Walking through a forest of deciduous trees in the fall, can be one life’s most calming feelings.
The quiet in the trees and the sound of leaves crunching under your feet.
Unlike summer time, the air is crisp with a coolness that reminds us of winter coming on the horizon but for now, it’s time for fall colors.
Hi, this is Terry VanderHeiden, your host of The Nature Photography Podcast. This episode is all about photographing fall colors.
Autumn is my favorite time to travel, and for me, the best time to take landscape photographs. If you go to the right places, the colors from the trees are spectacular. I Always try to make a point of going to those right places this time of year.
My home base is in California so generally we experience fall a bit later than the rest of the country, but rest assured we do have nice fall colors.
Instead of the reds and oranges of the east coast, we mostly rely on the golden aspen trees to change color.
For this we head up into the high country of the Sierras and sometimes over to the eastern sierras and take a drive south, down US route 395.
This stretch of road between Reno and Mammoth lakes holds some great spots to get some nice fall colors.
The time of year that you go on your trek to see fall colors is critical. Unfortunately, there is no set time that the fall colors are at their peak, it changes slightly every year.
In the high Sierras, colors can change as early as late September but usually early October is best. In the lower land areas of California fall colors can emerge as late as November and December.
What needs to happen in a best-case scenario, is a warm summer followed with a sudden, dry, cool down in the fall. Nights should be in the 30s to 40 degree range while the days can reach 60 or 70 without having an effect on the color. It’s the cold at night that brings on the color. For this reason, waking up in the morning can be like Christmas day, eager to see what new color as emerged.
I would encourage and early morning drive down 395 and looking mostly to your right – or to the west. You are looking at the Eastern side of the Sierra Mountain range.
It’s on these slopes you will see groves of yellow color spilling down the mountain.
Most of the time these groves of aspen follow a natural water source down the hills. Where a crevice will form a creek, these aspen groves can thrive.
Aspen trees are unique in that each grove has been started by one seedling that grows and the root system sends out shoots call root suckers, to start other trees.
A grove is one big organism rather than a bunch of individual trees.
Interestingly, some Aspen trees can live for up to 150 years but the root system can live thousands of years.
There is one grove in Utah that is estimated to be 80,000 years old.
The aspen groves are blast to shoot. You can focus on a singular round leaf, on the while bark, the density of the grove. If you find a water source, capture leaves floating down the stream.
You can get back and capture images of the entire grove, or up close for individual trees. Consider getting to the base of the trees and looking up for a nice angle of white trunks shooing up into the sky of yellow colors against a blue sky.
The peak color of these trees don’t last very long. You need to keep going back day after day to capture the best time where the color is.
If you head up to June Lake or any of the other destinations along this trek, look for the groves that are reflecting on the water.
Your best bet is to travel to these designations during the mid-day and find the best scenes to shoot. Then plan which ones you want to go to at dawn.
Yes, dawn photography means getting up in the dark and making your way out to the spot that you have already scouted the day before.
The window of light can be from about 7 am to 9 am so be ready to shoot. You can always get breakfast at 10 or so when the light is not as good.
While color is the whole reason you are out driving around in the dark, do consider shooting some images that will be destine for black and white. The contrast of the white tree trunks with dark knots in them can be very interesting.
Shooting in black and white also a great fall back when you have missed the peak color in a grove of trees.
When on your search for fall colors, start early in the season and start at higher elevations. The colder nights of the high elevations will make the colors change earlier.
The rule of thumb that you can use is if you are too early in the season go higher up, if things are looking like you missed the peak colors, go to lower elevations.
Photographing aspen groves is a fantastic subject all over the west. Colorado, Utah, Wyoming all have fantastic seasons for fall colors. Keep in mind that while the fall colors make the image good, having a beautiful scene makes the image great.
Take Grand Teton national park for instance. You almost can’t go wrong with photographing the Teton mountain range any time of year but when you have fall colors in the foreground reflecting off the lake, its unbelievable.
I can’t make a podcast about photographing fall colors and not mention the popular destination for fall colors in the US. New England. More on that after the break.
Knowing when to go to New England to see a vibrant show of colors in the fall will have you planning your vacation months in advance. Understanding how to forecast your getaway to the North East to see the peak of color is very important to the planning process.
The states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont are the first to get fall colors. If you remember, north to south is how the color moves through the states.
We know what makes the trees change, cold nights, with comfortable day time temperatures. However, seasons differ from one another based on how hot the summer time was to how much water the trees have access to.
In New England, you’re looking at several species of maple and other trees that will get yellow, orange and a bright red, making every lake and stream you come across the photographic dream.
Storms that make their way into the North East can be devastating if they happen to arrive at the wrong time. Some leaf-peeping seasons can be cut short by wind and rain that removes the color leaves prematurely. However if you are patient, you maybe able to drive to where the storm doesn't effect the color burst of the leaves.
Keeping that in mind, it’s generally colder in the north than in the south. The fall colors will gradually sweep down from the mountains and work their way to the flat lands as the season progresses.
Trees are more apt to change from green to color when they are more exposed to the cold night air. For example, trees along a river or lake will change faster that inland trees that might be protected from the cold.
