Eiffel Tower

Years ago I would load up a camera with Kodachrome Infrared film and fire away, usually at Fall Color time, and see how the images came out a week later when the slides were processed. Today a digital SLR would have to be converted to Infrared to get the same result and the photos would be shot blind as the processor would not be able to let us see the image in the shooting. So I have been playing with some Infrared-style effects in Photoshop and came up with an image I really like. Can you guess which image is the technical Infrared effect?

I also added one of my fall color images taken at a forest preserve in the 80s with Infrared film. Will it help you to choose the Eiffel that is in IF? A new topic will begin tomorrow with the beginning of December.

Back to the Future

We saw RETROFUTURISM -- which I translate as 'Back to the Future-ism' -- in Tallinn and in Hamburg, two widely-spread cities, in July. The logo look on the bright wall was irresistible.
The road sign, which seems to direct us to bear left straight into the ground, was seen in Arizona during spring training. The visual is interesting, but the truth is boring. Portable signs are moved into place before a game, then stacked and re-situated for after the game.
Our "sign" posts are complete for not. One post will take a retro-look at our Paris visit this summer. A little experiment.

Liberty

True liberty is enhanced by knowing where to look! I loved the street signs painted right on the London pavement, reminding pedestrians which way to look. Certainly an American should be told when to look right, but Londoners are warned as well, as many turnarounds, one-way streets and transition lanes make a warning of which way to look very helpful.

THANKFUL

Today I am thankful for so many things. Health, of course, for myself and my family and my friends. The joy of the holiday season. A wonderful church to be a contributing member of. But also for the freedoms that so many Americans seem to take for granted. I look back today in my collection of signs and find these two, collected on my only trip to Europe (so far), at Sachsenhausen, the German concentration camp at Oranienburg, near Berlin.
For those not versed in German, the sign nestled in the barbed wire warns you that entering this area will get you shot. The iron sign built into the gate, of course, suggests that Work Makes Freedom, the German right-wing slogan to justify all sorts of torture and murder.
Thank you, Lord, for the freedoms we cherish and sometimes fail to treasure. Guide us always in the ways to promote true American freedom. Let us always learn from the mistakes of the past and work toward the best of what we believe in. YES, WE CAN.

Deep

No, the Hippie sign was not collected back in the Sixties. You could have guessed that from the water bottle. A local rock band, The New Invaders, who had some photos in this blog last spring, have it on stage during their excellent Golden Oldies show. I did think the swimming pool image fit well with it.
A couple of signs just for Thanksgiving in the next post.

Full House?

Four of a kind with a pair. NO NO NO NO STOP STOP. Two signs perfect for a cloudy day in Chicago! Do we ever see anyone posting a sign for YES YES YES? Posting a sign for GO GO?
More signs in the next post.

Irony

This bus driver was waiting outside a cruise ship to take tourists on a shore excursion in Alaska. Apparetnly with a driver's good sense of humor. Too bad the Illinois license plate was not in the same parking lot at the same time!
More signs in the next post.

Signs

A few days of looking at some signs collected. Hopefully, most will NOT need explanation. More in the next post.

Closing Color

Our two final fall color shots are pretty opposite. One is a look into the pond water from the levee near the overflow dam at Meacham Grove. The darkening sky lends a deep blue cast to the water with duckweed and algae providing the green. The other, of course, has to be the silhouetted sunset, leading out thoughts on to winter and other topics.
The topic for the next several posts will be SIGNS.

Snapping Turtle

At Meacham Grove, a levee runs north and south between the large pond and the large grassy march area. A month ago, after climbing a tall hill to the south (where I captured one of the images in yesterday's post), I came down to walk the levee and look at the overflow dam in the middle of it. As I walked, I came across this fellow, his shell about 18-20" in circumference and weighing . . . I have no idea how much. A fisherman and his son were standing near him and at one time put the feel of a fishing pole in front of his mouth. It was exciting and interested to see a snapper snap, since it was not me he was snapping at!
The fisherman was telling his son that he thinks the turtle had spent days climbing the levee -- fifteen feet, perhaps -- to cross the path and descend to the mud of the march for the winter. What an impressive effort.
One more post on fall color in the next post.

Right Down the Road

Right down the road, six or seven minutes from my driveway, is another of the wonderful forest preserves that are part of the DuPage County Forest Preserve District. Scenic banks of trees, paved walks for leisurely strolls or more serious walking workouts, water, and a tall hill to climb for healthy exercise. Truly a gem.
The next post will center on an apparent full-time resident of the preserve.

From Maple to Meacham

As I look out my window this mid-November morning, the late fall color is a solid pallette of gray. Clouds, mist, cold, the onrush of winter surrounds my home. It is a boon to be looking at the fall color photos taken three to four weeks ago during the short sunny interlude between the October monsoons.
A newspaper mention of Maple Grove had sent me there, and two more images here show the lovely golden forest and some of its accompaniments. Leaving there with a bit of light in the sky, I knew another preserve was on my way home, right here in Bloomingdale. A short stop there gave me my last fall color shots of 2009 and we will look at some in the next post.

