The fall, and end of summer, season.

Well there sure has been a buzz in the air. That buzz that we all are feeling is the fall leaf-popping season. With total beauty everywhere, where I live in Maine, I have been pointing the Nikons in every direction. Every direction except down.... until I was told about the incredible mushrooms that have popped up on the lawn of our college. These were as large of a mushroom as I have ever seen before. They were right out of a story book, and I could not wait to return after the sun went down just to have some fun.


I used a tripod with the "stem" inserted upside down to get down low to the ground. I set the f-stop at "30", just above the "bulb" setting, and then I got to work. I needed that much time in order to run around and light the pancake sized tops of these fungi! I decided to set the apearute at such a depth of field that the entire image would be sharp, at 6 or so, so the adjusting factor had to be the I.S.O. The light that I was using was running on batteries, so its' light was fairly constant throughout the cool, fall night. I started with an I.S.O. of 100, but eventually went with an I.S.O. of 400. I did drop one of my lights and had to replace its' bulb on the fly. The idea of being prepared for anything sure came in handy, to say the least.


The ray of light image was taken in a complete rush. As I drove along looking for some colors, I came across a spot of the road engulfed in smoke from a yard burning home owner. I love the ray scenes that come from tree branches/ shadows in the smoke. I have never had much success actually capturing the effect. Here is perhaps the best one ever, and I was looking for color! Monochromatic wins!

Lastly I will leave you with three that I shot recently at an amusement park, here on the beach. The season was ending, and the folks were getting in their last rides of the season.
The image with all of the feet sticking out over the edge gets me every time. The swing shot is one that I adore, as I feel that it relates to the end of the season, by only showing one rider. I love the outlines and the highlights of the chains and the chairs. I spotted the balloons as a backdrop and then I laid in wait for someone to stroll past. Using a long lens, I remained out of their site as to not spoil the look on their face. If you are the person in the image, sorry! I should have told you after the fact. The setting sun sort of filled the balloons with light, and their contrast went down.