Just because the autumn leaves are on the ground does not mean the season of color has gone. Some of the most appealing intimate landscapes of fall can be found only when the leaves have loosened their grips on the stems that have held them since spring and allowed themselves to settle on the forest floor. Turkey-tail fungi grow from spores that have attached themselves to twigs and branches recently released from their arboreal homes. Think of them collectively as Fall Color Act II, and the show will go on.
With a focal length of 250mm from about 3′ away, I placed my camera so that the broken twig ran diagonally throught the frame with the single cluster of turkey-tail nearly on the upper left power point and the longer row of fungi on the inside. This gave me the angle-of-view and element placement I wanted and a fair amoumt of magnification. An aperture of f/20 focused on the long pale oak leaf provided depth-of-field; and a shutter speed of 2.0 seconds at ISO 100 gave me a medium overall exposure. Using a polarizing filter allowed me to reduce the glare from the surfaces of all elements.
Great Smoky Mountains National Park is the public land of my home. Like most public lands currently there is a huge backlog of deferred maintenance running in the multi-millions of dollars. It not sufficient merely to tell some government entity to “fix it.” We all have a part to play, even if it’s only to visit respectfully.
This one elicited an aaaahhhh. And a reminder that I have to get a polarizing filter for my 300mm.
Hi Linda. It’s good to hear from you. I was asking Judy C. this past week if she had heard from you – and she had not. I hope all is well in Ashfield and your fall season has been beautiful. I appreciate your kind words; and, yes, Western Massachusetts is polarizing filter country every bit as much as are the Southern Appalachians. Be safe and Walk in Beauty.
Thank you Don, for sharing Mother Nature’s gifts so beautifully!
Hey Joani. I hope all is well in Henderson County and you and Mark are taking good care in these uncertain times. Thanks for your kind comment. Knowing that folks like you appreciate Nature as much as I do is a wonderful reward.
Love this image – and your title. A reference to ‘California Dreaming’?
Hey Louann. Thank you very much for being with us. I’m grateful that you like the image and the title. When I looked down at all of the brown-toned detritus on the forest floor at Big Creek, the first line of the Mamas and Papas great anthem immediately went through my mind. Your thought seems to have run in that direction also. Be well, be safe.
I returned to the Greenbrier area of the Smokies a week ago, where you and Bonnie took a couple of us one spring. You have inspired us to spend more time there. And, I just finished reading the biography of Horace Kephart, written by Ellison and McCue. I did not know that Kephart was so instrumental in establishing the GSMNP, working from the North Carolina side. What fun.
Hi Charles. It’s great to hear from you! I trust you and Joanna are well and staying safe. I am so glad to hear that you have spent recent time in the park and have read the Ellison/McCue biography. Kephart was an incredibly rich and complex personage, who, when he reached Swain County realized he had found home. He was grateful to and for the mountains and worked tirelessly – along with his friend George Masa – to preserve them. Their efforts were rewarded. His unfortunate and untimely death was a loss for conservation. Sometime I’ll have to point out Mt. Kephart and Masa Knob to you.
Don, a pleasing image for sure, and I appreciate your point about the ‘show’ moving from the limbs to the land. This is such an interesting color palette; other than the vivid gold, a subdued but complex range of colors. And, I like how compositionally, shapes are just moving in from all directions outside the frame. It sort of hints at the poem you included about parts and wholes.
P.S. A friendly reminder to any who are reading to back up files diligently (!). A hard drive failure this past week took with it a few months of photography. Kicking myself for not being more disciplined on backing up.
Hi Ray. It’s always good to receive your thoughts and observations. We do so often think that the colors of fall are with us only so long as they remain in the trees; but these old mountains have taught me that such a state is only the first part of the show and there is an equally beautiful follow-up coming shortly behind. Once they are on the ground, they are like jewels covering all of the other components of the natural world and offering an entirely alternative story for our enjoyment. This is true even after the coloring pigments have faded and the lifeless leaf is all that remains. I appreciate your comment about the relationships of the component shapes to the frame of the image. As I saw the image it was like doing a portrait and making decisions about how to crop various limbs to achieve a pleasing outcome.
And thanks too for your reminder about the importance of “backing up drives. Your images can likely be retrieved, but it will be an expensive proposition, and what you have experienced will be a wonderful reminder going forward.
A true still life on nature’s canvas.
