There has been lots of picture-taking in the weeks since I returned from Photoshop World. I’m hoping to write another post or two or three, but I thought I’d start with colors of fall. It’s that time of year here in the north when leaves lose their green and their moisture and their life and blazon the landscape with a variety of color.
Southeastern Minnesota has range of terrain and features, some of which show off the autumn colors. But there is a lot of farmland, too, with a tree here or there and fields of corn or soybeans. It’s certainly different from the Southern Tier of NY state where we once lived. A nice car ride takes us to the beautiful bluff-lands, though, approaching the Mississippi River.
Last weekend, Lynne and I set off to see what we could find, and I drove us south to Lanesboro. Lanesboro sits on the Root River and makes a nice starting off point. Lynne asked what I was looking for, what did I have in mind. I frankly wasn’t sure. I tend to like zooming in tight, showing off a few leaves as in the photo above. Having a mix of fall colors and remaining green is something I like.
But heading to the bluff-lands, I was also hoping to find something more expansive, too. Big wide shots of trees undergoing their change can make a nice photo, but those shots seem to me so overdone. Thus my preference for the tight shots.
I told Lynne I wasn’t exactly sure. I had some thoughts, some visions in my head, but we’d go look a couple places and I’d see what struck me. She was fortunately okay with that!
I bought Lynne a DSLR for her birthday. She had a Canon A-1 back in the film days. She likes the tiny digital cameras now for their amazingly good quality and their great portability. But after using my camera to take some shots, she mentioned how she missed looking through a viewfinder.
Lynne has a terrific eye and sees things I often miss. So, I was happy to provide her a little better platform for her photo-taking. (Now, I just have to convince her of the value of RAW!) This little drive was her first chance to really try out the new camera.
From Lanesboro, we drove east to Rushford. When my son was in scouts, we camped once at the top of the bluff overlooking the town. My favorite moment from that camp-out was walking to the edge of the bluff early in the morning to find a blanket of fog filling the valley like a lake. It was beautiful. I thought we might have a nice view from there.
It took some doing to find the way up the hill. I didn’t remember – not sure if I rode with someone else or just followed someone to get there, and it’s been a while. But the GPS map on my phone came to the rescue. The view of the valley is amazing, and I took a range of shots including a couple of these wide-vista photos. I’m growing to like these more than I once did.
Lynne suggested heading up to Winona which sits on the Mississippi. There is a park on top of one of the bluffs there with a big panoramic view of the Mississippi valley. As we were walking from the car to the overlook, I spotted these wild flowers. There are a few flowers which bloom in fall that are just gorgeous. Not sure what it is – perhaps they are just hardier to survive the occasional frost, but their colors are vibrant and they just photograph really well.
The sun was setting and the view was great. The leaves were brightly colored here and there, but not the entire valley by any means. This was one of my favorite images as the setting sun set the leaves on fire against the background of the fading light in the valley. It’s probably one of my favorite shots of the day.
But for some reason, the shot I liked the best had little fall color and seemed to lend itself to a black and white treatment. This shot was from the bluff overlooking Rushford. The pattern of the corn, dry and ready for harvest, the bordering trees, a roadway through this great farmland, and a single car, all just strike me right.
Sometimes you are looking for something and you find something else. And that’s okay.
