Whew – what an intense yet fulfilling past five days I’ve had! I arrived in Bishop on Oct 13th, preparing to teach my Fall colors workshop for Galen Rowell’s Mountain Light Gallery. An early snow had taken some of the leaves down, but there were still so many groves in that yellow-green phase and bright yellow phase that there was more than enough to capture! One morning we went up to North Lake seeking a lovely still reflection in the lake, but it was not to be had that morning. A guy using a 6×17 panoramic camera was giving up, frustrated. We switched to plan B, walking into a grove a blazing yellow aspens and along the shore of the lake, each of us seeking our own photographs that said ‘Autumn’. I went to the shore of the lake, and found this wonderful pattern of gold and blue, created by yellow aspens reflecting in the surface, with blue sky reflecting, too. The wind created loads of ripples on the surface of the water, making a great pattern. But it wasn’t enough to capture just that. I decided to toss a yellow aspen leaf into the mix and capture it as it floated around in differnt positions. It took a lot of images to get a few ‘just right’. This is one of them. I love how the leaf ended up on the blue water mostly – I tried so hard to time it right to have that happen but in the end I think I just got lucky with it. It’s the kind of image that I love to create and it was definitely a successful plan B for everyone – the woods were so pretty in that golden light through the leaves. Many made great images from being willing to look beyond the anticipated photograph!
Sometimes plan B yields the best photos
by btharp | Oct 20, 2010 | Brenda Tharp's Photo Blog, Insights, nature photography, photography, The Blog | 7 comments

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Ha! We probably (or almost) crossed paths on I-50 — I was driving home the 12th. North Lake was great when I was there the 10th. And I LOVE Nik’s HDR Pro! Can’t live without it and Topaz.
Wow, too funny, Diane. Yes, North Lake was still good but we couldn’t get a still surface – a storm system was coming in and it affected the air currents too much on our water surfaces!!
I drove the southern route, came up 395 from south, I’ve done 50 soooo much and tire of it!
Thanks for visiting, Sheila. I love simplicity too, uncluttered images. This one has a strong pattern to the water refelection but the leaf gives us a place to rest upon the pattern.
Brenda, once again – stunningly beautiful, and yet so simple or should I say “uncomplicated”. They usually turn out to be my favorites, those uncluttered images of shear beauty.
You’re too funny, Kalani. Yes, it could cause a chain reaction – but I didn’t pick the leaf off the tree – honest! 🙂 Found objects just happen to find their way onto the surface of the water…but try to get a leaf to land upright when you toss it – now that’s a challenge – so I don’t think the average person will develop that skill. ha ha.
Glad you like it regardless…
Cute! I see multiple metaphors. Frustration, natures design, staying afloat, going with the flow, improvising. How do you know that leaf you threw in the water won’t set off a chain reaction? Everyone in the world might throw leaves in lakes and rivers now attempting to capture a scene like this, causing fall to end early and our rivers to stop flowing. Regardless of the potential consequences it’s pretty slick 🙂