Category Archives: Landscape Photography

Enjoying the Fall Colors

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141029_Window & Leaves by . Fuji X-T1, XF18-55mm @ 55mm, f/20, 0.8 sec, ISO 400

Walking outside this time of year in Bucks County, Southeast Pennsylvania is always a real treat.  The combination of old structures, interesting landscapes and fall color are abundant and are just waiting to be captured.  Each day changes.  Colors come and go, always changing.  Something new is always just around the corner, or just standing in front of me.  Such walks always help me balance the daily challenges and beauty life brings.  Time to get out for another walk!

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Sheard’s Mill Covered Bridge

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141018_Sheard's Mill Covered Bridge by . Fuji X-T1, FX18-55 @ 55mm, f/20, 3.7 sec, ISO 200

This was one of the last shots of the day.  Sometimes they are some of the best, at least for me.  The hay rake provided a strong near field compositional element.  Most images of this bridge are taken from directly on or perpendicular to the bridge.  I wanted to get something a little different and catch some of the fall color.

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Knechts Covered Bridge

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Knechts Covered Bridge by . Fuji X-T1, FX18-55 @ 20mm. f/22, 1/10 sec, ISO 400

Knechts Covered Bridge is one of my favorites.  It is somewhat hidden off the meandering country roads on what seems to be a single lane remote road.  The simplicity of the structure is marred with bright caution and height limit signs.  I took the liberty of removing them from the image with Photoshop.  If you look close you can see the remnants on the left stone abutment and below the bridge name placard.

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Cabin Run Covered Bridge

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141016_Cabin Run Covered Bridge by . Fuji X-T1, EF18-55mm @ 18mm, f/22, 0.5 sec, ISO 400

I was not too creative and made several mistakes with this image.  So there are several lessons here.  First, as I was walking along the rocks, I hit a slippery area and tumbled down on my knees and elbows.  I made sure the camera was safe.  After the fall, I lost my focus and interest and only took a few images.  Lesson 1:  if something happens, take the time to regain composure and then start again.  I knew that I had an extreme dynamic range between the sky and the shadows on the bridge and ground.  I did not take enough exposures to generate a blended image or HDR.  Lesson 2:  Take my time to capture the image and lighting that I am looking for.  I put on a cheap polarizer on my lens.  It leaves a little flare from time to time.  I had discovered this before and still put the filter on.  Lesson 3:  Don’t put anything but good filters over good optics.  No filter is better than one that even degrades the image a little.  Anyway, this post is a good example of what not to do.

 

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Loux Covered Bridge

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Loux Covered Bridge by . Fuji X-T1, FX55-200mm @ 55mm, f/11, 1/9 sec, ISO 1600

Fall days are a wonderful time to drive around rural Bucks County, PA and enjoy the iconic covered bridges.  During the last few days, a friend and I spent late afternoons exploring around the area.  For this image of the Loux Covered Bridge, I focused on a composition that did not include bright road signs and caught some of the fall color.

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Painting Fall Colors

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141014_Painting Fall Colors-2 by © 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji XT-1, XF55-200mm @ 95mm, f/11, 0.6 sec, ISO 500

Gloomy grey days highlight great fall colors.  Add a little artistic flair and voila … out comes an impressionistic painting.  The colors here in eastern Pennsylvania are rapidly changing.  One day makes a big difference.  A great college friend and I took the opportunity to get a little damp and explore some of the countryside and covered bridges here in Bucks County.  The colors were great, but most important, just being out with a good friend made the day.

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Longwood Meadow: Impressionistic Perspective

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140930_Longwood Meadow #4a by . Fuji X-T1, XF10-24mm @ 24mm, f/22, 1/35 sec, ISO 200

This image is my first trial using Topaz’s new “Impression” software.  I took a nondescript image with a distinct foreground, mid ground, and far field as the base of my experiment.  I was pleasantly surprised of the interesting result.  Below is the original RAW image.

140930_Longwood Meadow #4b by .

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More of Longwood’s Meadow

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140929_Longwood Meadow #3 by . Fuji X-T1, XF 10-24mm @ 24mm, f/20, 1/110 sec, ISO 400

More wide angle practice.  My objective for this image was to capture the details of the near field grass as well as the background of the tree line and farm house.  I feel that the image would have been more interesting if I would have taken it from a slightly higher angle so I could have included some of the mid-ground.  I knew better!

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Longwood Garden Meadow

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140928_Longwood Meadow #2 by . Fuji X-T1, XF 10-24mm @ 22mm, f/18, 1/160 sec, ISO 400

During my walk in Longwood’s Meadow, I saw this single tree with the path curving around it.  The leading line and isolated tree caught my eye. The wide angle helped place the tree in perspective with the expansive meadow.  Again, my thoughts for the day were to work on wide angle perspectives and just enjoy the day.

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A Fresh Start – Longwood Gardens Meadow

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140927_Longwood Meadow 1 by © 2013 Karl Graf. Fuji X-T1, XF 10-24mm @ 24mm, f/11, 1/150 sec, ISO 200

It has been several months since I have posted an image.  My focus has been in other directions other than photography.  Yesterday I woke up to a beautiful early autumn day.  I just felt like getting outside and “practicing” with my camera.  Since getting my Fuji, I have not taken the time to explore its capabilities.  Yesterday was a fresh start.  I traveled to Longwood Gardens to explore the revitalized Meadow Area.  Because of its expanse, I decided to practice using only my wide angle lens.  It was a “get out and explore day” as opposed to focusing on getting that great image.

During my visit, I ran across this guy who had a demo version of Canon’s new EOS 7D MarkII.  We started talking and I recognized him as George Lepp.  He is doing a workshop at Longwood on Saturday and Sunday.  It was a pleasure spending a few moments with him.

 

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