Glorious Reds

Autumn is always wonderful, but some years are better than others. This year we chased fall colours in the hills but the display seemed rather half-hearted. This pic is a simple snap of a tree in its full glory—taken on May 13^th, 2018, at Riverbend Park, Clarendon. The sky is still pure summer blue. But the trees have been turning for months—2025 saw the Adelaide hills stay yellow until mid-year because the rains just didn’t come. The photographer takes advantage of the display wherever it’s found, and when, by luck, one finds it. Minor adjustments to contrast and sharpness in Irfanview; Fuji FinePix S5600. Image by Mike.

 

Colour Therapy 2

 

Following the theme of colour for its own artistic sake, here is a study of the trees at Mylor, South Australia, which I took on July 13^th, 2017. The sun was beautiful on the foliage, and while some trees were still showing their autumn reds so late in the season, these perennials were in their full winter green. The two shades of green against the blue sky made an irresistible melange of colour. This is the image just as it came from the camera. Fiji FinePix S6500 (one of my learning outings on this camera), automatic. Image by Mike.

Look Back at Autumn

Click image to view at 1000 pixels wide

In winter's grey days it's nice to look back at the bright, warm days of autumn here in the southern hemisphere. Can it really be only eighteen weeks (April, 2009) since the fall colours were bright at Loftier Gardens? Here I shot up past a picnic area under a tree whose shade created a dark foreground against the brilliant backdrop of the forest, always a visually engaging lighting situation. Normal enhancements; Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Autumn Mirror

Click image to view at 1000 pixels wide

This is a delightful study of the lake at Loftier Gardens, east of Adelaide, taken in April, 2009. Viewed from the south side, this was a zoom shot of the northern bank. The image was cropped to draw the attention tightly to the trees and their reflection, and create a palette of pure fall colours. Sharpened, colour- and contrast balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic, telephoto. Image by Mike.

Layering of Light

Click image to view at 1000 pixels wide

This is one of the series of studies I took in Welford Rd Cemetery, Leicester, UK, on Halloween 2007, a cold evening with a fast-declining sun. The play of light and colour are visually very appealing; the chip has found an excellent balance between foreground and background elements, silhouetting the overhanging branches and finding their mid-tones by burning out the evening sky. The colours of the autumn trees have likewise been optimised by the exposure, as have the cool values of the stones; the luminous quality of the sunlight through the golden tree draws the eye, while the shadow-side of the stones creates a sense of depth by providing a field of tonal difference. Sharpened, contrast- and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

A Painted Forest

The play of light, shade, colour and backlight here create an image with its own validity divorced from the landscape in which it was observed. There is something of the tonal quality of the paintings of the 18th century French master Fragonard in this, in which the light in the trees is the theme and subject, and the aesthetic of the moment is very much a 'leightmotif' as characterised the art of the Rennaissance. This picture was taken as a high telephoto close-up on a group of trees at Loftier Gardens in April, 2009, and the image was sharpened and contrast- and colour-balanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Light From Beyond

Click image to view at 1000 pixels wide

Images like this always evoke thoughts of dimensional portals, energy disruptions, gateways between "here" and "there" so popular in SF and fantasy. This is the afternoon sun framed amongst trees on the high slopes of the Adelaide hills, just south of Mount Lofty, in the upper parts of Loftier Gardens, April, 2009. Capturing the sun is one thing, but what the chip makes of the rest of the image is the measure of it. Mid-tones, harsh contrast, lens flare, backlighting, strike-through and silhouette, and a sharp registration of detail as a consequence of the forced minimal aperture, make for a fascinating study of the natural world. Sharpness and colour were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Autumn Glory

There's nothing like autumn in a deciduous wood, the colours are wonderful to the eye and the soul. This is a telephoto close-in on a patch of luminosity created by the backlighting of a fall tree, direct sunlight shining through red and gold leaves to silhouette the trunk and boughs. Things like this tend to jump out of a landscape to a photographer's eye, and draw the camera like a magnet. Sharpened and contrast-balanced; Loftier Gardens, April, 2009. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Riot of Colour

