Autumn at the Cottage

We have been home for more than a week, and I continue to work through photos from our week-long vacation. I took more than 1000 photos, over 600 of just the birds from the recent posts. I know when I take them that most will be sent to the recycling bin, but I still get some satisfaction at the time, looking for a decent composition through the lens — at least as far as scenic shots are concerned. For the birds, however, I mostly just set up the camera and fired from a distance, knowing that a few might work. I had also intended from the start to merge some photos together to get more than one bird at the feeder. Despite this, I think I have said that my two favourite blue jay shots were single photos when the natural light was propitious.

I want to return to the autumn theme today showing photos just on the cottage property at which we stay. It's ~130 acres, primarily of forested land. The Crowe River forms what is more or less the eastern boundary of the property. A county road splits the property in two, and the western side (the house is on the eastern side) is hillier, rockier and more interesting ... to me at least.

But let's begin with the cottage side.

How nice is this single, red maple and its reflection by the edge of the river.

In the woods by the river, I liked this shot of orange leaves hanging over the river beyond triangular branches.

I really like this simple photo of sumac with trees (dead) and fog in the background as the sun begins to light the day.

A macro on our one frosty morning.

On the other side now. It's rockier and hillier. Just beyond this clearing there is a drop into a depression that is filled with trees. The boulder must be a glacial erratic left behind by the melting glaciers about 10 000 years ago.

I have gone to the edge of the ravine in the above photo and taken a panorama of just the trees. This pano is composed of 10 photos.

Another multiple-shot pano from a similar spot. I like the depth; having the stump in the foreground helps that.

And one more pano, a vertical one this time: a vertorama as it were.

As you can see, I like the effect of vertical tree trunks against a colourful background, particularly if I can find a foreground element or frame (although I don't always nail the focus).

I'll leave you with one more shot (for now anyway) of Sue tossing milkweed fibres in the air on a little stroll that we took.