Autumn Leaves Leave

By 3:45 pm on October 18 the sun was low in the sky. Paulette and Carole walked ahead of me as we returned from a brisk loop in the Parc naturel du mont Bélair. I asked them to advance slowly into the backlit scene as I adjusted my camera settings and composed this shot.

I love the red maple leaves carpeting the path and the transition from shadow in the foreground to the bright highlights in the background.

Taken in RAW I developed it using Lightroom 3: light cropping and straightening; lowered exposure, medium contrast curve; increased vibrance to highlight the reds; a little output sharpening and voila!

Canon 7D, 15-85 mm lens at 46 mm, ISO 200, 1/100 sec, f/5.6

Parc naturel du mont Bélair

Fall colours seem to appear first in the forest under-story. Paulette and I walked in the Parc naturel du mont Bélair yesterday, a mere 13 km directly north from our home.

It was cloudy-bright in the open and cloudy-dim in the forest with light periods of rain. Perfect light for capturing the saturated fall colours of the ferns, Hobblebush (Viburnum alnifolium) and the purple pitcherplant (Sarracenia purpurea). The trees continue strongly green with the odd touches of red, yellow and orange. Another two weeks and we'll be treated to the full force of fall's splendor!

Click on each photo to see a much larger view.