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Ann Arbor, Brad Reed, Huron River, Lake Michigan, Ludington, Ludington Michigan, Ludington State Park, michigan, Nikon, outdoor photography, Pere Marquette River, Photography, PM River, Reed Photography, Sable River, Sigma, Todd Reed
The leaves are changing and soon peak fall color will reach Ludington. The best time to shoot fall color is in the mornings, late afternoons/early evenings, or during slightly overcast days. The sunlight is softer during these times, making the leaves seem much more vibrant than if you were shooting during the harsh midday sun. If you find that your only opportunity to photograph is during midday, try shooting the fall color being reflected off a surface like water or windows.
Brad recently shot the photo below on the Pere Marquette River. Shutter speed is the important choice for this type of photo – if you want to capture the ripples on the water’s surface, you need to have a fast shutter speed. Brad set his shutter speed to 1/500 of a second but he also wanted adequate depth of field, setting his aperture to F8. With those camera settings, and using his telephoto lens zoomed all the way in – not much light was reaching the camera’s sensor, leaving him no option but to raise his ISO to 1600.
Brad shot the photo below, “Huron Color Dance”, on the Huron River in Ann Arbor using a similar technique but he was closer to the point in the river he was photographing. Again, the key to getting the ripples on the water’s surface is a fast shutter speed, here he used a shutter speed of 1/2500 of a second. Since he was using a larger aperture opening (F2.8), he didn’t need to compensate with the ISO quite as much, only raising it to ISO 800.
Here Todd is preparing to photograph a king salmon spawning in the Sable River at the Ludington State Park. You can see that the water ripples are not as prominent because the photo is shot with a slower shutter speed, 1/125 of a second, and is shot at a wider angle, 28mm.
Todd used his telephoto zoom lens to zoom in on this king salmon. Todd wasn’t worried about the front to back sharpness of this photo because it has such an abstract look to it, so he used F2.8 for a shallow depth of field. Notice that despite using F2.8 and focusing on the water’s surface, you can still see the rocks on the river bottom and the additional salmon to the left of the main subject.