Autumn at the park
Aaah, Korean autumn colors… the reason why countless tourists travel to Korea each year. Such a vibrant time… the perfect time to catch covid, don’t you think? I didn’t think so either, but covid decided for me how to spend my time!
Last month it prevented me from taking photos, this month, combined with an unusually early fall (here, meaning trees turning), I again find myself with too few images to write a full blog entry. So, instead of shiny new autumn images, I will play my secret card: last year’s unpublished shiny autumn pictures!
In the very heart of Seoul is a place few think of as a haven of peace and natural beauty. However, to me, it most certainly is. All the following images were exclusively shot at the National Cemetery of Seoul, during two early morning excursions.
Pre-sunrise mist has that magic power of making you forget that several millions of people live around you and that traffic is increasing behind you. Enter this mist and let colors, shapes, and light fill your reality.
In the mist, shapes emerged from the ground.
I love how the sunlit fog casts a dreamy diffused light that isolates this oddly shaped tree.
Then, the mist dissipated and gave way to the warm direct sunrise side light.
This direct side light, added to the strange shape of this tree, truly brings it to life, don’t you think?
Now that you have seen the difference in render between soft flat light and direct side light, you probably have formed a preference. Therefore, it will be my role in this blog to challenge that preference, with photos of the fall colors you have been expecting. To preface this challenge, I want to say that I don’t think there is a right or wrong type of light. They both have their qualities and it is up to you to feel more for one or the other. My task, as a photographer, is merely to try and widen your horizon.
For once, I’ve included a man-made structure! I’m quite satisfied with how this pavilion blends into its colorful environment. So I gladly post these 2 images.
I feel that this type of image works best with very directional light. Not only is it pleasing to the eyes but it puts the yellow leaves and the pavilion in the spotlight. It could be a good postcard image.
I chose this photo because I’m in love with edge light in general. This multi-trunk maple is a prime subject for that kind of light. I am particularly pleased with the soft contrast the overall image has, it makes the red leaves stand out even more…
This image is a classic example of side light used to, on the one hand, isolate a subject, and on the other, enhance another subject. Thanks to the shadows on the ground the benches attract the eyes, that’s due to the horizontal light being just high enough to create that long shadow effect. But the main subject is of course this huge crimson maple that the morning sunlight brings to life gloriously. This shot has abysmal flaws too, but I thought you’d like this nature’s magnificent creation anyway.
As I want to get closer to the details of autumn, I will now show you the merits of soft light. Let’s start with an effervescent young maple, under 2 different angles.
Aside from the dashing beauty of the leaves’ oranges and reds, I wanted to include these 2 images because of a photography trick I love doing: adding a tiny detail that the main subject enhances. It won’t make or break the image, but if you see it, you’ll realize that there is more to the composition than a quick glance reveals. In this case, the blurry trunks in the background of the first image and the diagonal pine trunk in the second are framed perfectly by the gap between the two hanging maple branches. Just a little thing to pique viewers' interest. Did you see them before reading this?
With the following images, let’s take a step closer toward the beautiful foliage. Wandering about in the cemetery (I know this could seem strange out of context but this cemetery is more a very well-maintained park than any other cemetery) I made the acquaintance of two high maple branches that were covered in what appeared to be green lichen. Immediately the color contrast between the red leaves and the fluorescent green lichen exploded in front of my eyes. Though the photographic merits of the situation was obvious to me at the time, what was less obvious was how to highlight those merits… here are the results of my more-than-reasonably-numerous attempts.
I am not entirely confident about this composition. The oval shape created by the branches is interesting, the color contrast is interesting and the branches’ circumference difference is also interesting, but what doesn’t work well for me is the fact that the leaves are concentrated on one side of the frame. Luckily they are behind the lichen branch which makes the color contrast pop. I just wish the leaf density on the left half was as high as that of the right side… I'd be curious to know how you feel about this one.
Presented with the challenge of showcasing a couple of branches in front of, essentially, a screen of colorful leaves, I decided to try and reduce the crowding effect of the busy leaf background. To do this, there are several tools a photographer can employ (out-of-focus blur, fog separation, etc), the one I used here was to lengthen my shutter speed as much as possible so that the leaves will be blurry, and so, less busy. I chose this method because the lichen is on a branch, which is a stable strong part of a tree whereas the leaves float back and forth with the wind. In one word, I added one more contrast to the image (movement vs still) while solving the problem of the crowded background.
I find this composition is more convincing, especially the long shutter speed one. But, what do you think? Sharp leaves of blurry leaves?
As a transition from big details to minute details, I offer this panorama.
I have no idea how this yellow branch did not turn at the same time as the other branches but its late turn certainly is stunning!
It is now time to look at the world at our feet. My work was made easier thanks to the very soft light that day, so I took advantage of it and lowered my camera to the ground…
In front of the bi-colored maple branch, I found those tiny berries emerging from the grass. It is a lily turf (맥문동 in Korean), it blooms a gorgeous violet/blue flower in late summer and evolves into the black berries you see here from fall until deep in winter (sometimes all through winter). What caught my eye was the sky reflecting on these obsidian spheres. I like how they mirror the bright holes in the tree above them. This shot I took later in the morning, but the following photos are from earlier, when there still was dew covering the ground…
The dew is almost intact on these berries, isn’t it a captivating texture? It makes me want to eat them…
These ones were in better isolation, in front of green grass. However, the dew had started dripping off so, instead, let me draw your attention to the fireworks of colors in the background. Maybe you remember this particular place from last month’s panorama blog…
Last small detail for this month: a “fresh” maple leaf, fallen on a bigger older leaf. For this image, I was lucky the fog was still hanging in the air because it somewhat hid the uninteresting background.
In all honesty, I was only starting to use my wide angle to capture minute elements of the landscape so my technique wasn’t as sharp as it may be now. I feel that I still have a lot to learn in that field of photography but I am glad I looked back, I can now see my progress. So, I highly recommend you do the same with whatever skills you have been learning: look back, you’ll feel positively about how far you have come and it will motivate you to push further.
Wise old Romain being done with life lessons, allow me an introduction to the last image of the month. I hope that I have somehow convinced you that soft light and direct light are both wonderful to work with, depending on what you want to show and how. This last image is a sneaky trick I wanted to keep for the end: my favorite light is a mix of both, direct and soft. I suppose I should call it diffused directional light.
This stunning Korean pine stands (well, leans) on an altar in front of “the” National Cemetery pond. That explains why fog lingers a little longer here than anywhere else, even after the sun has risen above the tree line. The result of this is a strong, direct light that hits the morning mist and gets peacefully diffused around. The second effect of that combination of sunlight and fog is the fairytale-like atmosphere. The third, and the reason why I chose this image as the last one, is that the sun lights up the dew that has settled on the pine needles, effectively creating light needles!
Thank you so much for reading about the different kinds of lights I love using. I apologize if it was a bit technical, I hope my images can convey the natural beauty around me by themselves so I opted for writing about my photographic process to avoid redundancy. Regardless of which aspect of this blog post you preferred, I hope the marvelous beauty of Korean fall opened your heart even wider to nature’s marvels.
SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: I will start my youtube channel at the end of this month! On a weekly basis, I will take you with me to some of my photography trips and show you the images I capture at that time. The videos will be in French but I have prepared English subtitles so you can enjoy them too. I am super excited to share this new project with you so make sure you are subscribed to my newsletter to be notified when the channel is launched. See you soon on Youtube!
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A bientôt!
