Fantastic Fall Colors

You are at the mercy of nature when seeking fall colors. When Nature cooperates, it's your own fault if you don't get out there. Trees don't take long to go from brilliant to bare so when the colors are great, take advantage of it quickly.

I recently visited Castlewood state park, my favorite place to shoot fall colors. To get to Castlewood from St. Louis, take Manchester Road West from I-270, go 7 miles, turn left on New Ballas Rd (it turns into Big Bend Road), then go right when you see the sign for the park. Once in the park, drive past the visitors center and park at the next parking lot on the right. There is a small shelter there, and the path to the overlook goes up from behind the shelter. Go right on the path. It is a steep hike so bring your monopod or walking stick. The rocks are large enough to make you stumble and fall leaves can be slippery so the walking stick support is highly recommended. The hike isn't very long, maybe a quarter to half mile, but rest along the way if you get winded. The views at the top are spectacular. The picture of the guitarist in my previous post was taken last fall there. Here are some new ones from this fall. Notice how much better the trees look this year. The colors actually stand out the best when the sun is behind a cloud. Sunlight diminishes color with glare. If you shoot in the sun a poloarizer can reduce glare. Use several settings to get the best shots. Landscape setting works well, but experiment with manual and aperature priority also. Remember a higher Fstop like 16 gives you more depth of field.

geopic