For the past year, I’ve kicked myself for not taking the time to photograph all the beautiful foliage last Fall. With Autumn being my favorite time of the year, I guess I feel it is my duty to capture the incredible color and light that the month of October brings to us in the Pacific Northwest. Not just that, but if I could, I would freeze the world in an Autumnal state. The only way I know how to do that for real is with my camera. So after a year of feeling frustrated and disappointed, I wasn’t about to let this time of year pass by without a few images making their permanent homes within my photo archives.

Timing is everything when it comes to Fall colors.  Within a week, or two at the most, the leaves go from brilliantly colorful to quickly becoming damp and on the ground.  Leaves on the ground rarely lend themselves to great photographs.  I watched and I waited as the days and weeks went by, seeing more and more change come to the trees around Portland.  I debated on a few simple photo walks throughout town, as there are many neighborhoods in Portland that simply come alive with color this time of year. But I really wanted to get deep in the forests to satisfy this craving. As I felt I was witnessing the peak of the beautiful colors, I decided to spend the day in Silver Falls State Park.

Waterfalls are incredibly satisfying to shoot, and Silver Falls State Park has plenty of them.  Ten, in fact, along the Trail of Ten Falls.  My plan was to hit up all of them, as  I trek along the 8.5 mile trail throughout the day.  Hiking with the purpose to take photographs is very different for me than when I’m just hiking to hike.  I spend much more time per mile along the trail, usually stopping several times to unpack my tripod and other gear in order to get a specific shot, and shoot it right.  Most of the time this means spending a lot of time getting my feet wet, literally.  The best shots are usually from right within the creek or river, which means that waterproof hiking boots are a must-have.

Also a must-have for me is my Lowepro DryZone Rover pack.  This fantastic camera bag both carries and protects my gear, while providing a hydration pack along the way.  It does this with a hefty waterproof compartment that holds my lenses, memory cards, and other gear highly sensitive to water and simple moisture.  While hiking, I use heavy duty straps to clip my Canon 5D directly to the shoulder straps, distributing its weight along with the rest of my gear.  The straps keep my camera safe when I need to stabilize myself with my hands and arms while navigating difficult terrain, but it is still accessible to take hand-held photos anytime.  My carbon-fiber tripod is held snugly by the integrated tripod compartment, making it easy to take it along wherever my hike takes me. Unfortunately, having all my gear neatly tucked away and secure means that it does take a fair amount of time to stop and set up for a shot, so when I hike and shoot, the going is slow.  But that’s just fine with me, the end results are almost always worth it.

Silver Falls State Park was glowing with color this day, and I was so thankful to be there within 90 minutes of my home in Portland.  I tried to add some variety with my shots, exploring more attempts at impressionism photography using the colors of Autumn.   Other more realistic shots really benefitted from the use of my circular polarizer, cutting through the reflections on the water, the rocks, and most importantly, the leaves themselves, bringing out their rich color.

There is a gallery of 29 photos from my hike available, with more highlights below.

Since it’s such an easy and commonly known hike, I was surprised that I was unaware of the beauty of Elowah Falls and Upper McCord Creek Falls within the Columbia River Gorge on the Oregon side.  Elowah Falls especially was quite incredible since it was so tall and majestic.  Being the end of Summer, Upper McCord Creek Falls was running very light, with only one side of the normally double waterfall flowing freely.

The hike was certainly more on the easy side, with very little elevation change, and only a short distance.  But even with such little effort, I was happy to get such a fantastic reward.  It was late afternoon by the time I began shooting the falls and details along the trail, but as a photographer, that’s when I prefer to be hiking.  The evening light is simply breathtaking within the Gorge as it cascades eastward, cutting in and out of the crevices along the cliffs.  The falls themselves were deep within one of these inlets, so the light didn’t become an asset until the entire Gorge was in view.  The low, warm light flicked over the trees highlighting their details with such subtlety and grace, adding so much depth to the scene.

I also took the opportunity to try out the technique of some more impressionistic photography.  I’ve seen this technique mastered by William Neil and have always wanted to experiment with it.  The dreamy, surreal images produced by impressionism in photography have always fascinated me and, if done right, can truly be works of art.  I definitely enjoyed trying this out, and hope to further develop my skills in this area.  So expect more updates along these lines in the future.

Below are a few excerpts from the hike, but as always there are plenty more in the full gallery.

Mt. Hebo is a little-known spot just inland from the Oregon Coast, right where highway 22 meets the great costal highway 101.  The trail, which starts at Mt. Hebo Campground, actually runs about 8 miles total, though it’s about 6.5 miles round-trip to the spectacular summit views.  Since our start time was a bit later than planned, a summit trek was all we could fit in.

That’s not to say there was any compromising on quality for the day.  The trail winds through amazing secondary and old growth forest, with descriptive signs filled with trivia along the way.  These signs teach such tidbits as the fact that the bracken ferns along the trail may be eaten when they first emerge from the ground in the spring.

Fire ravished this forest in the 1900’s, so the Forest Service replanted most of the area, aside from the early stages of the trail which runs through homestead land.  This becomes more and more apparent as you compare the early sections which contain varied ages and tree sizes to the later sections where the forest is much more uniform and specific.

Once we hit the summit, we were treated with a grand, yet hazy, view of the surrounding mountains and ocean.  I found the view to be quite disorienting, as the reflection of the sun off of the ocean gleamed bright white, while the shades of the forest-covered hills were a rich deep blue color.  This reverse in colorization made it difficult to distinguish each element in the view.  See for yourself in the full gallery of photos.  Enjoy!