Out and about this weekend

Fall colors have probably been at the peak around Manhattan this past week. I managed to get up early Saturday morning before sunrise and headed out to the Carnahan Creek area on Tuttle Creek Lake to see if I could get some shots before all the leaves were off the trees.

As I drove out across the dam at Tuttle Creek Lake I could see fog coming off the lake so I went first down to the boat ramp at Carnahan to try some shots off the fog coming off the water. The fog wasn't as thick as I would have hoped for but it was a beautiful morning. Quiet, only a slight breeze and all the plants were covered in a light frost.The sun wasn't high enough to be shining into the cove when I first started shooting which left with a nice cool blue color to work with. I was able to frame the fog on the lake with some interesting rocks in the foreground.

As the sun came up and started lighting up the trees on the opposite shore I drove around to the over end of Carnahan to get some front lit shots of the trees. Front light (where the sun is shining on the front of your subject. which means the sun is behind you) is great for showing off colors. The colors were excellent. After I was finished in this area, I drove up to Wildflower Road, which is an excellent place to get photos of the Flint Hills, here again I was able to photograph the fall colors front lit by the sun and had some great colors to work with .

On my way home, the skies clouded over and diffused the harsh light as the sun continued to rise so I stopped below the Tuttle Creek dam and took a few more photos of fallen leaves.

My favorite shot of the morning came from Carnahan though. While shooting the sun lighting up the far shoreline I noticed that behind me a single cloud was reflected in the stream feeding into Tuttle Creek Lake. I really liked the shape of the cloud and the symmetry produced by its reflection in the water (this is the second photo shown above). Photos from this outing can be viewed here: Fall Photographs on Tuttle Creek Lake, Kansas.