Fall Colors

I thought I would post a few photos of the Fall colors while they are still upon us.  It has only been in the past week or so that the colors have really begun to come on locally.  I'm not sure whether the great blue herons just migrate late or whether they stick it out for the winter.  I don't see as many this time of year so maybe it is a little bit of both.

I was motivated to take this image because of the mirror reflections of the dead falls along the shore. Although the shoreline is in deep shadows, you can trace where it has to be by following where the branches and their reflections meet.

I have never seen this duckblind in use.  Someone has added some fresh camoflage to the opening though, so they must have plans.  I would love to examine the top of the blind.  It is a favorite place for bald eagles to land and eat a fish they have caught.  I bet there are plenty of fish bones on the roof.

No, you haven't seen this photo before since I only took it a couple of days ago.  But, I have taken a lot like it in the same spot.  I can't help myself.  I may be obsessive/compulsive.  There is often an eagle or two sitting in the top of the large trees as there is in this photo. You can see it's white head and brown body against a dark green shadow in the upper right at the top of one of the tall trees.  The blind from the last picture is a couple of hundred yards down the shoreline to the left.

When the landscape is this beautiful, you hope for some activity to add interest to the scene, but it doesn't always happen. Still, the artistry of God's creative hand is so, well, awesome - to use an overused word in it's true sense.  You can get the smooth look of the water by leaving your shutter open longer so that the moving water blurs.  Only thing is, if anything else is moving (such as a bird), it will also blur.  In this case, however, the shutter was only open for 1/750th of a second - which means the placid look of the water was actually there because there was absolutely no wind.