I love photographing Watkins Glen State PArk in the fall. My favorite time is when the leaves have been changing and are starting to fall. Unfortunately this time of year seems to be increasingly fleeting. The leaves turn and then fall so quickly. Leaving behind bare trees and piles of dead leaves.

I love the transition period. I like to capture images with both leaves on the trees and leaves freshly fallen into the gorge. It is a difficult time to capture. Timing has to be just right. I often miss it.

I love to capture the trees in the background of the gorge to add a little boot of color to the images. And the leaves spread over the gorge floor and walls I’ve it a distinct character that the park doesn’t have any other time of year. If you can visit Watkins Glen State Park in the fall I would highly recommend it. You will not regret that special treat.

What I like most about this time of year is leaves on the move. I love water in motion and the way it creates unique images. And what water in motion has the power to do is move things. The water moves objects through the image. This is most obvious with leaves.

Leaves in the park

To get really cool images the conditions have to be just right. It has to be the time of year when the leaves are still falling from the trees or else all the leaves in the water will have already been washed away. The water has to be flowing at just the right level so that the leaves are moving fast enough but not too fast. And the camera settings have to be just right to that the leaves create the desired effect.

What I like to do is catch the leaves as they are floating and flowing down the gorge. Using a slow shutter speed the camera captures the motion of the leaves. The leaves become a streak, instead of a static object. You don’t see a single leaf. You see a streak of color on the water’s surface.

If your camera setting have the shutter speed too fast then you don’t get streaks. If your shutter speed is too long then you miss the leaves entirely as they fade out of the image because they were not in frame long enough to be recorded at all.

My favorite images are where you can find a place where the water is swirling in a whirlpool. Sometimes leaves will get sucked into the spiral and the leaves will spin around repeatedly. With a scene like this you can create images with longer streaks because the leaves stay in frame. They aren’t just passing by. The leaves have been captured by the swirling water. And that can create some images with cool spirals of color if you are lucky enough to have just the right conditions.

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