separate exposures to produce the end result.
This country lane is another location that I had stored in my memory banks for future possibilities,and thankfully I got to shoot it before all the leaves had dropped. I like the fact that you can’t see the end of the lane,which leaves you wondering what might be waiting and beckons you to walk down to find out.
Varied hues of red,yellow and orange combine to produce an autumn scene that takes on a painterly look.
Fall color provides a pleasing background for this lovely barn.
Heavy rains the night before had trees saturated and full of rich color. The tunnel effect,with the dark trees framing the brighter road drew me to the shot.
This little microcosm of autumn color was the result of three different trees dropping their leaves in one area.One maple was predominantly red,the other maple was mostly yellow and the third tree was what I believe to be a white oak,and those leaves had a reddish-brown to magenta appearance. I find it very hard sometimes to isolate a small patch of leaves that has an appealing composition.but I like the mix and my framing on this one.
This small lake was showing some hints of autumn color along its shoreline while the mountain in the background features glorious fall foliage .Shot in the Adirondacks of New York.
This was shot after a night of heavy rain and conditions were as calm as I have seen in recent memory. I usually would crop out the road,but with the leaves partially covering it, I found the blue shade a nice contrast to the row of trees. This is one of my favorite fall shots from this season.
This grove of trees included this colorful maple that seemed to steal the show.
This peaceful unpaved road beckons leaf peepers to travel around the bend to see what fall color awaits. Dominated by yellow foliage,the forest contrasts nicely with the stone path.A light fog helps add a little atmosphere.
Fall is my favorite time of the year,and even though this years spectacle of color seems a bit lackluster,one can still find pockets of beauty if you look a bit. Despite the fact that I traveled thirteen hundred miles this month to see foliage,this scene was among my favorites and it was less than ten miles from home. If anyone wants suggestions on shooting foliage,I would say mix it up and try some tight shots like this using a telephoto to compress the scene and keep sky out of the shot. It wont be long till old man winter starts to blow and just between you and me,I hope its one of the snowiest and coldest winters.I just got four new snow tires on the truck and I am itching to get out and explore.
This little shack was along the road in Vermont and the mums in the window boxes,the wood pile,and the stone wall all combined to create a country scene worth shooting. There were little maple syrup bottles on shelves in the windows,but I don’t know if the shack was used to make maple syrup or not.
I posted a summer image from this lovely location a few months ago, and thankfully I decided to drive by and see what it might be looking like now. The old maples were in their prime of fall color transition and the fact that fallen leaves were covering the entrance and sporadically covering the lane as well made for an impressive sight in my opinion.The property is gated at the stone wall and posted as well,but after I spoke with the groundskeeper and gave him a few large prints from my first visit,he was all too glad to welcome me back.I started shooting at the entrance and then moved up the lane for a variety of angles,and at one point the keeper pulled up on his tractor and offered to open the gate,which allowed me to get what is perhaps my favorite view. The lit lanterns on the stone walls finished off this fall scene,which will be just a memory if hurricane sandy hits the east coast as predicted. trees will be blown clean of leaves,which makes my visit even more special only days before the storm.
This Lake Placid park was full of color, but with twenty-mile per hour wind and driving rain,I was wondering why I left my warm motel room an hour and a half before sunrise in search of images. All the light in this image is coming from lamp posts throughout the park and my exposure for this image was thirty seconds at f11. Several early morning joggers gave me funny looks as they wondered what on earth I was doing.This image was taken shortly after I finished my streets of gold image from yesterdays post.
Fall color stretched along the banks of this stream outside Lake Placid as autumn rapidly advances across the Eastern United States. A pair of hip waders are a great addition to the photographer’s tool kit and can provide access to get the shot you want.
I was out shooting fall foliage the other day and decided it might be nice to show some folks enjoying the great outdoors. Just as I was contemplating what might make a nice image,it started to rain pretty hard and at that moment I noticed a dad and his three sons getting out of their car, so I gave them my umbrella and they took a little stroll among these colorful maples. The blue umbrella seemed to match the blue attire and made a nice contrast with the autumn colors. Heavy rains the night before had everything saturated and provided rich colors throughout.The rain subsided a short time later,so hopefully dad and the boys got some time to explore the woods while color still abounds.
This old Dodge has been part of a local fall roadside stand for several years and this year I finally set aside a night to photograph it. The truck bed is full of mums and a wide variety of colorful mums fill the foreground for customers to pick from. Let me explain how the shoot went.I arrived an hour before sunset so I could set up the tripod,fill in any empty holes with flowers if needed and start my laptop to fire the camera. First the laptop took 5 minutes to let me log on,then my camera control software would not recognize that my camera was attached. After no less than 6 restarts,the sun was now below the horizon and I was now ready to drive over my laptop.
Next the sky lit up in an area Not included in my frame,so I recomposed and shot the image. Now I was ready to give up on light painting the scene because of the laptop snafu,but I gave it one last try and unbelievably the thing works. So for the next hour I used my spotlight and a flash to light the truck, flowers,and scene and this was my result. Lighting a black truck is a real challenge but thanks to the generosity of the owners in allowing me to work the shot,I had enough time to pull it off.
This falls called the flume is located along a scenic stretch of road about ten miles outside of Lake Placid. As I get older I seem to be getting a little less brave or perhaps wiser,but on this morning I decided to navigate my way onto a hard to reach rock outcropping to get this shot. To get this shot,I left my camera bag in the woods,carried only my camera and tripod and clung to several trees as I descended a hill.Next I crawled on hands and knees along a two foot wide rock ledge that included low hanging roots brushing my back.I took my sweet time getting there because any mistake would put me into the raging water,which included more nasty falls just downstream. Getting there right after sunrise insured I would hopefully be there alone,which I was.The water was flowing pretty strongly,so extreme caution was in order.Fall color on the mountain provided a nice backdrop.
Donald Reese Photography 