Tuesday, December 6, 2011

The Beauty of Fall Leaves

It's that time of the year again, leaves turn red and yellow and start falling. For trees, I think fall the the most beautiful time of the year. A lot of people probably dread the coming of fall, because there will be a lot of raking for the falling leaves, but for a photographer, fall is a magnificent time of year! Today's post will be dedicated to the beauty of fall leaves. All the photos today (with exception of one) was taken at Alliance Redwoods in Occidental, CA. I recently went there with my parents because they wanted to hear a speech. You can check out my last post on Alliance Redwoods here. Also, none of the photos today was touched up in Photoshop (other than the watermark).

Full Resolution Photos and Prints: If you want to see full resolution photos or buy prints of any of the photos you see, they are up on my portfolio for viewing. To see my best photos from Occidental, CA, use this link. To see all of my photos from Occidental, CA, use this link. To see my best autumn foliage shots, use this link.

A close up macro shot of the red fall leaves.

Photography tip: For macro shots like this, it is generally good to take the photo in Aperture Priority (Av or A) mode and set your camera to use a wide aperture (small f-stop number). Experiment with the f-stop until you get a satisfactory photo. Photography is all about experience!

Another close up shot. You know what's weird? Isn't fall suppose to start like in October or something? It just occurred to me, the leaves around SF Bay Area didn't turn red until late November! Weird. LOL

This was the exception I was talking about. The above photo was not taken at Alliance Redwoods, instead it was taken on the Pleasanton Trail. As the trail name mentions, the trail is located in Pleasanton, CA. At the time of taking the photo, I only had my zoom lens with me, so I had to back up a lot before I was able to get the shot! But still, turned out better than I thought.

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A beautiful shot doesn't always have to be a leaf still on a tree! This is a photo of a red leaf that fell and landed on a bush underneath. What a great balance between the red and green right? :) Well, I touched up this photo with Photoshop just a little bit. I enhanced the colors, because the original didn't turn out too well.

A shot of a whole tree that turned yellow and red.

Another shot of the tree. I am guessing the trees behind are Redwood trees because the retreat is called Alliance Redwoods. LOL

I will have more Alliance Redwoods photos coming on this blog in a few days! Please check back! I hope you have enjoyed today's post. Please leave a comment for me! Also, if you liked it, please don't forget to "Like" us on Facebook! You can also do that in the Facebook box at the top of the right sidebar.

Update (12-16-2011): I have posted up the rest of my Alliance Redwoods photos. They can be viewed here.