My fascination and love for the Prairie river continues and I had to visit my favorite bit of it a couple of times as summer was winding down. I shot moving and still pictures both times, but am still working to put the video together so for now, here are just the photos.
When I go to this location I try to get to different positions and vantage points or at least create some different compositions. Given that it isn’t a very long section of river, this is getting harder and harder to do. I have explored a couple of other locations that have DNR Fisheries access, but without some hip waders, it’s difficult to get into a position for a decent shot. Even though I didn’t get a river view, some smaller scenes stood out.
Those little lovelies were growing right on the bank as you can see. It’s a bend where one shoreline is rocky and had quite a few plants doing just fine. It was early September so they were still fresh.
These not so much –
Those are the seedpods for Pipsissewa flowers which you can see in this post. I was pretty happy to see them and tried different plants for some stacks, but only this one worked well. Too much of a breeze!
Although I’ve walked over this bridge many times, I’ve never photographed the river from it. Seemed too obvious and cliched, but then I finally did it. It was the light tunnel that drew me. The canopy on either side is thick in summer and while it isn’t the most visually distinctive photo, it rounds things out.
More trees have come down in it, making certain views unworkable and very messy. You can see one in the distance here and a smaller one off to the right. There’s a bunch of big ones tangled up just to the left and behind me as well. Luckily the bank where I’m standing is shallow and basically made up of small rocks and pebbles. It’s a good place to stand and get the tripod into the water without too much fuss. For this series I deliberately kept my exposures low and I like the mood it creates even with all the vivid color.
Another attempt to try for some variation in this kind of shot. Not all the vegetation works well since it can be straggly and undefined, but ferns do ok I think. There is more obvious structure and repetition that helps with some framing and gives a good sense of place and season.
Looking through photos in my Prairie River album on Flickr, I can’t find a composition exactly like this next one. Close, but I think I was on a rock further down and some were done by the rocks there on the left. This time I’m on some taller rocks that are more difficult to get to when the water is running high, but they were still slippery as hell and not flat, kind of pointy, but I could sit on one and put the tripod on the one just in front of me. I was kind of in a wedge if that makes sense. I really like the lighter tree at the back of the photo and the big dead tree on the side.
So 22 days later, I went back and sat on that same rock. I didn’t look at a photo on my phone to compose again, but not much time had passed so I had a good idea of how the redo it. Fun huh? And what a difference! Besides the color in the trees and the fallen leaves, the change in the foliage hides some things and reveals others. It’s like those drawings in magazines that test you to find the differences between them.
And here’s a shot looking back at where I was sitting for those two photos. It’s the rock on the right toward the back with the dark tree just behind it. I’ve shot from this location before as well, but not with this exact composition so I think it adds to the Story of the Place.
This one is kind of a sketch in the sense that I was trying compositions and looking for exposure value prior to getting onto my rocky perch. I think I handheld it, but it doesn’t look too bad. Way more rocks in this one and the big log on the right is out of frame, so not a duplicate.
So glad I went out the day I did because I think that was the peak of color for this area. It’s still hanging on and I can see lots of golden leaves in my backyard still, but not on every tree and what’s there is thin. The fleeting nature of fall is part of what makes it so wonderful and if you wait even a day it can be gone.
These are just stunning. I love the two shot comparison. It’s the lightening and change of leaf color that really stand out to me. It’s such a lovely area just to enjoy nature in.
Thanks so much. Yeah, I love doing studies like this sometimes, showing varying conditions and seasons in a single location or a viewpoint like I did here. I still have work to do on the Prairie River project – shooting the end points – the headwaters and where it joins the Wisconsin river.