 It's autumn at my favorite little park in the foothills of the Cascade Mountains Once came along for the ride. Well, I've been hiking around this park for a little while Thinking I might do a little autumn photography I don't know if you can see it though, but for some reason there's a whole bunch of smoke here We must be doing some slash burning nearby And I don't think it's gonna be worth the The time to set up shots and still smoky here But while I'm here, I Figured I'd take the opportunity and the time to to hit a few things And who knows maybe I'll find something along the trail Some kind of close-up shot But if you've seen my last video I'm sure you will take the take away will be I was pretty frustrated and I was pretty disappointed with how I was getting along with my camera gear and that was out with my 4x5 camera I Put a new friends lens on the back of it hoping you would make it brighter and make it easier to compose And I was really disappointed that it didn't lighten up near as much as I was hoping and it also brought the light that my eyes were also part of the problem Reading glasses are a pain the butt when you're Try to take them on and off. They're fogging up and all that stuff under the the dark cloth So I was pretty frustrated. So I went ahead and put that video together. I was pretty tempted to just kick it to the trash Because I did have a kind of negative vibe and Something I want on this channel. This is this is my journey. This is my failures and my successes and If I was to not show everything then It really wouldn't be telling you anything I know there are a lot of photographers out there that are probably Experiencing many of the same things I do and so much photography is psychological and it's you know, it's it's awful often a mental battle and so I've Try to leave that stuff in you know when I'm having a rough time with something I just I just said I'm having a rough time and I'm gonna tell if things great Now I ended up liking a couple of the shots on that video and the last shot in the video I'd I'd never even shot video while I was making the photograph. I was so Just upset and frustrated at that time at that point I just I'm just gonna make this shot and it'd be my favorite shot and really it was just using a 90 millimeter lens It was about a one-second exposure at f32 all pretty much like the rest of the photos and But I didn't give it its do and it it really was probably my favorite shot of the whole whole series But I really wanted to thank all those Folks that left messages message me on Instagram emailed me left comments under the video. I really want to thank you for for reaching out and and expressing, you know, some of your experiences and Suggestions and just give me some support and It appears that I'm not the only one that that has these issues at times So I really do appreciate that and I really wanted to just say that whether I make a video of photos today No, that may not happen, but I just really wanted to start with Thanks for all the kind words. It really does help. I'm not gonna get rid of the camera. I I'm gonna try to work through some of the issues I'm gonna see if I can get a newer ground glass and see if that helps and I'm just gonna deal with it You know, that's just what you do. I knew 4x5 photography isn't gonna be easy guy. This isn't the first time I've done it It's just for some reason I seem to be struggling in this last few weeks more than I have in the past The 4x5 ain't go anywhere, but but while autumn is kind of doing its thing. I'll probably be shooting a little bit more digital I'm hoping to get out a few more times in the next week or two to see if I can get some images but right now I'm thinking this smoke is kind of Kind of a bummer, you know, it's not it's not really what I came here for I'd like to make an image since I did come out here and I I'd like to meet you if I want to deal with the smoke if I don't want to be a big issue I could probably shoot something more intimate And that's kind of what I'm looking for right now. It's just Some fall foliage around one of these nice big fir trees A little bit of contrast between the bark and the leaves that'll probably what I'm looking for So if I find something it'll be in this video Well, I'm not planning a lot of compositions And I said I was gonna be shooting color But the ferns here stick growing up out of this rock here comes kind of piqued my interest And so I'm I'm doing a Tight shot of the repeating ferns Coming out of the moss in the rock This could actually be black and white It's gonna be one of those that I'll have to see when I get on the computer I'm using a 50 millimeter lens and I've got a polarizing filter on it kind of knock off some of the shine I'm gonna do a shot without the polarizer just Sometimes in black when I kind of like the shine it gives it a little bit more spark sparkle a little more dynamics, so But I think in color I do think the Shine on the leaves sometimes can be a distraction. It's kind of weird how that works It's kind of a fun shot there Found a shot here, I'm shooting across this little ravine here where the creek runs through and I'm kind of hitting some of that color and the trees coming up on the other side It's for up on the hill a little bit. I'm not have to shoot up too much to it So it doesn't it's not too bad Sometimes if you get down too low and you're shooting up that it makes everything lean back But I don't think this would be too bad. I'm using an 85 millimeter with a polarizing filter It kind of helps to cut through a little bit of haze and Some of the shine on the leaves Most likely this will be a color shot, but with me you never know I I Could turn this into black and white easy. I Think I'm gonna have to return to this location. I Think this is gonna be in color changing color for at least a couple weeks. So Doesn't look like it's peak here. I Don't know if it'll ever be like a peak moment because it looks like there's a lot Changing but there's a lot that hasn't even started changing. So it's kind of weird. This is about About a second exposure around F 11 to F 16 kind of in there Don't really since it's so far away. You don't really need a I could probably shoot at F 11 Just fine. I've shot a couple of F 13 Shooting these little pieces It's kind of fun. That's this is kind of telephoto territory today and that This is where the first spots I've seen actually seen and that's clear enough you to actually pick out something that the photograph the composition I'm making right now is Very simple but I'm really attracted to the different levels of Composition to composing we've got one leaf that's still really bright and then there's the leaves that are all around it are at different levels of decomposing and I think that's kind of kind of a Almost a story, you know There's also a couple different kinds of leaves here in this picture, too. It's all this nice rock. So it's It should make it kind of a nice abstract simple abstract shot Very a very simple in color though. There's not a lot of color choices here. We're talking yellows Browns everything in the same the same spectrum nothing Real dramatic except for the bright yellow leaf. That's the single bright little leaf. That's that's in the frame And that's my choice Just trying to use color More dynamically not just mass color Use it where it's important Just about out of time I'm not sure what I've got for photos Didn't want to take a lot. I don't know if there's anything there that really knocked my socks off Well, I enjoyed making the images. We'll see what we got when we get them on the computer So I'm gonna be heading back to the car And hopefully I can get out a little bit more this For the autumn seasons over It's just great to be out. Well, if you made it to the end of the video, I appreciate you coming along Hopefully it wasn't a waste of time for you. So until next time Thanks for coming along for the ride