Live those Turkey Tail fungi. Memories of the Fabulous Fungi flick!
Hey Robin. Always good to have you with us. This is the part of autumn I always associate with still life. The ground becomes a huge canvas to be filled in the same way you create haints: a small piece here, another piece there. Turkey tail are wonderful fungi. I do appreciate Stamet’s and Schwartzberg’s great work from which our lives are enriched. Walk in Beauty.
I love this marvelous, intimate “slice” of the ever-sharing forest floor. I hunt for images like this year-round. Thanks for sharing this lovely and colorful shot, Don. Love to you and Bonnie.
Ah, Patricia, it’s wonderful to hear from you. Your beautiful homeland in the Connecticut River Valley is a perfect place for images like this one; and the foothills of the Berkshires merely serve to extend the range of possibilities. Eliot read your use of the word “slice” and his eyes lit up. And love to you in return. Hope you and Sue stay safe and well. I somehow feel that 2021 is our year for a rendezvous.
In short… I absolutely love this image!
Hello Jeanne. It’s always good to have you join us. I hope you and Tom are safe and well. As you may recall, it was the Spartans of Laconia who are responsible for our having that excellent adjective “laconic.” Regardless of the word count, I very much appreciate your kind comment.
Don, I need your permission to paint on canvas with acrylics this beautiful image.
Hey Rosemary. It’s good to hear from you. How ’bout if we work a trade: if you’ll do a small version of the painting for me – say 5″x7″, or so, I will gladly give you permission to paint the image. Just let me know. Hope you and Don are doing well and staying safe.
Fungi have a remote look of seashell designs. Thank you for posting.
Hi Rosemary. I really do appreciate your kind comment. Aren’t we so very blessed by the great beauty of the natural world? Take good care.
Truly lovely image! I like the way the turkey fungi is displayed among the leaves adding a splash of color which makes for an interesting background. Great job as always. I have been exploring various local parks and have captured unique types of fungi and other shots of Mother Nature’s wonders presented in lovely color palettes.
Hey Sandy. It’s wonderful to hear from you! I very much appreciate your thoughtful observations and kind words. In every image we create we must make certain decisions about the elements of our composition and the relationships of those elements to each other and to the frame. This is no mean exercise, for how we do this determines what our viewers “see” and their emotional experience will thus be determined
I’m delighted to hear about your explorations of nearby parks. These public lands are great sources of inspiration, and I grateful to know that your experiences there have been pleasant and productive. Take good care and stay safe.
Howdy Don, you are a man of all seasons. You traded your wide angle lens for a narrow angle tele lens and created a macro masterpiece. It looks like the subjects were wet which made the colors richer, the polarizer removed the glare. The composition is perfect with various types and colors of leaves framing the branch and fungus. A great lesson learned, look down too!
Howdy Michael. I know that your insights and observations will always be instructive for us: simple and profound reminders of the many small actions that must be considered and joined to make the creative process effective and successful. The elements on the ground were quite wet and the glare in the viewfinder demanded major polarization; but you’re right, that was what saturated the colors so nicely to begin with. I very much appreciate that you like the construction of the image. I spent quite a bit of time turning the tripod as I looked through the viewfinder. Two things that Pat O’Hara taught me – always look behind you and always look down. Take good care, my Friend. Stay safe.
All the leaves are brown but the turkey-tail fungi have stolen the show in the second act. They look much like butterflies lined up on the twig creating a lacy edge. The Mama’s and the Papa’s must be singing somewhere in the background. This is proof that there is beauty all around us. Thanks for sharing.
Nancy T, it’s great to have you with me. I really enjoyed our conversation this past week. I always love to read your descriptions and stories. I’ve been singing California Dreamin’ for a week now and thinking about all the leaves on the ground that can be used for creative work, whether they are brown or otherwise. There is great beauty everywhere you turn and all we have to do is see it. Stay safe, be well, walk in Beauty.
Thanks, again, Everyone for being with me and for sharing your thoughts and observations. Still lifes, intimate landscapes, close-ups, however you may wish to describe them, are wonderful expressions of the photographic and creative process. They are constructed utilizing the same elements and principles of design that are used for any landscape image; and when they are “seen,” it will be through the same process of recognition of those elements and principles. I really appreciate what you have shared with me and each other that will aid in the recognition of these images and the creation of them once seen
Have a great week! Walk in Beauty.