Making Lemonade

by Jeff Allen

It’s about that time of year again for many of us. You know, fall color photography season. Time to head for the hills, the woods, the local park or maybe just your backyard. There are lots of ways to get great leaf peeping photo results. But what happens on your outing if the weather doesn’t cooperate?

That is exactly what happened to me once when I was mentoring at a fall color photography workshop.

The morning started out great -- bright, sunny, warm and calm. Our group met at a local park. We shared some last minute thoughts and suggestions, then set out photographing the gorgeous colors that hardwood trees can produce: rich gold, vibrant red, even some saturated orange. Many sets of tripod legs were spread across the grounds, and attendees were getting good lessons and making some great shots. A small stream flowed through the park, and images of leaves floating and swirling in eddies were being captured, too.

We knew we had some potential weather issues looming as the forecast had predicted a storm front to come through. It was expected to arrive in the evening, so we weren’t too concerned about the workshop being affected.

Well, sometimes nature throws a wrench into your plans. About 90 minutes into the shoot, a breeze came up. No big deal. Simply set higher shutter speeds to stop motion. Of course, the breeze became steadily more intense until after just a few minutes we were getting strong gusts, branches were flailing and leaves were being blown away.

What to do, what to do?

Time to make lemonade from the lemons falling around us. I suggested we start shooting abstract photos. Everyone had already experimented with leaves swirling in pools on the stream, which requires a steady camera on a tripod making long exposures of the swirling color on the water.

So why not try shooting hand-held?

I had everyone take their cameras off their tripods. First, they used the zoom lenses to shoot long exposures handheld, zooming their lenses in and out during the exposures. Then I showed them how – with a wide-angle lens on the camera -- to rotate their hands like a clock during a long exposure. Both techniques made for some really unique, beautiful and colorful abstract images.

Day salvaged, smiles all around.

If you want to give it a try, here are some basic settings for your camera and lens to start:

Use a fairly low ISO setting like 100 or 200. Set the camera to aperture priority (AV) and use a small aperture like f16 or 22. Switch the autofocus off, and focus on the tree you want to use. You may want to experiment with using stabilization if your lens or camera has that feature. Try some with stabilization on and off. Back-lit or side-lit leaves will likely give better results than front-lit ones.

Below are a couple of examples that I captured that day to give you an idea of where to start. So when you get out to shoot this fall even if the weather isn’t great, or if you miss the peak of color in your area, or you just want something a bit different, you can try this approach, and maybe come home with a smile from drinking that lemonade.

Good shooting!

Shot with Tamron 18-270 VC PZD lens, while zooming “out” from the telephoto end of the range to the wide end of the lens zoom range at ISO 200. Aperture set at f22, the exposure was 1/20 sec. Try zooming both directions to see which results you like best.

Manual focus used. For best focus results zoom all the way in, then focus on the point of your choice. Try experimenting with focus point, also.

Shot with Tamron SP 10-24mm, at 18mm, while turning the camera counter clockwise, but not zooming the lens. ISO 200. Aperture set at f22, the exposure was 1/15 sec. Again, try turning your camera clockwise and counter-clockwise, to find the shot you like best. Focus set at manual, focus point was set at middle of the tree.