Meacham Grove

Last week's unseasonably warm weather sent me off to find some fall color at Meacham Grove here in Bloomingdale. While many leaves were already gone from the trees, lots of color was left in the plants and in the sunset.

Light Fades

The geese were gone, the sun dropped below the horizon, sunset followed. Our visit to Hidden Lake was complete.

Naked Tree in the Dusk

Dusk fell on Hidden Lake and my eye caught the color in the clouds. I turned and looked around me and saw the naked tree, the only bright color reflecting off the stop sign.

Fall color was closing up, just as this day was coming to its end.

Hidden Lake

Hidden Lake, just north of Morton Arboretum in Lisle, was my last forest preserve of the autumn color season. Small but attractive, the preserve had requisite trees with color and also some interesting seed pods.

Final Rays of Sun

Just before leaving Churchill Woods, the sunset blazed even more strongly, as if to bid me good night. The best of my fall color shots of the season were already collected.

Color of the Sun

Here we see Churchill Woods so bathed in bright fall sunshine that even the bare trees show strong color with their bark. Two scenics that in a more normal November might have been drab and lifeless look instead colorful and alive.

Color in the Woods

On the way to a travel seminar, with the weather so unseasonably warm and beautiful, I left two hours early with the intention of catching up some some late-fall color. My first stop was Churchill Woods in Lombard and Glen Ellyn, a quiet place with some beautiful color.

We generally expect our fall color to be in the leaves, but much of the color at Churchill was in the rest of the vegetation rather than in the leaves, most of which were already fallen.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Color of a Sort

Not all fall color shots have much if anything to do with fall color. At a local Forest Preserve, Waterfall Glen in Darien, I found a railroad track, climbed up to it, and got some great shots back across into the forest. But there were also some shots to be found centering on the rails and the rail trail leading around the curve.
More from this preserve in the next post.

Look Closer

Everyone interested in fall color looks forward to the sweeping vista of a forest filled with different species, generating a full pallette of color. No fall color collection is complete without such big views, and we did find some in an otherwise down year.
One thing the fall color enthusiast can always do, though, is look closer. The large numbers of colorful trees might be scarce, but the third three from the left looks wonderful. Most important, looking at whole trees is not the best of detail: look at individual leaves, or seed pods, or blades of wild grass. Natures multiple complexities might not fall together for the full orchestra of color, but the individual star turns are there for all to see.
More fall color in the next post.

Fall Color in a Tough Year

Fall color is on my list annually, looking for places to go to capture images of the leaves and the other flora showing off their wonderful colors. Doing so in a month with more than 20 days of significant rain and about four or five days of strong sunshine is tough.
Over the next several posts we will look at some images that we managed to collect despite the tough conditions. Enjoy.