2009 Fall Foliage tracking and photo thread

[Dan Robinson]

I spent the day in the WV high country (northeastern WV mountains, peak elevations 3k to 4.5k) on Saturday. Some isolated areas on the highest ridges are already at peak with bright reds and oranges (unfortunately no photo-worthy views of those). Valleys are mostly still green with patchy color. Photos here:

http://stormhighway.com/blog/oct409photos.shtml

I think from this weekend through next will be peak in these areas, I may take another day to go - weather permitting (I like clear blue sky days for fall colors).

 

[Michael Riedl]

The Trees here in Kansas are turning about a month earlier than normal. Quite weird.

 

[Mike Hollingshead]

Amazing shots James, dang. Makes me want to head west one of these years and I'm not at all a fall foliage buff.

Guessing there is some potential for some interesting ops around here through this weekend, if one can find any good areas of fall colors. Crazy enough snow is in the forecast already and well, if it worked out just right could be some interesting ops with that and turning leaves. Needless to say it is extremely early for snow here. Looks like a couple ops with the better one on Sunday. GFS was putting down a 1/4 inch liquid stripe that looked to fall as all snow across southern NE. Hastings forecasting possible lows in the teens. Sigh, going to be a long winter if this keeps up.

http://www.wxcaster2.com/CENTRAL_MESO-ETA_SFC_SLPTMPDPTWINDSBLI_78HR.gif

Gotta love average highs around 70 here right now and being in the upper 40s Friday AHEAD of the stronger cold front.

 

[James Langford]

Thanks for the comments all! I appreciate it.

It's amazing just how much the fall folliage changes from year to year. Last year was a pretty good year in Colorado, I'm led to believe. I've been watching pictures of the aspens on flickr, and the coverage is not nearly as good as last year. I'm not sure what all the variables are that go into determining that, but it's interesting to watch.

Here's a few more from last year:

Just West of Grand Junction Colorado.

Somewhere between Estes Park and I70

A lonely mountain pass somewhere near Snowmass, which is outside of Aspen.

Near the Vail golf course

Rocky Mountain National Park

Rocky Mountain Park

Another stream in RMNP

Maroon Bells

Maroon Bells

The road to Maroon Bells

Sorry for all the pics! ;-)

James

 

[Stephen Locke]

Pretty cool how the shutter was open long enough to record movement in the water but the leaves are crisp. The air must have been dead calm. I've been up there enough to know the leaves are always dancing and its a challenge to stop them with long TV and small AV.

Technical junk aside I get a visceral sense of being there from this image.

 

[James Langford]

Pretty cool how the shutter was open long enough to record movement in the water but the leaves are crisp. The air must have been dead calm. I've been up there enough to know the leaves are always dancing and its a challenge to stop them with long TV and small AV.

Technical junk aside I get a visceral sense of being there from this image.

Thanks Stephen. It was an amazingly calm, slightly overcast morning. There was just a bit of wind, which moved some of the leaves further up along the stream. What's even crazier about this shot is that it's a 2x6 bracketted HDR mosaic. Each of the 12 images was bracketted -1/0/+1 to create 3 seperate mosaics, which I merged and tone mapped in Photomatix.

I try to recreate the scene as realistically as possible, so I'm glad you enjoyed it.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

great pictures guys. If everything goes well I will be heading to Smoky Mountain National Park this weekend and will be taking my camera to get some photos of the fall foliage change. If I end up going, I'll post pictures when I return!

 

[John Farley]

I love the Aspens! And your photos are great, James! Unfortunately, I did not make it out to New Mexico during the peak of Aspen color this year. However, the maples here in Illinois did put on a decent show.

In this one, I like the way the falling leaf kind of matches what is on the banner.

 

[Jason Boggs]

Had a pretty crappy day today, literally! And no, I didn't eat at Taco Bell before I left. LOL
I went on Hwy.60 between Miami and Canadian to get some fall photo ops. Everything is going good, as I'm taking photos in a small roadside park. I get back in the vehicle and smell the most God awful smell. I knew what it was as I looked at my shoe. Needless, to say, I found some grass and tried to get it off. I then had to try to get it off my carpeted floor mat. After that fiasco, I was back to taking photos. After about 10 more minutes of taking photos, my CF memory card in my camera failed. I was about done for the day anyway, but I didn't know if I could save the photos or not. Fortunately I could, and the failure just wouldn't let me take more photos. I had another memory card, but he light was fading and I wanted to go get that stink out of my vehicle. What a day!!! I think the crap on my shoe was worth the photos though!

 

[James Langford]

Wonderful shots Jason! Especially like the bridge shots. Were these shot up near Amarillo? I didn't realize that there was all that much fall color there.

James

 

[Jason Boggs]

Wonderful shots Jason! Especially like the bridge shots. Were these shot up near Amarillo? I didn't realize that there was all that much fall color there.

James

Thank you! I'm not sure what you mean by the bridge shots. Yes, these were taken about 80 miles NE of Amarillo near the town of Miami in Roberts county. I never realized there was that much fall color there either. I'd never really payed attention, but I will now! By the way, your shots are superb! You do a really good job with your photography, and it shows.

 

[James Langford]

Whoops, sorry. Mistype. I meant the shot with the railroad in it. Thanks for the comments too!

James

 

[Andrew Revering]

My wife and I took a week this year over our anniversary along Minnesota's North Shore of Lake Superior during peak fall colors. Here are some shots we took.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

taken at Great Smoky Mountains National Park 10-24-2009 (in between Pigeon Forge, TN and Gatlinburg, TN)

Enjoyed a nice hike up Chimney Tops Trail with my friend Zach, and got some great photos. Unfortunately we had a lot of cloud cover and mist, so the view from the top of Chimney Tops was non-existent.

 

[Drew.Gardonia]

a few more

you can see the rest here

http://s590.photobucket.com/albums/ss347/mtsumustang/Smoky Mountains/