Whispers of Fall

Autumn is in the air and with it comes another chance for me to photograph that ever elusive quarry – Autumn leaves.  While I had photographed some very early Autumn leaves on a late-September visit to Petit Jean State Park, it doesn’t really feel like leaf-hunting season to me until October.  About a week and a half ago, I rang in the 2024 season with a trip to the Blanchard Springs Caverns Recreation Area.

My first stop was the Blanchard Springs trail, which winds along Blanchard Springs and ends at a waterfall that flows out of the hillside and creates the creek.  While my goal was to find and photograph autumn leaves, I made sure to remind myself frequently to not get so focused on looking for leaves that I failed to see other subjects to photograph.

This proved to be helpful advice for me to remember because, as I walked the trail, something did catch my attention:  the stream flowing through some rocks creating a couple of small waterfalls.  But, what really caught my eye was the way a couple of rocks appeared to be lit by sunlight creating a wonderful contrast with the much darker water.  The whole area was in the deep shade created by the two hills the creek runs below, so why the rocks seemed so bright is a bit of a mystery to me.  Regardless, I thought it was a really nice scene.

I pulled out a new piece of equipment I had recently purchased:  the ViewCatcher, a viewing frame that had been recommended by photographer Ben Horne on one of his recent YouTube videos.  I was able to use the frame to figure out my composition before pulling out my camera, which was quite helpful since I didn’t want to be walking on slippery rocks in six or eight inches of water carrying my camera around.  If I was going to drop something, I much preferred it to be an inexpensive piece of plastic rather than a couple thousand dollars of camera gear.

Once I decided on my composition, I set up the camera and got several images at different shutter speeds to see what I might like.  It was then that I realized I didn’t have enough depth of field to get the image in one frame.  I selected my favorite shutter speed from the images I already had and then made five images at various focus points, later combined in Photoshop, to make sure everything was sharp from front to back.

I walked to the end of the trail and, not seeing anything that really piqued my interest, turned around and headed back to the parking area.  Normally, I would get in my truck and drive somewhere else, but, on this day, I decided to shake things up a bit by walking down the road instead of driving.  It helped that the weather was perfect for it, too.

So, off I went, and it wasn’t long before I came across a small patch of Autumn leaves.  Even though the sun had still not reached the top of the hillside, the leaves were being backlit by the bright sky and seemed to be glowing.  The problem I had was some small branches that were a few feet in front of the leaves that not only would be blurred in the picture but also added nothing to the composition.  Again, out came my nifty little ViewCatcher, and I was able to find a nice spot that eliminated the annoying branches.  Setting up the tripod and camera, I photographed these wonderful Autumn leaves.

II continued on for a little while longer before I decided it was time to turn around and go back to my truck.  I had discovered that the rubber boots I was wearing, which I had been wearing when I made the picture of the stream and rocks, were not designed for long-distance walking, and my feet were beginning to ache.

I loaded my gear into my truck and took off down the road to the campground area.  The campground is near another creek, so I left my boots on in anticipation of having to stand in the water again.  Driving along, I found another small area of Autumn leaves peeking out from the surrounding greenery.

The parking area was a good little jaunt from the location of the leaves, but since I wouldn’t have to actually get in the water, I parked and immediately changed my shoes and, boy, did that feel good.  I made my way to the rocky bank of the creek where I was able to get this last photograph before heading home.