Keep Your Camera Out in Autumn!
By Shelton Muller
Just because summer has ended, don’t think that the fun has too! Not at all! It has just begun! Autumn is a great time of year to keep your camera handy and here a few ideas to keep you out and shooting to your heart’s content!
For a large part of the Australian landscape, autumn may bring little change if any to the landscape or the general weather patterns. Yet, for millions of Australians in more populated areas, autumn is a time of great and sudden change. It is for these reasons – and many more – that autumn is a great time of year for photography. Let’s look at some specific reasons why autumn is a great season for taking pictures….
Autumn Light
Autumn Light is unique. It is often softer and warmer than summer light and is usually crisper as there is less heat haze to diffuse landscapes. For these reasons, autumn has its advantages as a season for great landscape photography. Telephoto lenses can be used more effectively over greater distances, as the air is cleaner, making distant scenes appear sharper. This means that compressed landscape photographs are perhaps best taken at this time of year, as there is less haze to spoil sharpness and diffuse colour saturation.
Early mornings, late afternoons and those precious moments just before an autumn sunset often offer the sweetest, warmest light of the year. Long shadows are created as the sun lowers and the warmer colours of the spectrum endure. Because of this, include objects in your photographs that will make the most of this kind of light and the shadows that are created.
Outdoor portraits are also enhanced by the warmth of autumn light. Because daylight savings has ended, the photographer does not now have to wait until 8:00pm to photograph in this light. For both landscapes and portraits the warm light generated by the setting sun arrives earlier and seems to stay a little longer, giving you more time and more photo opportunities.
While it is true that there is less heat haze, autumn generally brings more mist to the hills and mountains and this can naturally be used to the landscape photographer’s advantage.
Use the early morning and late afternoon mists to add beauty and mystery to your pictures. Photographing directly into the light is often effective, especially when combined with autumn mist, trees or sweeping landscapes. Ensure to take a few photographs of each scene, setting your camera manually to expose in different ways for various effects.
The Autumn Leaves
Autumn is most famous for its colourful leaves and trees, even in Australia. The advantage is that often you don’t need too travel far to photograph them. The suburbs are filled with opportunities to capture colourful images of leaves, trees and related subjects. Tree-lined avenues and parks are great places to spend artistic afternoons with a camera, isolating various aspects of the season through the lens.
Start out taking general landscape photographs including the trees and leaf-covered foregrounds. Then, move in closer to photograph isolated objects such as the leaves themselves. The combination of autumn light, long shadows and the multi-coloured trees makes for some great images.
Children love to play in autumn leaves and there are some wonderful opportunities to photograph them doing so. Catch them throwing leaves into the air or having a good roll in among them. You can even set up some more formal or posed portraits in these settings. These photographs are particularly memorable and have distinct sense of warmth and enjoyment.
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September 21st, 2007
I know that some of the news on this site is syndicated from US sources but this article is a disgrace. Which hemisphere do you live in, Shelton Muller?
In the southern hemisphere in which Australia is situated, Summer 07/08 does not end until February 2008 and the next Autumn is not due for another six months.