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Tag Archives: aspens
Aspen Grove in Autumn
The evening fall color drive started poorly. After four straight nights of powerful evening sunlight, the clouds moved in an hour before sunset wiping out all direct light. But instead of heading home, I sought out some new subjects – and was amazed at what you can do without direct light.
While the white birch of the aspens could have benefited from some rays of light, the surrounding foliage was alive with color.
This stand of aspens was on a scenic backway between Midway, Utah and Guardsman Pass, high above Park City. The route is nice as it includes massive growth of oak (think red) at the mid elevations before you hit the aspens (think yellow) a bit higher.
This HDR captured the brilliant colors of the forest literally coming alive in the diffused evening light.
Camera: Nikon D700
Lens Nikkor 24-120 (at 24mm)
The Montage in Autumn
I had been scouting this photo for several nights. I missed it a night earlier by seconds – just couldn’t get the tripod setup quickly enough.
The challenge here was huge sun flare from the left. I ended up ditching the 24-120 and went with the 70-300 to make use of a more solid lens hood. That pretty much did the trick.
It’s also an HDR, but going with the normal exposure plus two over exposures by a stop each – didn’t use the two under exposures.
This is a look at The Montage Deer Valley, an amazing resort in Empire Pass. It’s my favorite place to ski at Deer Valley Resort.
Yellow Aspens
It’s fall color season in Utah – one of the most amazing I can ever remember. Everyone has their theory on what causes color or when it appears. We’re definitely late this year, probably a week or two. Our first bursts came a week ago. Now, it’s just blazing!
My “go-to” spot for short evenings after work is Empire Pass and Guardsman Pass above Deer Valley and Park City Mountain Resort. The drive up Empire last night was unimpressive – nothing really on fire yet. But the top of Guardsman was impressive.
Tonight, though, just 24 hours later, it was almost a different scene. The entire roadway up Empire was ablaze. And Guardsman Pass was going off like never before!
It’s hard to really capture the detail in leaves with fall color, especially the backlit shots. And with evening winds, HDR is virtually impossible.
Tonight I focused on faster shutter speeds and larger lens openings. Last night’s shots were all a bit soft with the wind. The best shots are backlit, including this one shooting directly into the sun – which was shaded by the trees. Metering was really pretty straightforward, just measuring off one of the highlights and punching in another half top to full stop to compensate.
Watch for more in coming days.
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