When I recently decided I needed to take a little time off from my day job, my wife suggested we take a trip to Devil’s Den State Park, which is located about thirty minutes south of Fayetteville, Arkansas. So, my wife, dog, and I packed a few things and headed out to spend a few days at the park. Having never visited this park before, I wasn’t sure what to expect from a photographic standpoint. So, I planned to arrive at the park ahead of our check-in time so I could scout some possible photo locations and then go back the next day with my equipment.
The small patches of fall color that I was used to seeing at home slowly began growing into larger patches as we headed west on I-40. Turning north on I-49, the patches of color very quickly became large expanses of oranges, yellows, and reds that dominated the landscape. Seeing this, I started to get excited about the potential photographic opportunities I could encounter.
Turning onto the road that leads into the park, the Autumn colors seemed to intensify. Exactly as planned, we arrived well ahead of check-in time and drove a little further into the park before stopping at a parking area beside the creek that flows through the area. Reminding myself this was simply scouting work, I hesitantly left my camera in the car and headed down to the creek.
Needless to say, it didn’t take more than five minutes before I had to go back and get my equipment. Coming back down to the creek, I took several shots of the Autumn foliage. But, while the leaves were nice, I wanted a little something more. Walking along the creek bank, I saw this little stone shelter complete with its leaf-strewn pathway and immediately thought of an autumn painting. I set up my camera and tripod and prepared to capture the scene.
One of the last things I did before we left home that morning was to check the weather forecast. It predicted a couple of warm temperatures, overcast skies, and some rain near the end of our trip. What I didn’t pay attention to was what the wind was going to do.
When we arrived, I quickly found out what the forecast was: the wind was going to blow. Because the entire frame had to be sharp, I needed to use a small aperture to maximize my depth of field, which then required a shutter speed of 1/4 second. With this slow of a shutter speed, it was absolutely imperative that I pay attention to the wind and only press the shutter button when there was a lull. After a minute or two, that brief lull arrived, and I was able to capture the image.
When I opened the file on my computer, it was a little bit darker than what I wanted, so I increased the overall exposure slightly to brighten the image. I also enhanced the contrast of the scene while being careful not to overexpose the patches of sky. I then adjusted the luminance and saturation of the yellows and oranges to emphasize that Autumn look.
I had a very clear idea when I captured this image that I wanted the final photograph to look like a painting. To achieve that look, I adjusted the texture and clarity of the image to reduce the level of detail in the picture and give it a softer feel.
Finally, the creek bed was a prominent element on the right edge of the frame, but I didn’t feel it really added anything to the image. To address this, I cropped the picture to an 8.5:11 aspect ratio and repositioned the image so that much of the creek bed was removed.