Riverside Park Morning

Although I get up early enough, our recent rambles have taken place during the middle parts of the day. But with our colour  rambling done, or so it seems, I headed to Riverside Park once the sun was up. It does rise late these days — around 7:30 — so it really isn't all that early at all.

I wanted to see what the early light and colour would look like at the town's main park, and they were both pretty good. However, as pretty as it was to look at, somehow, it's not all that easy to get great photos there. The trees are large and the quarters are somewhat tight.

I mean, you can see the colour below, and there is a nice frame with leading lines, but there isn't a very good focal point as the red is in shadow.

I think this is the same setting as above but closer to the red maple. The red maple still isn't very vibrant. I lifted it a bit in post, but the result is so-so.

Back to the drawing board, in an effort to get all that I wanted in the photo, both in height and length, I took two vertical photos which I stitched into one image in Lightroom. I think this is better with a definite subject placed in a good position on about the third line on the right.

Finally, I went back to the car and changed lenses, putting on my wide angle lens. I seldom use it as wide angle lenses can be difficult and lead to distortion, but I really like the quality of photos that it produces.

I wanted to get the line of three maples (above) because reseeding lines are supposed to be a good element, and groups of three are also supposed to have a strong impact. I think the farthest tree is a decent focal point and that there is a nice balancing of yellow trees elsewhere in the frame. Also, there is darker green on both side (especially the right) which I think helps put the focus back toward the centre. I also feel that the branches at the top of the nearest tree and even the next tree for that matter help to frame the image and push the eyes down toward the focal point. It's not that considered all of those things when I took the photo, but I did see the line and the three.