As a good guideline, start your trip in northern Maine. October 1st. While Bar Harbor and the Acacia National Park are great places to visit, you will have better color as you go inland away from the coast in early October.
Up in the area of Baxter State Park is a good place to start or head over to the White Mountains in New Hampshire or drive to the Green Mountains in Vermont.
These higher elevations will yield more color early in October.
Around the second week of October a fantastic drive is in New Hampshire along the Kancamagus Highway.
This 34 mile stretch of road follows the Saco River with several turnouts along the way for photographs of covered bridges and tumbling water and rocks.
To get there, Drive to North Conway, New Hampshire, do some shopping and then drive a mile south to pick up the Kancamagus Highway heading east. Allow a few hours or as much as a full day to enjoy this scenic drive.
As the month of October progresses so does the color down into Southern Vermont, up-state New York, southern Maine and New Hampshire, working its way down to Massachusetts, Connecticut and beyond.
So let the time of year be your guide. If you have the time to spend in New England from late September all the way through October you will surely have some great opportunities to see the fall colors at their peak.
If you only have a one or two week window, then be ready to drive a little north or little south to see the best colors.
Once you have found yourself in and amongst the fall colors, whether it be northern Maine or the eastern Sierras of California, you need to know how to capture the beauty and color of the fall season.
Most of the great locations for fall colors only give you but a week or two of peak color so you have to act fast.
The first thing to consider in any photography is the light. What kind of light are you working with?
The tried and true times of the day to best make photographs still apply; sunshine in early morning and late in the afternoon are usually the best conditions.
However, don't put the camera away if you find you have overcast, gray skies. This soft light can bring out the colors quite well without having to deal with the extreme contrast of a sunny day.
Look for contrast in color and in texture of the image.
The fallen leaves make a great lead-in to blanketed trails and waterfalls.
The lower light of an overcast day, coupled with the shade of a forest may enable you to shoot slow shutter speeds without the use of a Neutral Density Filter.
With your aperture being set with a tiny opening and a very low ISO, you might get the shutter speed down to an 1/8th of a second which should be slow enough to get soft blurry water falls.
Do remember to bring a tripod or figure some way to stabilize your camera. Maybe using a sandbag or some extra clothing to create a support.
Also remember to bring some sort of camera trigger. I would suggest a cable release but if you don't have one, try using the self-timer to fire the camera without it being moved.
If you don't have a big budget for camera equipment I would still encourage you to put a Circular Polarizer filter at the top of the list.
Not only will it knock down reflections from rocks and allow you to see into rivers and streams, it will give more depth to the color of the leaves.
Also, most Circular Polarizer filters will cut the light by about a stop and a half. That could be just enough light reduction if you are trying to get a slow shutter speed for shooting waterfalls.
While most people are on the look-out for the reds, oranges and yellow colors in the leaves, don't forget the cool colors. The accent of green pine trees and the blue of a lake will make the warm colors pop off the page.
Keep an eye out for reflected color. Using a longer lens can compress the color in the image to make a beautiful background shot. Since you are likely shooting digital, give yourself options.
Shoot one of just the reflection, then go ahead and include the actual trees in the composition and shoot both vertical and horizontal. That way, you will have lots to select from when it comes to the editing process.
If you are shooting with a tripod, make sure you utilize your range of aperture to get images with full depth-of-field as well as some with shallow depth-of-field.
Lead the viewer through your images with your composition. Have them linger on what you want them to look at by using depth-of-field or lack there of, to your advantage.
Be sure to look around, both up in the sky and down on the ground. You might find a tree with a root structure that is interesting or a blue sky that contrasts well with the autumn colors.
For your camera settings, put your white balance on "clouds". This will yield a warmer set of tones that will help enhance the fall colors.
Avoid using the "A" mode for white balance as the camera will see large sections of yellows and reds and try to compensate by cooling the image down (adding blue and cyan).
The most important part is to keep shooting. Shoot from before the sun rises and until at least an hour after it sets.
If the sunlight makes the scene too contrasty, head under the canopy of leaves and shoot in the forest.
If the light still doesn't cooperate, spend those brightly lit times of day searching for where you want to be at sunset and sunrise.
Capturing the colors of the short fall season is challenge but it can be most rewarding with hues that can only be seen in certain locals and during a season that just doesn't last very long.
***
If you are enjoying these podcasts, please, take a moment to tell another photographer about it. Maybe even make a post telling your followers about this podcast on Instagram, Facebook or Twitter.
The Nature Photography Podcast can always be searched on any of the leading podcast players, Apple podcast, Spotify, Overcast and Amazon music, plus many others. It is important to include THE in the title, THE nature Photography Podcast.
I know it’s a pain but if you have time, it would be great if you could leave a positive review on any of those platforms, it could really help keep this podcast high in the ratings.
Feel free to visit my web site, imagelight.com that’s I-M-A-G-E-L-I-G-H-T dot com for photographs and links to all the things we talked about in this podcast. Feel free to email me with comments or suggestions. My email is: Terry at Imagelight.com
Until next time, this is your host, Terry VanderHeiden with THE Nature Photography Podcast.