Portrait of a Forest

Maple Grove has such a powerfully dense stand of maples that the sound of the roadway and the rest of the world falls away, and the fall color walker is surrounded by quiet and color. The second image here presented itself as an opportunity to take a semi-formal vignetted portrait of the yellow woods. As the vignette wound up in a stylized heart shape, I liked it all the more.
In the first image, a closeup of a leaf surrounded by the color of the maple forest and the spotlight of the late-afternoon sun offered the chance to turn out an image that became a semi-abstract look at the wonderfully-saturated color.
The next post will be the last at Maple Grove.

Leaves and Weeds

We have noticed at previous locations the beauty in individual leaves and in wild grasses' seed pods. Maple Grove has its assortment of such beauty as well as we see here.
Fall color can be a hillside of forest, a small stand of trees, an indvidual tree or a single leaf or plant. Fall color is beauty in any size. More in the next post.

Maples on Maple

On Maple Avenue in Downers Grove, the Forest Preserve is named Maple Grove. While the name of the street and the name of the preserve are the same, the fact is that the forest preserve is named for the trees it features rather than the street it faces. And the predominant type is the sugar maple.
Result? On a sunny October day, this preserve is the one where you will find many many yellow leaves, making the sunshine a deep gold throughout the forest. A powerful relaxing color presence that is the epitome of fall color.
More Maple Grove in the next post.

Fall Color Magazine Cover

Moving from one fall color collection to another, pleased with the scope of the images collected in a negative-weather month of October, I decided to put out an October issue of my cover-only magazine, TRAVELING, featuring the DuPage County Forest Preserve locations which have provided the models and the backgrounds. Hope you like this issue of the magazine you can read completely in the shortest time.
More fall color tomorrow.

Barn Red

One of the best things about visiting a farm for fall color might indeed be the barn. If painted well, Barn Red makes a barn into a beautiful sight for fall. The barn, the trees, the leaves: all work together for the fall color show.
More fall color from a different location in the next post.

Yellow and Orange

Finally found some traditional, sunlit yellow and orange trees at Volkening Farm. As noted in an earlier post, rich bright fall color in the suburbs of Chicago lasted about two or three days, no more, bracketed by rain and gray skies. But the few days? They were wonderful.
Yesterday's post was a milestone for the blog, the 300th post. I waited until today to note that, because the daily contribution has become a regular part of my day. Hope you like it as well. More fall color in the next post . . . tomorrow!

More Reflections

Volkening Farm in Elk Grove Village, on the east side of Plum Grove Road, is a picturesque park district site with hiking trails and several actual farm buildings. Several programs are held there, and fall color was bursting out in mid-October. We begin with a couple of nice reflections from a pond in the middle of the park area.
More views of the farm in the next post.

Reflections

Our last look at Waterfall Glen reminds me that more and more, I love the fall colors reflected in a stream, a river, a pond, a lake. It multiplies and enhances the colors and adds a depth I love.
More fall color in the next post, a milestone post for me, but from a different location.

Love the Waterfall

Waterfall Glen is a sprawling forest preserve, actually appearing to ring the well-known Argonne Laboratories. With the scope of the space included, there are several parking areas and trailheads, and the fall vistas are as varied as they have seemed in these posts. Plenty to see.
But don't neglect the waterfall. Find it on a map, follow a path along the stream, let yourself wonder how impressive a waterfall could be generated from the sleepy, meandering stream. And when you find it, you will know. It becomes a secluded, peaceful place to watch the water cascade over the falls. A true hidden gem, although with its name on all the signs, how hidden can it be?
Once more peek at Waterfall Glen in the next post.

Contrast

Hard to choose which image shown here is more powerful to me. Sure, fall color starts with leaves preparing to, well, fall. But the contrast here between the firy leaves in one image and the naked tree etched against the blue sky in the other really works.
For a week we have been looking at fall color at Waterfall Glen. In the next post we will finally get to the waterfall.

Look for the Wildlife

Lots of wildlife can be seen in the best fall color shoots. Sure the massive banks of trees with the leaves in varying colors is awesome, but the army of turtles who have crawled up onto a branch in the pond and the sun-colored butterfly visiting the last of the summer's wild flowers? Those details work, too.
More fall color in the next post.

Wild Grasses

Among the wonderful colors of fall would be the early-setting sunlight cutting through the tops of various wild grasses. Prairies full of these plants can look almost like "amber waves of grain" in the form of a gently-moving lake surface. Take another look next time you have the chance . . . meaning next fall!
More colors in the next post.

Portrait and a Sky Change

Here are two of my faovrites from Waterfall Glen. In the attempt to make a "landscape portrait," just to see if it would work, I vignetted these golden trees to to the right in order to highlight the color through contrast. I like the effect. The photo of the multi-color bank of trees in the photo above looked pretty good to me except for the bland washed out sky. You don't see bland and washed out? That was the secret. I tossed bland and added this beautiful blue sky . . . from an image I collected in Paris this summer!
More fall color in the next post.

Sun On Water

Fall color is often upward-looking, into the treetops and on into the blue sky. But never neglect the power of sun on water for reflections, for distortion, for the color of the sky and the surrounding flora. If the photographer is between the sun and the water, the color power will be tremendous. And if the photographer puts the water in the middle, the backlit reflections will be memorable.
Today we look at two of the first kind. An upcoming post will feature the second.