3 Autumn Photography Ideas

-

Autumn Photography Ideas

We've had out first storm (named Ali), the Christmas decorations are in the shops and there's a carpet leaves beginning to form on the ground.  It can only mean one thing.....Autumn is upon us!

The birds are on the move now, leading to quiet periods on the local patches and reserves, but the chances of a special migrant still stay high.  Buzzards are active on the calm days and waders start to appear in big numbers along with the numerous geese we are used to seeing on the wetlands.

If you plan to go out with the camera between the windy, stormy days, here are 3 ideas to keep you busy and to challenge your techniques


Fungi

Always a winner this time of year, fungi and mushrooms can make great subjects in the woodland and grasslands of the countryside - they are there in a abundance now, with hundreds of species available to us to explore. Do be careful, many can be dangerous, but taking nothing but pictures should keep you safe ;)

You can use standard macro setups, or the wide angle 10-20mm range will also yield good results when shooting smaller fungi up close.  I use both the 105mm Sigma, and the Zuiko 35mm macro lenses for mushrooms, and then the cheap and versatile little 10-18mm wide angle Canon lens for wider, environmental shots.


Common Puffball Fungus - Olympus E-5, Sigma 105mm MACRO, f7.1, ISO200, 1/125s

Candle Snuff with Droplet - Oly E-5, Zuiko 35mm, f4.5, ISO200, 1/80s


Leaves & LeafLitter

Leaves are all around us now - getting in the way and gathering in piles in the wind.  The colours are striking though, and although some might call a cliche, the autumn/fall tones of the leaf floor can make amazingly detailed images.  Just remember to get the light coming from behind too, to bring out the veiny textures of the leaves!


Leaflitter Portrait - Oly E-410, Zuiko 300mm, f/5.6, ISO400, 1/100s


Webs

I dislike spiders as you all know, but I do love a good web covered in dew drops in the early light of a good clean, crisp Autumn morning!  Shoot shallow DOFs to get the droplets coming in and out of focus to help lead the eye to the focal area.  Webs can be tricky to create a proper focal point for the eye to dwell on, so make it clear with a good aperture choice.  Don't be afraid to saturate the colours a bit, and sharpen up the droplets!


Web & Dew - Oly E-5, Sigma 105mm MACRO, f/5, ISO100, 1/160s


Full Web & Dew - Oly E-5, Sigma 105mm MACRO, f/7.1, ISO100, 1/160s



So go out and challenge yourselves to some autumnal nature shooting, get down in the leaflitter, up close to fungi, and at eye-level with the webs with droplets!

Why not join us on the Autmunal Photography weekend at the end of September?  2 days of good crac, fellowship, photography and most importantly, food!  We'll be indoors and out on this one, with a full editing session included too, and a competition running throughout the weekend, judged by Sandra with a top prize at stake :)

Drop me an email if you're interested as we have 3 out of the 15 places left.  
danny@dgpix.org.uk



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

3 Winter Species to Photograph

-
Image
Winter Migrations It's not just the landscape that changes over the season, but the birdlife and wildlife get a major change of personnel as the colder seasons arrive.  Gone are the agile terns, so much a part of our coastal shingle beaches in the summer. The swallows and martins who take up residence on our houses, barns, and outhouses, are safely back home in Africa. In their place come the geese and swans, waders in massive numbers, and wildfowl of all kinds become the staple of our lakes, loughs, and coastline.  The seals pup at the start of winter, then immediately go into season, making for a chaotic change of pace to the normal lumbering summer lifestyle of these mammals. 1. Seal Pups This has been a target of mine for a long time, I've always wanted to capture the cuteness and typical furriness of the young pups, and this year I had the chance to visit a colony of grey and common seals a few weeks after the pupping season had tailed off.  Many pups were
Read more

Winter Bird Workshop 2019

-
Image
Typical Winter weather..... Of course, the weather would have to be its usual unhelpful self for our first workshop of 2019 - the Birds in Flight Winter workshop.  We braved the bracing wind though, and we had a great time with the Jays, then on to the gulls for flight photography, and a wee smattering of woodland regulars thrown in too. Robin - Copyright DGPix Attendee Showcase David & Carolyn have been veterans of our bird & macro courses over a couple of years now, and always come away learning new ideas and tips, and also helping others in the way they always do.  Absolute gems of people and I hope to see them again soon 😊 Here are some of their shots from this workshop, where they enjoyed the jay site, gulls and woodland birds.  Enjoy! David's work (posted with permission) : Carolyn's work (posted with permission) : Both did really well given the challenging light and the wind that not only
Read more

Autumn Woodland Workshop

-
Image
Autumnal Weekend Workshop Goodness We had a ball on the woodland/fungi/autumnal photography weekend from Saturday 19th through Sunday 30th September.  Last year storm Ophelia put this workshop back a month and damaged the woodland enough to wipe out all the interesting mushrooms and fungi; this time round we had storm Ali the week before, and although trees were down, the mushrooms survived! Woodland Photography The woods at Oxford Island are loaded with photo opportunities in the Autumnal season, not least the mushrooms and fungus that thrive in the leaflitter and trees that have fallen over the years.  The sloe berries are ripe, blackberries are providing food sources for insects and birds, the leaves are wonderfully bright coloured as the chlorophyll starts to disappear.....what a great time to be out in the woods with a group of photographers teaching nature, photography and an appreciation of the wild. One of our attendees using Ringflash to capture the ber
Read more