Spring Trees and Flora, After the Rain

There are two things I find absolutely joyous about the spring season. The first is that vibrant, translucent green when leaves and flora have first emerged for the season. The second is seeing that lush, green growth just after a spring rain. Add a touch of fog and you have a world of visual pleasures no movie can match! All three elements were in concert this morning, making it the ideal time to photograph the landscapes of one of my favorite local parks.

I walked about in the park with my lightweight Canon Rebel XS, and kit 18-55mm EF-S IS lens. This is a time when I really appreciate having IS (image stabilization) in my camera/lens. Not having to carry a tripod allows me to enjoy my walk-about as much as my photography. I kept the camera on 400 ISO to insure that the average speed of my hand-held shooting in IS mode was kept above 1/30th second for maximum sharpness. What fun it was! The park was virtually empty, and the combination of beautiful light and quiet made for a delightful morning.

I converted the raw images to final .jpeg files using SilkyPix 3.0E. I used the default “Landscape Taste” color palette to bring out the lush green in my photos, and sharpened resized the final image in Photoshop. SilkyPix makes it very easy to restore the beautiful colors I remember into my digital captures. Photo by Donald Peterson.

Beautiful Spring Foliage

This photo shows the vigorous new growth of spring as green foliage joins mature cherry blossoms in welcoming the season. This exuberant orchestra of color and shadow was captured on an overcast early spring day. Early spring green has an extraordinary glow and saturation when it first emerges. I shot this photo handheld with a Canon Rebel XS and 18-55mm EF-S IS kit lens (Image Stabilization (IS) on). On overcast days like this I prefer compositions that contain little if any of the colorless sky, focusing on the subtle colors and shading in the landscape. I converted this image from raw using SilkyPix 3, my favorite tool for revealing the full depth of color in green landscapes. After some minor burning to tame a few overblown highlights, the final image was resized and sharpened using SmartSharpen in Photoshop.

Cherry Blossoms In Soft Glowing Light, Branch Brook Park

I’ve captured about 20 gigabytes of cherry blossom images over the past three weeks (and will probably shoot a bit more). I’m reviewing the images as time allows, and posting some of my favorites online. This image was shot in Branch Brook Park last week, and shows beautiful cherry blossoms framed in glowing light. I have found the BUDGET-PRICED CANON 55-250mm EF-S IS LENS to be a very practical choice for my cherry blossom photography. The image stabilization allows me to shoot sharp photos without a tripod, and the results from this lens can be stunning. Camera: Canon Rebel XS, Canon 55-250mm lens.

Trees in Autumn, Branch Brook Park. This photo shows colorful trees during autumn in Branch Brook Park. The Newark, New Jersey (USA) park is a delight to visit during the fall season, and has one of the most beautiful displays of fall foliage in the Northern New Jersey area.

Here is a helpful tip to improve your photos of fall foliage: Shoot on days that are partially cloudy (as seen in this photo). Here’s why: On clear sunny days, the full range of deep shadows to bright highlights produced by direct sunlight is too strong for digital camera sensors to record. Images will look harshly lit, with too much contrast. Shadow areas will look black and featureless, and detail will be lost in the brightest areas of the image. However, on partially cloudy days, the clouds soften the shadows, reflect light more evenly through the scene, and reduce the bright sunlight to a level that is more easily captured by digital camera sensors. Your images will look much better as a result. During the fall and winter, you can shoot all day if you have light, partial cloud cover and get great results!

Camera: Canon 10D, Tokina 19-35mm lens, polarizer, tripod.

Branch Brook Park was in fine form during the week of the Cherry Blossom Festival. With all the attention given to the Cherry Blossoms (and rightfully so) it is easy to overlook the fact that this is a beautiful park even without the Sakura trees. This photo shows a tranquil setting in the park during the Festival week.