It is the Land of Gichi-Gami, the Great Sea. It is sacred to the Anishinaabe People. In autumn the maples (Acer) put on a display of color. They are joined by others – from the cinnamon ferns (Osmunda cinnamomea) to the hickories (Carya) and every imaginable botanical size and type in between. It is a rainbow of visual delight dotted with 10,000 bodies of water, from the smallest of springs to the Great Sea itself. When a father read to his six-year-old the words of Longfellow’s epic, he generated in the boy a love of people and place that has only grown deeper and wider with the passage of time.
A focal length of 117mm, the middle range of short telephotoland, gave me an intimate field-of-view that highlighted the foliage color and the trunks of the densely growing forest. An aperture of f/18 provided depth of field and allowed for a shutter speed of 1/13th second at ISO 100, in the very slightly wafting breeze, to create a medium exposure.
I have been blessed to visit this amazing land many times, and my favorite visit will always be now.
Good morning, Don, and thanks for the image. I have mixed reactions to this one. I find the composition awkward in that I’m struggling to know where my eye should go. The verticality is strong, yet I can’t quite get grounded with the dominant tree trunk (feels like either too much of it or too little). Yet, the luminance and richness of the colors are so rewarding. They proclaim a cherished season beautifully. Have a great week.
Hello Don,
Just a note to say how much I enjoy your perspectives on Nature and your accounts of places I would like to visit someday. Thanks for sharing your adventures with us.
Greg
Looking at this picture just got me even more excited about out trip to the UP. The colors are amazing and if we get anything even close to this it will be a wonderful adventure. Like Ray, I struggle with what the “star” of this picture is intended to be. There is nothing tunneling my line of sight to any particular object. Every direction my eyes start to take me end in a roadblock created by a tree trunk. It just gives me more food for thought on how I will compose some of my shots the next two weeks. Will ponder it even more as I am driving today. See you tomorrow. Safe travels.
This image captures your excitement of just being there! The leaves have come alive, showing off their Sunday best, and are indeed very chatty; even a few giggles here and there. There is a tiny bit of blue sky peeking through showing it is a really good day to have a good day!
I will be thinking about you guys during your adventure. Have fun!! I hope all the days you are in the UP are as beautiful as this one.
Thanks for the father-son story. It adds such a depth of meaning to the image.
I love the UP. The colors as we see in your photo are so.uplifting to the spjrit.i am a bit sad to not be able to be there and capture the beauty that you capture so well. I look forward to seeing your photos of this most previous time of the year.
Good evening Don, Wonderful display of various hues of fall color. Yes, truly amazing. I understand what Ray and Kevin are saying, to me the .first tree was over powering. I blocked out half of the tree vertically and it became less strong and led my eye step by step into the depth of the image. It was like I was looking round the tree. I think I would have framed I that way.
I am glad that you chose this image for today’s post. Unfortunately, many people would walk right past this scene. Over the years i have come to appreciate these types of scenes more than the “Classic or Iconic” photographic scenes. In my opinion, these types of scenes require the photographer to have a more intimate relationship with nature. As for the composition, I applaud it. The tree on the right while occupying a significant amount of real estate, adds to the sense of place as well a forcing the viewer to look left and follow the maple leaves that start as a muted yellow orange in the bottom left and quickly turn red as you continue through the scene. The remaining tree trunks assist in creating depth throughout the scene.
Also, this image and earlier comments reminds me of a book that Nathan Farb (an Adirondack photographer whose work was heavily influenced by Elliot Porter) published several years ago, In this book he would show a scene like this and then show a second image, that was the scene in the scene. Be well my friend.
“By the shores of Gichi Gumi . . . . that too has stayed with me. Beautiful image.
Howdy Don, your fall foliage shot has the full color pallet of a painter. The strong anchoring tree truck is a perfect resting place for the eye as you visually peruse the entire image. I’ve said it before, your nature images remind me of Elliot Porter.
Good evening Everyone and greetings from the Keweenaw Bay (Anishinaabe) Indian Community and Baraga, Michigan. Tomorrow we begin an Upper Peninsula adventure that promises to be excellent. Wish you all were with us.
Hi Ray; it’s great to have you with us. What a wonderful observation you have given us to begin our conversation.Here’s how I see the dilemma you have posed:The physical masses of the large trunk and all of the leaves together seem to me to be of almost equal visual weight, yet because the trunk is a neutral gray and the leaves are almost completely warm-toned, the leaves appear to advance and the trunk seems to recede, giving the leaves a slight visual advantage. The leaf mass does, as John DiGiacomo suggests, form a large “C”-curve that leads the eye from bottom right to the left and upward into the top of the frame. There, the smaller trunks serve to add the depth that John suggests. The large trunk on the right is mostly a place-holder to keep the eyes within the frame on the right side. It was there and I had to do something with it, and that was what I chose to do. Visual balance is one of the most interesting concepts of composition and one that deserves much thought and discussion. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. Indeed, this fall season in the UP promises to be a spectacle.
Hey Greg. Thanks for being with us and for your kind comments. We’d love to have you join us on one of our adventures. Be well.
Hey Kev. Yes, we are here at last. And you have seen from our preparations what the UP has to offer. Now we get to go play in it. I hope my response to Ray offered you a way of resolving the questions about why I chose to compose this Image as I did. I’m looking forward to a great week!
Hi Nancy T. It was great to talk with you this week. We’ll certainly be thinking about you during the coming week and wishing you could be here to share this adventure. These leaves and their colors, and so many, others will be laughing with you as we go from day to day. I know there’s an adventure with you coming, and we’ll be ready when it arrives. Walk in Beauty, my dear.
Howdy Donald. It’s always good to hear from you. Why you’re just down at the other end of the lake. I’ll have to tell you the story of that copy of Longfellow’s poem one day. You’ll really appreciate it. We hope we get to see you before long. It seems like ages already.
Hey Chuck. I hope you have been very well. We would certainly love for you to be here with us. Your love of the natural world is always a joy to share, in the UP or anywhere else. Walk in Beauty.
Hey Chuck C. It’s great to share this adventure with you, even if only in images. I really appreciate your sharing the little exercise that allowed you to find the balance in this image. You have certainly described a useful way of visualizing the “seeing” of this photograph so as to allow the eye to find its way from place to place. I’m looking forward to seeing you in November.
Hi John. I’m sorry we were not able to connect as I was coming north. I saw your Facebook posting, so I know that your recovery is going as well as you could wish, and that’s great news! I’ve looking forward to sharing some thoughts with you whenever we have the chance. When we scouted Pike Lake yesterday I thought of you and the great time we had there, same for Craig Lake, too. On our way into Craig we encountered a juvenile bull moose out for a stroll in the woods. Your comments regarding the present image were well taken, and I appreciate your mention of Nathan’s work. I’m familiar with some of it. Joel Price is with us and I’ll tell him “hi” for you. Take good care and continue your healing.
Hi Lynne. We were sad to receive the news about John’s mother and hope to get together with y’all soon after we return home. I have with me one of my old copies of The Song…. We’ll have to share a reading sometime after we return; it’s such a wonderful story of life. Walk in Beauty, Dear One.
Howdy Michael. Your words do me great honor and I humbly receive them. Every time I head toward New England Eliot is on my mine. I hope you have been very well and continue to hope that our paths will cross somewhere soon. Take good care, my friend; and be only well. Have a beautiful autumn.
We have had a day of wind and rain on the Keweenaw; so hopefully it will “blow on over: and give us days of puffy clouds and calm. The UP is ready to shine. Be well, All.