How to Take Fall Photos

Fall is just about the best season here in Georgia -- it usually lasts quite a few weeks and the colors from the trees are amazing. We are just starting to see reds and oranges (with an abundance of yellow), so now is a great time to snap pictures of your kiddo. Here are a few hints on how I got these great autumn photos.

My little boy loves to "explore" trails and sidewalks around our place. Our deal is that he gets to explore and I get to take photos, plus he'll agree to pose for some of them too. I took these shots around 5:00 p.m. after a drizzly day with overcast skies. Overcast = soft even light for outdoor shots. Perfect.

The first and second image show how tricky trees can be -- you want to capture the fall foliage, but you don't want a branch or tree trunk coming out of your subject's head. I squatted down to take the first shot so I could get the tops of the trees behind his head. The second shot was just positioning. I had to place my boy in a certain spot so that I could get a full body shot with the trees and without head-branches.

The last portrait is one of my favorites from 2008. I try to take photos of my son in each season every year. It is so fun to look back at how he's grown in the past 3 years. This was taken close to the Alpharetta Big Creek Greenway, which turns a gorgeous golden yellow one week out of the year. It is a magical time to take pictures there, and I'm hoping I'll be able to catch it again this year. And that's my last advice of this post: if you see a gorgeous fall setting, get back there with a camera as soon as possible (or better yet, keep your camera with you). A couple days can make a huge difference in whether or not the trees still have their colorful leaves. Happy fall!

Fall Photo Tips

Everyone loves autumn photos. And now--especially if you live in the Atlanta area--is the time to take them! It's been a very rainy fall, so picture-taking opportunities have been limited. But those bright colors will be gone before you know it! (I'm not sure they'll last much longer than a week.) Seize the opportunity, grab your camera and capture some fall photography.

Marchet's tips:

Act soon. That gorgeous red- or orange-colored tree will drop all of its leaves in a few days. Take that photo now, not just when you get around to it. During the fall, I often take my camera with me on errands, to the park, or out running for spur-of-the-moment shots.

Use fall leaves as props. But try to use leaves with some color. For some reason, kids always want to grab the ugly dead ones.

Up your shutter speed/ISO. If you want to shoot kids throwing leaves, you're going to have to go for a faster shutter speed or higher ISO to freeze the action of those leaves falling.

Get pleasing bokeh. The farther away you are from the fall foilage in the background, the more out-of-focus the background will appear. I love autumn bokeh!

Get close up on leaves. Photos of whole trees generally don't capture the color or essence of that amazing fall color. Instead, zoom in (and get closer) to a single branch (or a single leaf) and take several shots. (This same principle applies for most photography, especially portraits: get close! Fill the frame.)

Shoot in the morning or late afternoon. With daylight savings ending, I'm seeing the best light for photos around 8:00 - 9:00 in the morning and from 4:00 - 5:30 in the evening, with golden light peaking around 5:15.

If you can't shoot at those times, bring an umbrella and shoot in the sun. Just make sure your model is in shade or umbrella-shadow. That's the technique my friend and I used to shoot this little one at Lake Winward last week. (More photos from this shoot to come . . . ) Good luck!

Last of the Fall Leaves

Say goodbye to fall. It is cold and that means winter! Incidentally, I'm having trouble keeping my wireless keyboard working lately. I think it doesn't sense my keystrokes when my fingers get cold. Weird, huh? Has anyone else heard of that?

I took a few photos of the last of the autumn leaves in Newton Park. It has been such a wonderful fall, I'm sad it see it go. Jacob is a fabulous nature photographer,and I've been trying to learn how to take better close-up leaf photos. Here's my response to his advice to "keep tryin.'"

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