Lovely Camping Weather is Bad Photography Weather
- October 29th, 2010
- Posted in Nature Shots
- By WoodJr
- Write comment
I recently wandered up north for the final camping trip of the year along the St. Croix river. As always, I brought along my camera and tripod and hoped to get some nice shots of the fall folliage.
Alas my plans were ruined by lovely weather. The weather had absolutely no right to be that nice — none at all. It was mid-October and for the whole trip temps were in the 80s, with nights in the mid 50s. Perfect. Every day was sunny without a single cloud in the sky, except for one evening where we had the slightest dusting of clouds. This is not what October weather is supposed to be like in Minnesota.
1/640th at f4.0 on ISO 200 with polarizing filter
Of course the result of this uncommonly lovely weather was uncommonly bad photographic conditions. I spent some time tromping through the woods, all sprinkled with a delightful covering of red and orange and yellow leaves, but even there the cruel sun shone brightly through, casting harsh shadows.
I tried taking some shots, of course. Closing in for macro shots in small areas of decent lighting, hunting down shady spots, poking around at sunset. But by the end of the weekend I didn’t get a single good shot. I even got so desperate on the last evening that I took a sunset picture, something I normally scorn and avoid along with flower pictures — and butterflies.
1.6sec at f22.0 on ISO 200
Well, the peak colors are long gone now, but there are still enough leaves floating around that perhaps a final trip down Minnehaha way will yield some decent fall shots.
I have to say, even though you “normally scorn and avoid” such shots, the sunset really captured that last warm moment of sunshine on a crisp autumn evening… something I adore and sorely miss now that I am living in the Deep South.
A really beautiful shot, even if the sun glare did kind of overcome some of the crispness. The clouds are absolutely gorgeous. Something I’ve had some good luck with that I read somewhere I can’t remember, when you have a shot like that directly into the sun or where you need to filter the rays, either hold your sunglasses (or a sunglass lens) up against the lens. If the sunglasses are polarized, even better. I’ve had some really good luck getting centered sunset and water shots with sun lighting off of it. Still a very beautiful shot, though :)
In this case I was deliberately trying to photograph the rays. For some reason I have a harder time getting them than eliminating them :)