Autumn colour, a photographers view

The beauty of autumn colour is something to behold, rich vibrant colours all competing with each yet forming such a harmonious blend, but it is also tinged with sadness as another year ebbs away. Autumn photography can be spectacular, dominated by oranges, reds and yellows combining to produce a beautiful tapestry of colour, none more so than when we combine the rich autumn colour with water. Water and autumn colours combined together have the potential for brilliant images.

“Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower” ~ Albert Camus (1913-1960).

Think like a child and surrender your thoughts, where everyday things are filled with wonder, mystery and magic. Slipping quietly into this mental approach will have a positive impact on your autumn photography, allowing you to create autumn images that resonates with beauty and harmony.

On a bright autumn day head to a place that has the essential ingredients – autumn colour and water, it could be a lake, pond or stream and look to create autumn images that combine both autumn colour and water. It matters little if the water is moving or flat calm but the effect it will have on the reflected colour will vary greatly. With calm water the reflection can be almost mirror like giving a true inverted copy of the original. However, moving water can transform the reflection into an almost abstract image as the multitude of autumn colour is mixed in swirls and lines to create a patchwork of beautiful autumn colour.

After looking around and selecting a suitable viewpoint that gives a pleasing composition and places our key elements, colour and water, firmly within the camera viewfinder. A sturdy tripod is essential for this kind of photography. A view that reflects evenly and subtly off the water is preferable to one that has lots of pinpoints of highlight, we are looking to maximise the benefit of the relection in our autumn photography.

Look to compose your image with a solitary leaf or rock in the water, this gives something for the eye to rest on and relate to. Then look for movement and pattern within the water, it is often this juxta position of a static object and movement that adds impact and an extra dimension to our autumn colour photography.

Earlier mention of the importance of using a tripod is reinforced if we choose to use a long exposure to really empahsise this movement within our composition. Selecting a shutter speed slower than 0.5 second will allow water to flow through the scene creating “movement” within your autumn photography. This flowing water will create swirls and striations in a myriad of reflected autumn colour, the final effect is often hard to predict. Experimentation with shutter speed / aperture combinations is often needed to create the effect we desire.

When selecting your subject / composition do not restrict yourself to working from head height, get down low or conversely up high to create a different viewpoint. It changes the angle of view and appearance of the reflection. In doing this you will also see things in nature that you had simply forgotten about. It provides the viewer of your images a different viewpoint that makes your photography work stand out from the crowd.

When working with water it is also a good idea to use a polarising filter to saturate the autumn colour further and remove some of the glare. Use it subtly however, as we do not want to completely remove the effect of the reflection. Artistically filters can have a great impact on your photography and a polariser is just about the only filter that cannot these days be recreated on the computer.

Looking for new ways of seeing and photographing the world around us is one of the biggest challenges that we as photographers face, be different, experiment, push the boundary and accept no limits. Only when we do this will we create strong and meaningful imagery and derive the greatest satisfaction from our autumn photography.

© Phil McDermott Isle of Mull Photographer for commercial and wedding photography, also personalised Isle of Mull Photography Workshops.