Fall Leaves on the tracks
Lucky enough to catch the leaves at peak on the tracks.
Lucky enough to catch the leaves at peak on the tracks.
Read less
Read less
Oct, 2013Views
642
Likes
Awards
Superb Composition
Top Choice
Magnificent Capture
Peer Award
Outstanding Creativity
All Star
Superior Skill
Top Ranks
Top 20 rankTop 20 rank week 1
Top 10 rankTop 10 rank week 1
Top 10 rank
Categories
Same photographer See allBehind The Lens
Discover more photos See all
Behind The Lens
Location
This was taken north of Thurmont, MD on Route 550 halfway to Cascade, MD. The drive up 550 is very scenic and has a lot of twist and turns along with many pull off spots. The road bisects the railway under a rail bridge. This is north of the bridge on the left. I also wanted to note that the rail line here was closed at the time due to track replacement.Time
I was working with some high school students after school who were working on "nature" photo assignments. We drove up and stopped off at a bunch of locations that day. This was taken late in the afternoon after 5 PM.Lighting
I wanted the image have an endless look to it so that requires keeping it bright with some drop off to the end of the tracks in the image. It helps that the lighting was muted somewhat by cloud cover and it looks a lot like blue hour. I also wanted to keep the tree trunks to the right black to avoid distractions. Keeping the rail posts the same exposure as the tree trunks limits distractions and gives the image some continuity.Equipment
I use a Nikon D4 with a Nikkor 24-70 2.8. This was on my tripod (manfrotto).Inspiration
This image spoke to me right away once the track twists and turns appeared. I did have to compress it a bit to accentuate the curves and give it a long endless look.Editing
Not much post processing. I did bracket the image and thought that I might generate an HDR image but felt this natural look was better. I sharpened the image, corrected the contrast, and added a bit of saturation to pull out more color. The sky was a very pale blue so I brought some of the blue back to balance the image based on the contrast.In my camera bag
In my bag i have: Nikon D4, Nikkor 24-70 2.8 and either a Nikkor 14-24 2.8 or a Nikkor 70-210 2.8. I also carry a Nikon 810 flash, along with a remote camera release, and a light meter if indoors. I also have batteries, memory cards and all the other stuff a photographer normally carries.Feedback
Work on finding and keep checking your spots. If you invest the time and study photography the images will come to you. In the fall I am usually back along this route three or four times during peak leaf color.
