forest

Two Views of Huntley Meadows Woodlands /  by Todd Henson

Most often when we visit Huntley Meadows I focus most of my attention on the wetlands and all the life that thrives there. But this particular morning in mid to late October I was drawn to the trees of the forest that surround the wetlands. It was early morning, the sun was above the horizon but not yet high enough to shine directly into the woods, so the scene had a very soft look, one I attempted to capture in the photograph below. Click on the photo for a larger view.

Soft Light of Morning

Some leaves had fallen, but there were many still on the trees, shrubs and vines, some changing color, though not a great many. I liked the soft even lighting that illuminated as far into the trees as we could see, and all that green intermixed with the brown lines of the trees. I have often found these sorts of busy scenes very difficult to photograph, and yet I found myself drawn to this one.

A couple hours later, after visiting the wetlands, we found ourselves once again in the woods on the way back to the car. The sun had risen and was now shining bright and contrasty light through the trees, lighting up the leaves and illuminating strips of grass, as seen below.

Woodland Highlights

I found this scene just as interesting as the one above, though they have a very different feel. The woods had a very different feel. The changing angle of the sun will do that, and it’s nice to be there to see it and turn it into a series of photographs. I hope you enjoy them.

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Captured Falling Leaves /  by Todd Henson

A Captured Falling Leaf

One of the scenes we expect to see in some areas during autumn are all the leaves falling from the trees. And perhaps we have a desire to capture some of the leaves on camera, as they are falling, to freeze that action and show the leaf midway to the ground. How do we do that? Well, there are a number of ways, but today we’ll take a light hearted look at one particular method that if I’m honest with you, might be considered cheating. But I ended up having a lot of fun with it, just the same.

Forever Falling, Never to Touch the Earth

Take a close look at the photos in this post. Do you notice anything strange or unusual about the leaves you see, each hanging in mid-air? I will say there was no cheating in software. This was all done in camera and the leaves were each captured mid-air. This also didn’t involve multiple exposures. Each photo is a single exposure, with no in-camera “trickery.”

This technique won’t work with every falling leaf. In fact, it will only work with a very small and rare subset of leaves. It’s not specific to any particular shape, species or color of leaf. But it does depend a bit on location, and involves a fair bit of luck and perhaps a bit of effort searching for those special leaves.

A Loner Leaf Above All the Rest

Have you figured out how it was done? If not, I’ll give one last clue. Click on the photos to open them in a larger view. Then look closely around each leaf. Do you see it? Last chance before I tell you how it’s done.

Ready? Ok. We found each of these leaves hovering right in front of us along the trail. They had been falling at one point, but when we found them they’d at least temporarily stopped their falling and just hovered there. How can that be? Well, the woods are full of spiders and many spiders build webs between trees along the trail. I’ve often walked right into these spider webs, sometimes later finding the spider crawling on my clothing. Well, in this case a leaf happed to get caught by some of the spider silk, and the silk was strong enough to stop the falling of the leaf, so now it hovers there, resisting gravity, slowing swaying or twirling in any light breeze. Each time I found a leaf like this I took advantage of it and created a few photographs to show the leaf hovering in the air.

See? You don’t need any fancy gear to capture a falling leaf in a photo. Just a bit of luck and good observational skills finding those rare leaves that have been captured by spider silk. 😁

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Autumnal Fungi on the Forest Floor /  by Todd Henson

Potato Chips in the Forest?

Hiking through the forest earlier this month (October 2021) I noticed mushrooms sprouting up all along some sections of trail. And, of course, being a nature photographer with a very general and flexible set of interests I just couldn’t pass them by without creating a few photographs. So in this post I share a small collection of the mushrooms I found, all with nearby leaves to show the season as autumn.

A Fungal Family Outting

A Mushroom Spotlit by the Sun

As tempting as it can be, I did not arrange any leaves (or mushrooms) in these photos. All are just as I found them, with the one exception being the removal of a single small leaf that had a nasty shiny splotch of slime atop it. Back home in the digital darkroom I performed my typical adjustments, such as exposure, color balance, white and black points, and some creative dodging and burning.

A Bendable Mushroom

Looking Down on a Bendable Mushroom

Autumnal Mushrooms

Quite often I’m inspired by other photographers, and in this case I want to acknowledge JWSmith Photography, who published a couple posts with his recent discoveries while mushroom hunting up in Maine. Check out his posts, Mushrooms and Mushrooms - Part II.

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