BACKGROUND STORY
I am yet to make a statement about fall colors 😉 with pictures from this year. While many photographers have been traveling for leaf peeping and posting their results right the way on social media, I needed a little time to process the visual impact of the colors and then decide which pictures I want to show.
It’s not every year that I travel for colors. This year I did travel a little- I took a trip all the way to Ashland, in the Oregon border, in search of more than Aspen trees. Not that I don’t appreciate the beauty of aspens: I have a few photos of them in my Autumn collection. However, I like to see a wider range of fall colors than just yellow. In Ashland, there is a greater diversity of trees, with leaves that vary from yellow to deep red (if you are curious, this links to an article about the tree diversity in Oregon and the colors they display).
SHALLOW D.O.F.
One thing I tried while in Ashland was using my 85 mm 1.4 lens and take a few shots of intimate landscapes at f/1.4-f/3.2. At this aperture range, only a tiny section of the scene is in focus, and the remaining of it falls progressively into blurriness. I have seen people trying to attain a similar effect using other types of lenses, for example a lens baby, but I wanted a soft look without having to buy something extra. This was not my first attempt at taking fall pictures at shallow D.O.F., I have shown one such photo in a previous post.
At f/2.8, the yellow leaf of this Horse Chesnut below still has enough sharp detail to keep visual interest. It is adequately isolated from the background, which would not have happened if I was using narrower apertures. In cases like this, in camera underexposure helps to isolate the main subject, which is reflecting more light than the background elements. The photo also tells a story: the leaf in the foreground, still vibrant, sharply contrasts with the wilted leaf in the background: past and future. (click to expand).
The photograph below (f/3.2) is one of the few examples from this experiment that I liked. The only sharp element is the lamp, everything else is soft. Having a large object as the central focus did help compose the scene, and the light was particularly adorable in the evening. My next step will be to make a relatively large test print of it, to get a feel of whether the image will work as a piece of wall art. On paper, images often look different, and it is easier to spot problems.
NOT SO SHALLOW D.O.F.
At f/6.3, the maple tree below and the FEATURED PHOTOGRAPH portray the tree in its Autumn glory, looking proud of its full canopy composed of orange-red leaves. I am glad that I was able to freeze this moment of glory in time, because the leaves will all fall concomitantly, and leave the tree completely bald. (click to expand).
CONCLUSION
During my trip, I took many other photographs besides the ones I have shown here. The four on this post are the ones that called my attention, but I think with time others will come out of their raw state and be accepted into my collections.
Shooting intimate landscapes at f/1.4-f/3.2. with 80mm lens is certainly challenging and I will have to experiment whole lot more with it to decide if I like the results or not.
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Wall Art landscapes and miscellaneous
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It is all about the light 
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