Komorebi

Ritchie Roesch posted his Five Tips for Fall Foliage Photography with Fujifilm X Cameras, which has excellent advice for capturing the fall colours. I especially liked his recommendations on which film simulations to use.

I live in New Jersey, just south of the “New England” states, and we do get some beautiful colours. I have many fall foliage images taken in various nearby locations around my area over the years, but I haven’t explored other New Jersey locations. Also, over the last few years, it seems that fall colour is coming later in the year and last just a few weeks.

As for lenses, I have only the Fujinon 16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR but even looking back at my Nikon images, I shot my fall images mostly at short focal lengths. I don’t do macro photography often enough to justify the cost of a macro lens. Do you have any suggestions for extension tubes for the Fujinon?

Perhaps the best light is “..is when the sun is behind the tree”, but that may be possible, because even “when the sun is low to the horizon”, it is blocked by a mountain range. In the past, I have captured most of my fall images from river beds or the edge of lakes, but I am open to finding locations to try new perspectives.

Except for Hacklebarney State Park, the best fall foliage locations in New Jersey are either at the far north-west (2-hour drive) of far north-east (3-4 hours drive) sections of the state and require extensive hiking to get to the views. Someday I’ll get to those distant locations. This fall, I hope to at least photograph on the Rock Brook or take my first hike through Hacklebarney State Park.

One new thing I want to try is a new Hoya 77mm Red Intensifier Glass Filter that I bought last year. It’s a ‘didymium’ filter that claims to enhance red, orange and brown subjects to give more colour saturation and contrast. I think it would probably pop fall colours when used with the Velvia film simulation.

komorebi — Apple iPhone 7 + iPhone 7 back camera 3.99mm f/1.8 — 25 September 2019

Not Quite Fall

It's early fall here in New Jersey, perhaps too early to visit the Grandview section of the Rock Brook, but I hopped in the car and drove over to Hollow Road anyway Nope. Nothing. Not a single yellow leaf. Not on a tree. Not on the ground.

But some of the leaves have changed colour, not enough to be noticeable in the sea of green, but enough that some leaves have fallen off from the maple tree in the front yard. The heavy rainfall from the thunderstorm effects of Hurricane Dorian had drenched the tree knocking the yellow leaves onto the grass, the car and the driveway.

October Morning on Blue Spring Road

My initial plan was to photograph the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, using a long exposure to create exciting light trails of the vehicles entering and exiting the tunnel. The heavily congested area with a spectacular nighttime view of the New York City cityscape is called “The Lincoln Tunnel Helix”.

I wanted to capture something visually exciting for this week's challenge. But the logistics of that plan overwhelmed me. Light trails are the best capture after dark, and we are in early summer in New Jersey, which means the sun goes down much later in the day. A late-night trip to that part of Weehawken would be challenging given that street parking is minimal and the entrance to the “Helix” can only be seen from one corner at the end of the block on one street in this residential neighbourhood. I set the Lincoln Tunnel project aside for another time.

My backup plan was to find and shoot a scene along one of the historic roads in the area. But as I drove around this morning working through my mental list of interesting roads, I realised that this wouldn’t work either. All of the roads in this area are narrow one-lane county roads with ditches on either side and no shoulder to pull over, and this being New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the USA, even at 7 AM on a Saturday there is traffic on these narrow small town country roads.

I sat at the computer, disappointed and looking through my Adobe Lightroom Catalogue, hoping to spark more ideas. None came. I consoled myself with pulling a few images from the catalogue.

This capture of the tree-lined Blue Spring Road was taken in the fall of 2018, a few weeks after the leaves of the trees started changing colour. I was out for a walk and noticed the light coming over the hill was hitting the tops of the trees. The trees looked like they were on fire. The only camera I had on me was my iPhone.

The second image below was captured a year later, almost to the day, on my Fujifilm X-T2.

Blue Spring Road, Montgomery Township, Fall, Maple
Blue Spring Road · October 26, 2018 · FujiFilm X-T2 · XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR