Foliage Ideas

This post is to share Autumn Foliage Ideas, and best times for a road trip.  In Oklahoma, you can capture our gold, crimson, and yellow leaves in late October through early November.  Don't blink or you will miss it!  If in or traveling to another state check here for the best time to see the Fall colors.

A fun project is to go for a walk, even in your neighborhood, 

and collecting leaves.  Then if you have a printer/scanner, 

arrange leaves on glass, then scan and turn into a jpeg and 

processing in your favorite software. Or shoot macros

with your camera equipment.

For Oklahoma travel location links here and here. 

27 Autumn Photography Projects to Try (copied from ephotozine.com , used my photos):

1. Autumn Wide-Angle Landscapes 

When the landscape is full of burnt oranges, warms yellows and other Autumn shades, take advantage of this warm colour palette and capture some autumn themed vistas with your wide-angles lens.

2. Single Tree

When you've captured your shots of forests and national parks, focus your attention on one tree, shooting under the canopy or try using a lonely tree in a wide, sweeping landscape shot of a crop field. 

3. Abstracts

Instead of focusing on scenes as a whole, look for areas where you can strip your image back to shape, patterns and form which will give you an image that's still very much Autumn themed but it's different from the norm. Why not go against the rule that everything has to be sharp and create an Autumnal drag landscape? The warm shades of leaves which turn into long lines of colour help create striking pieces that are perfect for wall art. 

4. Play With Filters

If you've never used a polarising filter now's the time to experiment with one as they make blue skies pop and really help saturate the Autumnal shades.  

5. Reflections

Reflections are something you can shoot all year round but as bright colours and bold shapes make the most interesting reflections, autumn's the perfect season to try this technique.

6. Waterfalls & Rivers

Capture the popular slow shutter speed water shot surrounded with the golden colours of Autumn when next out exploring the landscape. As rain tends to fall more often at this time of year, there should be more water cascading over rocks, too. 

7. Get Down Low

One of the easiest ways to give your Autumn images a different perspective is by putting the camera low to or even on the ground. You'll get an ant's eye view that can give surprisingly good photographic results. 

8. Look Up

When in the woods with your camera kit look upwards and capture a shot of the trees with a wide-angle lens. When you do, you'll produce a shot that looks as if the trunks of the trees are almost falling out of the image due to the effect wide-angle lens have on verticals and the trees will seem a lot taller, too. This technique can produce great results at all times of the year but when you have the orange tones set against a blue sky it's particularly eye-catching. 

You could also apply this technique in towns and cities where parks can be surrounded by tall modern structures that contrast well against the trees. 

9. Add An Interesting Sky

Use slower shutter speeds to turn the movement of the clouds to create leading lines to guide the eye through the photograph or how about waiting for a colourful sunset to compose your Autumn scene against? 

10. Play With Back Light

One way to exaggerate the colours of Autumn is with backlit leaves. Plus, it'll really make the intricate pattern of veins stand out and focus the viewer's attention. You can also shoot some Autumn themed outdoor portraits with back light to make your subject 'pop' from the frame. 

11. Fallen Leaves

Make the most of the fallen leaves starting to decorate the land and use them in your landscape shots. If you're working by water where leaves are decorating the land surrounding it or are floating along the surface of the water as it flows downstream, experiment with longer exposure times to blur the water's movement.

12. Fungi

Fungi are flourishing at this time of year so get ready to get down and dirty in search of a few species.

13. Birds

Some birds begin to migrate at this time of year which means you may have new species visiting your garden.

14. Dew Drops

As evening temperatures begin to fall the sight of morning dew decorating grass and other plants is something that will become a regular occurrence. As dew can add extra interest to your macro garden shots, it's well-worth getting up early and taking some shots of morning dew. 

15. Fog / Mist

When the golden shades of Autumn start to appear so does early morning mist / fog which we can use to add an extra environmental twist to our imagery.

16. Sunbeams

When you mix early morning fog with the rising sun you get a recipe for strong beams of sunlight appearing in woodland areas. These beams of light bursting through trees make an early morning rise from your bed covers well worth it. 

17. Spider's Webs

Another advantage of dew appearing more often at this time of year is that they decorate spider's webs which can make for some lovely shots.

18. Still Life

Pumpkins, leaves, conkers and berries can all be used in still life set-ups when you're looking for something to keep you occupied on a rainy day. Play around with compositions, props and backgrounds to see what interesting still life creations you can create.  

19. Hyperfocal Focusing

As more of the landscape becomes decorated with Autumn shades, take advantage of it and shoot some Autumn-inspired landscape shots. To ensure the whole scene is sharp, learn what the ideal hyperfocal distance is for the lens you are working with. 

20. Creative Lens Flare 

 You can use flare in your shots to add a little romanticism, mystery and warmth to your autumn shots.

21. Image Stacking

To effectively extend the depth of field of an image, have a go at focus stacking. This is a technique primarily designed to help the macro photographer, but with a little planning in the field, its use can be greater that that.

22. Frost Photography 

The cooler evening temperatures and clear nights mean frost will soon be making an appearance once again and it's a great photographic subject for both landscape and macro photography fans. 

23. Outdoor Portraits

Autumn is a great season for many reasons, the obvious being the colours of leaves, but also the colour temperature of the light which makes it a great time for outdoor portraits.

24. Children Photography

Autumn is a great time to capture some fun-filled action shots of your children throwing leaves up in the air, jumping into piles of leaves and generally enjoying the outdoors.  

25. Paths And Roads

Paths, lines and long roads will always be excellent composition tools but when combined with lines of Autumnal trees your landscapes suddenly become even better. 

26. Time Lapse 

As not all leaves have turned from green to the golden colours of Autumn just yet now's a great time to consider shooting a time lapse sequence. The sequence is captured by taking a series of photographs a few seconds, minutes, hours or even days apart which are then all joined together to form a series of images that appear as one film. Your sequence could show a tree in your garden or indeed a wider landscape turning from the greens of summer to the colour-saturated Autumnal shades that will soon be decorating most trees. 

27. Halloween 

As well as landscapes and close-up shots of leaves Autumn brings Halloween.  It's a perfect time to shoot some portraits and capture the other fun details of this event.