This is another of my Loftier Gardens shoot from April 2009, celebrating the absolute artists' pallet of the autumn deciduous woods. What can you say? The crackling reds and yellows against the blue of the sky creates a virtual colour-therapy that is like summer's last gift before the bare boughs of winter. These images were technically simple, the chip did the hard work and left me free to think about composition, to see the shots in the landscape and make them happen in the lens. Sharpness was adjusted, there was no need to mess with colour! Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Holly in Fruit

Click image to view at 1000 pixels wide

Holly is an archetype of winter and when settlers from Europe came to South Australia they imported many species with which they were familiar. This shot was taken at Loftier Gardens, east of Adelaide, in April, 2009, and though the day was warm and sunny the forest knew winter was coming. Glorious colours were everywhere, and the holly was in fruit. Bright light allowed a fast shutter speed and this frame was taken on the Macro setting at a distance of 15cm or so. Sharpness, contrast and colour were adjusted for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Colour Therapy

Autumn is a wonderful time of year for colour, not only are the trees in their fall colours but many late-blooming plants put out their flowers before winter. This is Bougainvillea, a climbing vine common in Australia (named for a town at the east end of the Solomon Islands, up in the Pacific). It forms great outcroppings on the slope above the bus stops at Flinders University, the whole earthwork bank can be a mass of vivid purple flowers, a remarkable display against the white concrete of the library extension block and the yellow of the busses. The photograph, taken in April 2009, was simple enough, I found a spray of flowers outlined against the sky, closed in on them to exclude all else and let the chip do the rest. Sharpness and colour were enhanced. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

The Moon From Down Under

Click image to view at 1000 pixels wide

A companion to the Moon-among-trees shot I took in Sunderland thirty months ago, here is the Moon framed among fall colours at Loftier Gardens, east of Adelaide, taken in April, 2009. The chip is focusing on the treetops at high telephoto, and focus on infinity for some reason can be a little indefinite. I grabbed several frames both for the composition and to really air out the chip on its ability to capture a single remote detail against a plain background. It's a wonderful thing to have colours like this in your environment, autumn is a beautiful time of year! Sharpness and colour were tweaked for publication. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

An Embodiment of Freedom

Click image to view at 800 pixels wide

In AD61, Boudicca, queen of the Iceni tribe (in modern Norfolk), rose against the Roman forces of occupation in one of the most ferocious rebellions of all time. As with each attempt of the British tribes to dislodge the foreign empire, she failed, but her failure was a symbol of resistance to oppression, the quest for freedom, and the ancient warrior queen and her daughters were imortalised as part of British culture. This 19th century Romantic bronze stands at the western end of Westminster Bridge, across the road from Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, on the banks of the Thames, and while Londoners perhaps no longer see her, by sheer familiarity with the landmark the statue constitutes, visitors may pause and remind themselves that 2000 years ago this queen took on an empire and gave them a war we remember to this day. She would not have looked anything like this Classicist fantasy, but the chariot and proud horses are accurate enough, at least in spirit, to the warfare of the tribes of the 1st century. I took this simple snapshot in December, 2006, on a cool afternoon after coming back from the National Gallery. Enhancements were sharpness, contrast and colour. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic. Image by Mike.

Autumn Leaves

Click image to view at 800 pixels wide

There is something irresistable about deciduous trees in their autumn clothes; they gift vivid colour to a drab time of year, and the low winter light makes moments of remarkable beauty that bring grace to cold, wet, short days. One of the great things about never being without a camera around your neck is the chance to seize these fleeting moments. I took this frame on a street in York, UK, in November 2006, on my way to the railway station. This tree stands below the medieval city walls and the evening sun caught the leaves just-so. The framing was simple, I used telephoto to fill the frame with the subject matter, and the exposure was automatic. The picture was sharpened and the colour tweaked just a little. Fuji FinePix S5600; image by Mike.

