Somerset Firedance

2013 was a poor year for foliage in NJ, at least in our area. Leave didn't have much color… Our oaks and maples mostly went from dull greens to shades of...
Read more

2013 was a poor year for foliage in NJ, at least in our area. Leave didn't have much color… Our oaks and maples mostly went from dull greens to shades of brown right away - with very little of the usual reds-oranges-yellows in between. Perhaps Hurricane Sandy the previous year had something to do with it…

Anyhow, while working in the yard one afternoon (there still were lots of leaves to rake!…), as the sun was moving toward sweet light, I noticed a very small section of brightly colored leaves amongst the dreary grey and brown ones. It was in the distance, though, so I needed to pull out my old 500mm mirror lens.

I tried an experiment. I shot the same frame perhaps a dozen times changing my focus through the entire range of the lens shooting nearly directly into a mottled-filtered setting sun.

It wasn’t the usual landscape shoot – I had pulled up a deck chair. Don’t usually get to shoot while sitting!…

Anyhow brought a few of the images into Photoshop and layered some of the blurry ones over the sharp ones. The results here is my favorite. What do you think?…

Read less