Hug ‘em, cut ‘em, climb ‘em either way, you gotta love ‘em. Trees, glorious trees. They do so much for us: shelter, tools, heat, beauty and tasty clean oxygen. They patiently accept us and the squirrels, giving of themselves without complaint, but then, they are bigger than us.

The most frustrating thing about the fall is how short the time is between when the trees turn color and when then winds from Canada blow them all off. I managed to get a few shots in before the oaks were stripped bare.

Back in art school, one of the first lessons of landscapes is that trees are very hard to draw and make look real. There are so many patterns in how a tree grows that are very subtle. You look, you draw, when done, it looks like an arboreal burn victim. Working with Joe Paquet, a true master of trees, I learned about growth patterns, weight distribution, etc. Your ancient mind knows how a tree is put together, you don’t. So drawing a tree can be like drawing a horse — not easy.

That’s what I like about photography. I don’t have to convince you that it’s a tree. I just have to find a way to find new views or simply celebrate it’s splendid form. Here I found a couple classically-crooked oak limbs that eeked out an odd composition. The main limb runs right through the diagonal. If I drew this, you’d not believe it, but since it’s a photo, you just ponder it. The trunk and the other branches create a nice vertical on the third and there you go. Yes, I was doing a composition dance below the tree to get this angle, but it was fun.

Color. What’s up? Yes, I changed the colors. I darkened and added vibrance to the sky. By bringing down the value of the sky, I closed the dynamic range of the image to support the darkness of the tree. If I had left the sky light, your eyes would not see the subtle texture in the bark and the leaves would have lost saturation. This is also why my site is black, I tend toward saturated color in my images and that looks better on a dark background. Think about a neon sign at night versus the day.

Make time today to hug a tree. If the tree has lost it’s leaves, it needs your love more than ever.

AAAAGH! It’s all coming to an end! Just like the fireworks grand finale, the best colors mean the end is near. Stiff wind and crisp air send a biblical shiver down the spine of any good Minnesotan. Remember 35 below? Yep, not far off. It’s time for us proud citizens of the most Northern Metropolis to start thinking about snow tires, new car batteries and the high-tech members of the crowd to ponder the lithium batteries in our cameras. Will Mitchster.com survive the winter? If the batteries hold out and I can find my snowshoes.

Until then, enjoy the colors, because soon there will be only one.

A beautiful crisp fall morning awaited me today as I headed out to Lake of The Isles again for my walk. This elm on the North Branch of the lake was reaching out it’s perfectly yellow boughs under the clear blue sky, begging for it’s cameo.

Something I have discovered is that the colors of leaves are very dependent on their background. Bright red leaves against a gray sky are very bland and unsaturated. Shooting up against the early-morning-dark blue sky (and a little post-processing) brings out the colors. Another way to do this is to find colorful trees against the darkness of a grove or forest. The black area between the leaves. The theory behind this is that colors of the same luminosity lose their impact when placed next to each other. Adding a dark line forces contrast into the colors and making them pop.

A brief break in the rain and the desire to get a picture sent me out today to circle the lake. I walk around Lake of The Isles pretty much every day. Sometimes I bring the camera, but usually I don’t. There’s some kind of jinx thing going on that prevents cool things from happening when I have the camera. Now that the blog is officially up and running, I guess I’m going to have to bring the beast along with me. A Nikon D200 and lenses is a bit to carry, but it’s probably easier to manage than a kid, a stroller and two dogs.