Fall means leaves and, at least in the Northwest, it can also mean rain. The rain helps accelerate the dropping of the leaves, but it also does a nice job of making the colors look at their best. I was out at lunchtime and saw these leaves on the ground in the parking lot. I couldn’t walk by without taking a few shots.
When fall arrives, we get a riot of color in the Pacific Northwest before the leaves fall. When they do fall, we get a lot of them on our street and some of the leaves, when they get damp, leach out some chemicals on to the concrete of the sidewalk. They leave a chemical shadow of their shape on the ground as they dry out and get blown away. Over time, these marks get washed away but, for a while, we can see where the leaves have been.
A previous vacation to the UK had included a visit to Stourhead and, we liked it so much, we decided to go back on the latest trip. We went with a load of the family for lunch and then a walk around the grounds. The weather was lovely and there was a hint of the onset of fall in the foliage. The place is just gorgeous and wandering through the grounds on a sunny day with your family is hard to beat.
One evening, I took a walk down to Juanita Bay Park. As it headed out to one of the platforms, I could see that the railing had a section that was freshly replaced. A look over the edge showed that one of the trees had shed a large chunk. I guess this must have wiped out the old railing material. They had done a good job of getting the replacement in place but had left the branch where it had fallen. I am glad I wasn’t there when it fell as I imagine my head might not have been so easily fixed.
We made a trip across the Cascades in October to see what sort of colors there were in the trees. Choosing when to go is tricky because the timing of the color in the mountains isn’t the same as it is near us. Things were very pretty as we headed across Steven’s Pass. One the run down to Leavenworth, the road is tucked up against the banks of the Wenatchee River. There are a few places on the otherwise narrow road where you can pull off. The colors were pretty intense in parts providing a focus for the eye of the viewer of the photos.
Our trip took us onward to Leavenworth. I wasn’t sure how busy the town would be given the time of year but there were plenty of people around. The warmer environment downtown meant that some of the trees were still showing their color. While people were everywhere, it wasn’t so crowded which meant getting some openness in the foregrounds was possible. Preparations were underway for the Christmas lighting so I suspect it will soon be a lot busier.
Alongside the river at one end of the town was a rather nice looking hotel. It had a hot tub in the garden in which a couple of people were hanging out. Given how chilly it was, they looked rather incongruous but I imagine the water temperatures meant they were very comfortable. It looked like a nice place to stay and, if we ever decide to overnight in Leavenworth, we might consider it.
Having made our first stop at Lake Wenatchee State Park, we continued on in the direction of Leavenworth. The highway takes you down a river valley with the Wenatchee River at its core. This is a pretty drive at any time of year and the many pull offs are often filled with people stopping off the enjoy the view. A colder fall day meant it was slightly less busy but it also meant deeper shadows. Still, there were plenty of people enjoying the scenery, even if they weren’t getting out of the cars for too long.
Having written about whether HDR is still worthwhile in a recent post, the shaded valley was something that I figured was still possibly needing a technique that could handle a wide dynamic range. Other spots were still in open light and were an easier bet. The difficulty of a valley like this is communicating the feeling within the rocky walls. Wider lenses allow you to show more of the scene but they also diminish the scale and I find it hard to give the impression you get when actually there. I actually spent some time with a longer lens picking out details of the scenes rather than the whole thing but I wasn’t going to give up on that completely.
Sometimes trips that are set up with something specific in mind end up delivering something totally different. We knew it was a little late but planned a trip up into the Cascades with the aim of checking out the fall colors. We went up towards Stevens Pass but rapidly realized that, while there was some color in the trees, the more important issue was the amount of snow on the ground. The temperatures up in the pass were well below freezing and the ice across the highway was something that focused the mind.
We were heading for Lake Wenatchee State Park and the park was certainly a lot more snowy than we expected. It has a north and a south entrance and, having not been there before, we headed to the north entrance first. It turned out that this was mainly the campground and heading around the roadway which was pretty snowy got us nowhere interesting. A reversal of course and we tried the south entrance which was far more productive. It took us down to the edge of the lake and a wonderful vista. The combination of blue skies, a lake, snow and some tree colors was beautiful. While the air temperature was low, there was no wind. Consequently, it was quite comfortable. Add in the lack of other people and you felt like you had discovered something special.
Our original plan had been to walk along the trails in this part of the park. However, the depth of the snow was not something we had brought boots for so that was not going to happen. Instead we stayed in the area near the parking lot and enjoyed the views across the water before retreating to the car with its plentiful heat!
We visited Bothell to look at the trees as I mentioned in this previous post. We weren’t the only ones though. As we came around the corner, a row of the trees was very intense in their red colors and plenty of other people had come out to check this too. Families were all over the place taking pictures. The best place seemed to be in the middle of the road. Consequently, groups of people were standing there taking their shots and, hopefully, avoiding getting run down!
The area around where I work has a lot of trees and they have turned out to be the sort of trees that get very colorful in the fall. It is really nice to be able to look out of my window and see such vibrant colors when the sun pops out (which it does do in the Pacific Northwest sometimes). I had driven down the road in the opposite direction to normal one evening and saw even more color so, when the sun was out one weekend evening, we diverted to the area so I could get some shots.
The richness of the colors is sometimes hard to represent with photos. They don’t always have the impact that being there had but hopefully some of these shots will give you an idea of how pretty the street was.
