Silkstone-141030_0056_49Lower Cascades, Hanging Rock State Park, NC.

Fall, its nature’s way of getting rid of bugs and snakes.  It is also a great reason for landscape photographers to get back out after the hot and humid summer and start photographing again. One of my favorite parts of photographing during fall is capturing the beautiful colors in water.  Here are three ways to capture fall color in water. 

One of the best ways to capture the essence of fall in water is to use a long exposure to get swirls of color. A lot of times these swirls can be found at the bottom of waterfalls or in eddies of smaller rivers where fallen leaves are being moved in a circle.  Using the swirl of color as a foreground element to a waterfall makes a fantastic image.

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Another great idea to try is ICM, intentional camera movement, to capture abstract images of leaves in water.  ICM is when you intentionally move the camera to create a blur effect of the image you are capturing.  The following image was created with a 0.6s shutter speed of a pile of leaves built up in a small pond above a dam.

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Lastly, don’t forget to capture the reflections of colorful leaves in the water.  This also makes for beautiful abstract images.

Silkstone-151012_0162Fall reflections in Bass Lake

These are three ways to photograph colorful leaves in water.  Enjoy the fall and all the beautiful colors it has to offer.