Ferns in French Canyon
The weather did not fully cooperate on the day I went to Starved Rock to lead a landscape photography workshop. It rained in the morning, was sunny in late morning but began to cloud up after Noon, just the time we were going out to shoot. Sure, you say, shooting landscapes at Noon is crazy but as an experience in composition for workshop participants it has a world of value. Anyhow, back to the subject at hand. I chose to explore in French Canyon, a canyon in the sandstone carved by flowing water fed by snowmelt and rainfall alone. Even with an evening and morning rain, the “river bed” was dry with the exception of a few remaining puddles here and there.
As I walked along the dry river bed I saw this bunch of ferns growing from the sandstone wall of the canyon. Surrounded by fallen leaves, the green of the ferns just popped out at me. The pattern of the fern leaves and the random scatter of the fallen leaves that surrounded the ferns implies an unresolved tension. I simply couldn’t walk away from this image.
I decided to shoot using HDR technique. By exposing for highlights, shadows and midtones in three separate exposures I knew I could overcome the gloomy gray skies and the soft, shadowless light and have an image that reflected the saturation I saw in nature. I was right. The green makes a statement among all of the fallen leaves.
French Canyon Foot Bridge
Near the fern patch this foot bridge crosses the river bed just above a small falloff that, in the wet season, sports a small waterfall. Because of the rain there was a wet streak in the center of the falloff that, from this view is covered by the fallen leaves. I saw entropy in the colors of the bridge and the fallen leaves carpeting the river bed. The foot bridge caps the curve of the riverbed as it falls off into deeper recesses of this inspiring canyon. Of course, the way I framed the image a viewer is not privy to specifics about where the bridge comes from or goes to. The bridge is just there, much like the landscape, only it is placed by some organizing purpose while the landscape simply is, a random occurrence peculiar to the geology of the area and the erosive forces of water and ice.
