Fall Colors II

This is the only building along the shoreline that I don't mind filming.  There are several within sight, but I try to avoid getting them into the background of pictures.  But, I don't mind making this one the main subject occasionally.  It is an interesting group of structures, being right on the water as they are.  I don't know what they were built to function as, but I would guess they were in some kind of fish business.  I say "were" because I have rarely seen anyone around the buildings and only rarely see any fisherman coming or going.  The boat on the lift adds a nice point of interest.

I told you I might be obsessive/compulsive. I can't help myself. It is just too gorgeous NOT to take a picture.  What is excluded is just as important as what is included in an image.  I wanted to include the color in the trees and the reflection, but I didn't want to include any sky, which was plain blue and would have been a very light distraction at the top of the image.  The same is true at the bottom where if I had gone much lower, I would have picked up the reflection of the plain sky, also a distraction. That is a good rule to keep in mind, though: exclude as many distractions as possible. That often means spending just a little more time studying what is in your image before pressing the shutter.

The dock I stand on is also a favorite of the great blue herons, used as a base for sighting fish.  Sometimes when they fly in from some other place and discover I have their spot, they get very cranky.  That is what happened with this one who began croaking vociferously (I'd use another word if I could think of one, but you can look it up or just infer what it means) - croaking vociferously when he realized I had his spot.  So, he pulled up and landed in a tree where he sat watching me and sulking until I left.  It probably didn't take him more than a couple of minutes to move in to "my spot." (I hope you can tell when I'm kidding with the parenthetical remark.)

I'm a sucker for lights.  Kinda like Christmas lights. Here, the subject is the light itself.  It is odd how you need darkness to see the light.  Someday, that won't be true.  Think about it.

Another image with nothing going on.  It is actually the deep shadows in the grass, only seen at a certain point in the morning when the sun reaches a specific angle, that prompt me to "take a snap." That is what the British would call it.

If you are really good, I guess you pre-select an off-center focus point on the fly (no pun intended) so that the main subject doesn't end up centered. Centered is a big photographic faux paux.  Much too static.  I'm not fast enough to press all the buttons and keep track of the subject at the same time so I use the focus point in the center of the image.  The particular point is also more sensitive to contrast which is needed in focusing.  It doesn't matter much, though, I can crop it later to get the subject off-center.  The images aren't being increased for any one's wall, so losing a bit around the edge is not a problem.

To slightly alter a line from "Knight and Day" (a hilarious movie with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz) - With crop; without crop.  WITH crop; WITHOUT crop.