Autumn shoot in Garfield Park

Today's post presents images from my autumn shoot this week in Garfield Park. As often as I've ventured there to shoot, you'd think I'd run out of things to photograph. But I can't think of a time I've not come away with finding something of interest.

As Central Indiana residents well know, this has been an extraordinarily dry summer and early autumn. For once, the Bobby Russell song lyric " ... and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summer time" from the the 1968 pop hit "Little Green Apples" (recorded by O.C. Smith) proved to be true.

Forecasters predicted that this dry spell could bode ill for the traditional enjoyment of the fall color show. Indeed, we saw early leaf falling and colors not nearly as brilliant as we've seen in past years. That, in turn, challenged my creative instincts, as you'll see from the images in this post.

You'll find a few traditional tree shots, as there were still a few worthy of capture. But this season's shoot focused largely on looking upward (attribute the rich blue sky color to the polarizing filter), zeroing in on closeups, exploiting interesting juxtapositions and the late-afternoon's dramatic light, and getting down low. In the case of the light contrasts, I present two versions of two frames -- one of the multicolor leaf display in one of my "look upward" shots, and -- in the final pair of images -- a "normal" vs. infrared treatment of a pathway vista noteworthy for the splash of setting-sun highlight on the left foreground tree while almost all other trees are in shade.

Enjoy. And, oh, in case you weren't already aware, you really need to click on each picture to fully appreciate the image. The thumbnails never do them justice.

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What a difference a day makes ...

On Saturday, Feb. 6, I returned to Garfield Park, as a sort of follow-up to the shoot of the previous day (see images in previous post), when it snowed nearly all day and skies were gray and overcast.

Saturday, it was sunshiny and uplifting, and after putting a circular polarizing filter on my lens, I managed to capture some nice images, many zeroing in on leafless deciduous trees that presented striking foregrounds to the rich blue skies and some sharp backlighting photos enhanced by the polarizer.













To see my full gallery of images taken over the course of the two days, follow this link to my Winter 2010 folder.

Perennial outdoor color show, revisited

Inspired by yet another great day Monday, I shrugged off the cold that's been dogging me since Thursday and made another foray into Garfield Park in Indianapolis while the fall colors were still pretty showy.

This time, I took along -- and used -- my polarizing filter, and the hunch paid off handsomely, capturing some gorgeously rich blues in the sky and all but eliminating glare on a fire station window that reflected some brilliant yellows and oranges from nearby trees. My only regret was not bringing along a longer focal-length lens to see what it would have gotten me for the jet stream shots below. Instead, all of these were shot with my Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8 lens.

Above: Intermittent sunlight splashing through a maple

Above: First of three frames following a jet and its thin stream nearing a much-closer-to-the-ground yellow-leafed tree

Above: Past the first branch, heading toward the second

Above: Safely past the second branch, and steering clear of the rest

Above: Different trees, different skyscape, including clouds and (above) a jet stream swath much wider than the one above. Adding a special touch is the little bird perched on a leafless branch in the upper right corner.

Above: Fire Station 21, the bountiful tree's reflection cast on the windows along the side, as seen from the sidewalk flanking East Raymond Street, just west of Pleasant Run Parkway, North Drive

Above: A little closer look at the reflection off the fire station's window panels.

Above: Even closer ...

Above: A stately, but relatively young, tree in Garfield Park's Grove of Remembrance, just west of Fire Station 21, that was dedicated by the community in October 1920 in honor of the 387 Marion County soldiers and sailors who died in World War I (1914-18). Trees in the grove have been planted in intervals and are just west of the Fire Station

Above: A most unusual conifer that naturally curves at the top.

Above: Another frame of contrasting sunlight through a tree, allowing for some spectacular highlights.

Above: The coda image in this post is actually not from the park; it's from my backyard garden and features the vivid red leaves of a Henry's Garnet (itea virginica).