Plus occasional links to things I find interesting on the Internet
A gloomy Saturday morning with periods of light rain. But I ventured out to see what I could do. We are on the receding side of the fall color show. So I tried something a little different. I used camera movement to create a softer, abstract view of fall. With a little post-processing magic, I think the resulting images are interesting.
Each of these images was shot with a slow shutter speed, hand held. As the shutter clicked, I moved the camera from bottom to top.
Seidman Park is one of my go-to places for local photography. Yesterday, I chose to go small, pulling my macro extender out of my bag to get close up shots of wildflowers and fungi. I don’t shoot macro very often and definitely need the practice.
The fall colors have generally yet to come to our area in West Michigan. We are in the midst of a mini-drought (the third driest September since 1892). We are seeing a lot of leaves simply dry up and fall off the trees with revealing their spectacular colors.
Still there are signs of fall. The morning air has turned much cooler with lows dipping into the low forties and high thirties. This causes fog to form in low lying fields and especially around bodies of water, which still retain some of the warmth from our 80 and 90 degree temperatures from just a couple of weeks ago.
Yesterday morning, in my wanderings, I drove across the Grand River in Ada and saw the mist rising from the water. I turned around and found a boat launch where I could park and explore the waters edge. Here are some photos.
From the shores of the Grand it was just a short trip to Seidman Park and Honey Creek. I brought along my waders so I could get down into the creek and get closer to the rocks.
Experimenting today with panoramas. This shot is composed from 10 photos shot vertically. Each shot overlapped about 30 percent. I stitched them together in Lightroom.
Up early today, as usual. I went down to the Grand River to catch some photos as the sun came up. The Sixth Street Bridge, seen in these photos, was erected in 1886 and is the longest and oldest metal truss bridge in Michigan. I have added a bonus, after -dawn, photo of the Sparrow Coffee Shop on Wealthy.
Out before dawn on a clear morning in Grand Rapids. We have had precious little sunshine this winter, so the prospect of a brilliant sunrise was exciting. But, the temperatures were in single digits this morning, and my digits just could not tolerate the cold. I snapped a couple of photos in downtown Grand Rapids and one on Reeds Lake before heading back to the coffee shop to thaw out.
I made a short visit to the Japanese Garden at Meijer Gardens today. The lake is frozen but the waterfalls are flowing. Even on a cold winter day, the Japanese Garden is an inviting place of remarkable beauty. (Click on an image to see it larger.)
D’Arts Donuts opened in Eastown this week. It’s a cute shop with great hand crafted donuts. Congratulations Adam and Veronica.
Fallasburg, Michigan, is a historic village about 20 miles east of Grand Rapids. Founded by John Wesley Fallas on the Flat River in 1839, Fallasburg was the home of a sawmill and chair factory, both long since gone. Today, a few houses, a barn, and a covered bridge are all that is left of Fallasburg. The covered bridge, whose 100 feet span the Flat River, was built in 1871.
Grand Rapids’ Heritage Hill Historic District is home to 1,300 houses that date back to 1843. Here are just a few. (Click on a photo to see it larger.)