The Tower and the Trees

Click image to view at 800 pixels wide

There was something irresistible about this vision of a man-made structure groping skyward through the primal forest. Not so much that exact dichotomy -- a microwave tower rising over palm trees would have fitted that description well enough -- but it's combination with elements that speak to our social memory... A gothic-architecture tower that looks like some elaborate church steeple (though I never found out what the tower actually is), rising out of a deciduous wood at the beginning of winter: now that harks to legend. I took this shot at maximum optical telephoto across a valley, from a steep street in Sheffield, UK, looking directly over the railway station and up the far side of the valley to this forest, where this tableau echoes the past in contrast to modern Sheffield on the near side. Fuji FinePix S5600, automatic; November 2007. Image by Mike.

Glorious fall colors at Loftia Gardens

Click here to view at 1000 pixels wide

With the summer sizzling ... with the region setting record temperatures ... a lot of people hereabouts are beginning to long for the end of summer. For autumn -- fall, if you prefer. It'll still be hot in the Australian autumn, but you'll eventually start to get cool evenings, morning mists and that holy of holies: rain! The native trees (gums and eucalypts) don't change color, but Europeans brought wonderful deciduous trees with them, and in decades long before our own these trees throve. These days they don't -- there's not enough rain as the drought deepens and only seems to get worse. But many years ago the climate made deciduous trees welcome, and South Australia is rich with them. This picture was taken at the Loftia Botanic Gardens a few years ago. The only thing I'd do differently, today, is -- I'd use 6MP instead of 3MP. When I got this image, my cards were 80% full and I was shoehorning for space. Wouldn't you know it? A lot of the best images were done in the last 20% of the shoot ... at 3MP. To compensate for this, in the computer I reduced the gamma properties, sharpened the image, and resaturated the color a little. Photo by Jade, 2006.

Colors blaze on Stampede Trail

You're seeing part of this photo; click here to see the whole image.

Fall in the Alaskan interior is an amazing time for a photographer. One normally thinks of "fall colors" as meaning trees, but in fact it's more than that. Stampede Trail is not far from Fairbanks, and it's a fairly well-kept secret ... meaning, the tourists don't know about it, the tour buses don't go there -- the road is a mass of holes that look like shell craters, and if your car doesn't make it out, well ... you have a long, long walk to the nearest phone! This photo was captured in September of 1999. The camera was a Pentax K-1000, and the film stock was ASA200 Kodak Gold. The old print was recently scanned at 600dpi and given some serious digital enhancement to overcome a decade's worth of fading. The light in Alaska is deceptive: even on a bright summer's day you'll be surprised by your meter readings ... it's not as bright as you think. The human eye is deceiving, and the fact is, this close to the arctic circle, the sun is never high enough to create the kind of brightness we know downunder. Photo by Mel, 1999.

Fall comes to the Fairbanks hills

The further north you travel, the earlier autumn arrives ... and the shorter the time it stays! Fall in Alaska is a ripple which begins in the Arctic and heads south, and in any one place it only touches down for a few days before the leaves fall and winter seems to be knocking at the door. In the hills around Fairbanks -- the location of this shot -- you can be sure you've wandered into an enchanted forest. The whole world seems to have turned gold ... but it doesn't last. You seize the opportunity and shoot ten or twenty rolls of film, fast as you can! This picture is a scan from a print made in 1999. The camera was a Pentax K-1000; the lens was probably the Tamron 80-200mm zoom. The film stock would have been Kodak Royal Gold. It was scanned at 600dpi not long ago, and enhanced in Irfanview. (My best work from the era was done on transparency ... difficult to scan on the desktop, even if I had access to the slides, which I don't. Alas, they're in storage.) Photo by Mel, 1999.