Photo of the month 

October 2003 

FALL COLORS - IM041

reflected in mountain river

Porcupine Mountains Wilderness Area, Michigan, USA - October

2.8/70-200mm – ISO 100

Digital Capture 

[1]

Murphy's law is well known to nature photographers, especially to those who take pictures of animals. If the light is right the subject doesn't show up, if the illumination of the scene is awful then obviously the subject acts like a professional model, if the light is beautiful and the animal is close to the lens then you can bet it'll show its back but not the face!

Well, similar problems happen in landscape photography. One would think: "Where's the issue? The landscape won't run away in front of a nature photographer".  That's true, but very often the weather makes the photographer run away! 

This autumn for example I was on a trip in the Porcupine Mountains, the west end of Michigan's Upper Peninsula.

On a day on which I planned to shoot scenic I wished a beautiful northern blue sky but gray clouds made my plans impossible.

The next day I planned to shoot waterfalls expecting the same cloudy sky (ideal light for waterfalls) but a strong sun created very harsh contrasts. In the first place I was frustrated, then I decided to make the best out of it. Instead of running to the next overlook to shoot the scenic I missed the day before, I rather opened my eyes and tried to find some good photo opportunity elsewhere.

When I was about to give up I discovered a little portion of the river which was in shade (so without harsh contrasts) and reflecting the awesome colored trees on the other bank which were lit by the mid-afternoon sun.

It took me a couple seconds, then all of a sudden I concentrated my eyes on this little spot, I saw the scene and I could hardly believe what beautiful chromatic combination mother nature can create. I jumped for joy and begun to open my photo backpack....

In this occasion I really enjoyed my digital camera as I could test the effects of shutter speed on the water blurring effect.

The setting here was 0.8" @ f/32. As the EOS10D doesn't allow ISO lower than 100, in order to reach that low shutter speed I had to put a neutral gray filter to darken the scene one stop.

Doesn't it look like liquid gold?

Digital workflow:

- Camera capture in AdobeRGB (best for print),

- converted in sRGB (best for web),

- sensor dust spots cloned out (really extreme if shooting @ f/32)

- in this case no contrast adjustment (nice histogram)

- saturation increased (to get a Velvia-like result)

- 2-step USM (EOS10D apparently gives softer images due to the anti-alias function)