Blanchard Springs Morning

I have said it many times before, but, with it just around the corner, I have to say it again.  Autumn is, by far, my favorite season of the year.  If I had to be more specific, though, I would say my favorite part of Autumn are the few short weeks that run from about mid-October to about mid-November.  The afternoon temperatures have cooled off from the miserable heat of Summer, and the evenings, nights, and mornings have a nice little nip in the air without being cold.  The leaves have turned to their bright Autumn colors but haven’t yet dropped completely from the trees.  Oh, what a wonderful time of year, and what a wonderful time of year to be outside!

It was exactly during my favorite time of Autumn that I discovered and photographed this scene along the Blanchard Springs creek a couple of years ago.  I had arrived just after sunrise and was the only person there, although that didn’t surprise me.  I spent some time walking along the paved path that leads to the head of the Blanchard Springs creek where it forms from the water gushing from the side of a hill.  I took a couple of pictures (you can see one of them here) and was really enjoying the peace and tranquility.

Returning back to the parking area, I decided to walk down the road a little ways and found a set of stairs that led to the edge of the creek about 20 feet below the level of the road.  Again, I spent some time exploring the area and was thoroughly enjoying the quietness.  Unfortunately, nothing was really catching my eye, so I decided to turn around and go back to my truck.

That’s when this scene really caught my attention.  While a lot of the leaves had already dropped from the trees, there were quite a few that had not fallen and created splotches of yellows, oranges, reds, and green.  A light fog was rising from the creek and wafting through the trees and leaves.  The sun had not yet risen very high in the sky, so the entire area was still in deep shade that created a quiet, almost fantastical, mood.

I set up my equipment and framed the composition.  Because the closest part of the scene was a relatively far distance from my camera, I was able to use a moderate aperture of f/9 to ensure adequate depth of field.  Using an ISO of 100 resulted in a 0.6 second shutter speed that nicely smoothed the motion of the water.

Processing the file, I wanted to create a moody, mysterious feeling.  So, I reduced the overall exposure significantly to darken the image.  Then, I used the saturation and luminance sliders to increase the saturation and brightness of the greens, reds, and oranges to make them stand out against the darker scene.  Finally, I reduced texture and clarity to soften the picture slightly.  These adjustments also had the added benefit of also bringing out the fog rising from the creek.

There is a distinct bluish tone to the image that I didn’t particularly care for at first.  But, when I tried to eliminate it, I found I eliminated the moodiness and mystery I wanted to convey.  So, rather than remove it completely, I simply reduced it resulting in this final image that I quite like.