Saturday, November 3, 2007

Little River Canyon - Fall Foliage

Well, I cancelled my scheduled dayhike in Sipsey for today due to a number of factors, but I did managed to head out for a sunrise at Little River Canyon. Sunrise was a letdown, so I wasn't upset that I was running about 30 minutes late and missed the actual sunrise at the canyon. Too much yellow and orange in the sky, no reds or purples during the full twilight and sunrise phases due to the clear but polluted air. There was a great deal of mist in the areas along I-59, but it didn't seem to develop in the canyon. The purpose of the trip was to spend some time using the Graflex Pacemaker Speed, but I think I've finally realized that I need to stop trying to feed it color film and treating it like a view or field camera, and instead stick to B&W and let it be used for purposes closer to its press heritage. This comes as the result of wasting about $6 worth of film... 2 sheets were hosed due to an exposure calculation error, I wasn't paying close enough attention and didn't properly read my dSLR for metering, and WAY overexposed them. At least one more sheet bought it due to a mistake with the viewing shutter mechanism, I accidentally left the shutter open when I removed the darkslide. We'll see what comes out, but I think I may just stick to sunny f/16 with the camera from now on.

Here is what the canyon looked like about 30 minutes AFTER sunrise:http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597062

But, with that failure under my belt, I headed from the rim of the canyon over to the parking area next to Little River Falls. As I said, there was a great deal of moisture in the air despite the lack of rain, and as such highly angled light rays were visible in a number of locations. http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597063

I made and effort to get down to the rocks below Little River Falls, but failed for the 3rd time, so I contented myself with some reflection shots of the pool below the falls. The falls themselves were really too bright, and there were people around.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597068
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597067
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597064

The foliage this year is proceeding slugglishly and isn't all that fantastic. Despite Scipio's constant protestations, I managed to get a few decent leaf shots.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597075
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597071
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597072
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597069
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597073

I wish I had thought to schedule some fall foliage time in GSMNP. I'd really love to see this falls in the fall (NOT FROM TODAY).
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6046552

While I was taking leaf photos a mosquito landed near something I was photographing. A failed exposure rendered a very evil subject.
http://photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=6597084

It wasn't an unproductive trip despite several failures.

1 comment:

Nat said...

I really like the light rays over the road picture... while subdued, the colors in the leaves carry enough impact to get themselves noticed.

Was it just moisture in the air?

Also, the leaves ones are pretty good too. Almost a selectively colored grayscale feel to a couple. I take it the dog doesn't like stopping?