John Harvey Photo

November 2008

Go to Slide Show Smaller Images And that's pretty much fall


Bare Branches And Colour
The west coast of Canada is not known for it's fall colours.  Most of our trees are coniferous and don't change colour.  The most common deciduous tree here is Alder and while it can go a bright yellow on the way to dropping leaves, you won't see red.  We decided to walk around Van Dusen to take in a bit of fall colour from species that don't (normally) live here.
 


The last few days it rained so many trees have gone from full and colourful to sparse with pretty carpets. 

Red Here Green ThereHelen In The LeavesUnder ATree

Red Orange GreenBench With Red And Green
The garden has a corner with a number of mature Japanese Maples.  These trees have spectacular colours.   We had a line up of photographers wanting to take advantage of this particular tree.


Red Reaches To YellowUnderside Of Red Canopy

Streaking By
One of those techniques I've seen done well but never had a chance to do myself is the "leaves on the water" long exposure.  Van Dusen has a number of small streams that cross the property and one happened to be next to a beautiful maple.  The proper time depends on the speed of the stream, so with a bit of experimentation I figured this is a 15 to 30 second flow.  My first trial was linear flow (water in straight section) but I found that getting compelling composition was hard.  I turned my attention to a pool where the water swirled.  The swirl had a period of at least 20 seconds (slow moving water) so unless you were looking for it, you wouldn't see the leaves moving.  With a bit of experimentation, I got a picture I was somewhat happy with.


Streaking RedChance Upon APoolThe Big Finish
 
Rainy Windows

So I was looking to make one of those "rain drops are lenses" pictures.  We had a rainy afternoon so I had no shortage of wet windows to work with.  I got out the tripod and took a shot.
 
DSC_1400_Wide Set Of SplashesAbstract LensesMore Abstract Splashes

Look Its AMosquito
Didn't work out very well.  I was able to get the lens effect (barely) but nothing compelling.  I think a few things are going on.  The worst problem is that water on glass forms a half lens which behaves like a really wide angle lens rather than a normal lense.  If this was water drops on a spiders web or screen door (where there is a bulge on both sides), this would have worked out better.   Making abstract photos seemed to be easier.  I did learn one more thing- the resulting image in the drops will be upside down so make sure your composition takes this into account.

I was snapping away and I noticed a mosquito on the glass.  He was still alive (you could see him moving) but he didn't seem to care when I put my camera up close.  Cool - I have a photo of a live mosquito.





Red Here Green There
Tags: fall colour, VanDusen
Helen In The Leaves
Person: Helen
Tags: fall colour, VanDusen
Underside Of Red Canopy
Tags: fall colour, VanDusen
More Abstract Splashes
Tags: abstract, macro
The Big Finish
Tags: fall colour, stream, swirling, VanDusen
Under ATree
Person: Helen
Tags: fall colour, VanDusen
Streaking By
Tags: fall colour, stream, swirling, VanDusen
Streaking Red
Tags: fall colour, stream, swirling, VanDusen
Abstract Lenses
Tags: abstract, macro
Red Reaches To Yellow
Tags: fall colour, VanDusen
DSC_1400_Wide Set Of Splashes
Tags: abstract, macro
Look Its AMosquito
Tags: insect, macro
Red Orange Green
Tags: fall colour, tree, VanDusen
Bench With Red And Green
Tags: bench, fall colour, tree, VanDusen
Bare Branches And Colour
Tags: fall colour, tree, twin, VanDusen
Chance Upon APool
Tags: fall colour, stream, swirling, VanDusen
Tags: fall colour(12), VanDusen(12), stream(4), swirling(4), macro(4), tree(3)
People: Helen(2)
From: John Harvey Photo > November 2008
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > November 2008

Hi, Lovely images. The colours in the Japanese Maple Trees are stunning. My favourite has to be 'Helen in the Leaves', great perspective and isolation ... makes me smile :-)
Colin Hall
Friday, February 19th, 2010 at 09:20:21

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