Tips For Photographing Autumn

To explore some of the most striking autumn photography opportunities, practice shooting macro photos. If you haven't done that before you can practice in your own back yard. Essentially, macro means "close up" and it's what you want to use when you are ready to create a leaf portrait.

Montana offers a striking autumn color palette, brilliant yellow and gold intermixed with evergreen foliage. In Bozeman, Lindley Park maples turn burgundy. Over by Missoula and up at Seeley Lake, the Larches go from green to golden. In your own backyard? It depends on what you have growing. Take a look!

Pay attention to weather. A shot taken on a sunny day tells a different story than one taken under clouds or in a light drizzle. Sun gives you more vibrant colors and offers starker contrasts. Plan the time of the day for your shot so you know when the sun will be in the sky and at your back. To enhance natural light position a small Promaster SystemPro ReflectaDisc to bounce more light onto a particular leaf or to fill in shadows.

Don't let a little - or a lot of wind - stop you. Use a slow shutter speed on your camera to create colorful swirls of movement. You can move the camera or the zoom while the shutter is open for different effects. Try doing the same thing on your iPhone by using an app called SlowShutter.

Love to shoot with your iPhone? Take the Mastering Selfies, Collages and More mobile photography class next weekend with F-11 Photo instructor Brooke Welch! You will learn how to use fun mobile apps to create photo collages, add text and graphics to photos, as well as take a quick look at Instagram and how to take the perfect selfie.

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Tamron 150-600mm & Sony a6000 Body

Field Report by F-11 Photo's Jeff Lyden

Do lens mount adapters really work on mirrorless cameras? To find out, I shot with the Sony a6000 and a Tamron 150-600mm Sony Alpha mount using the Sony LA-EA3 adapter on a recent trip to Yellowstone. To optimize this set up, I put the camera body in manual focus mode so that the MF/AF switch on the lens controlled focus modes. I chose aperture priority mode on the camera with the super-telephoto zoom so I could control the depth of field and capture my vision.

What makes this set up particularly awesome? The Sony adapter maintains all of the electronic functions between the lens and the camera, so I got great shots even in auto. The A6000 camera is compact and easy to handle even with the equivalent of a 225mm-900mm zoom on it! Just as important, it was very easy to capture wildlife covertly from a safe distance. The Tamron VC (vibration compensation) along with fast auto focus made hand holding possible for quick shots through the majority of the zoom range.

Best of all, it made other people ask me to take their group photos because I looked like I know what I'm doing.

To see a larger version of my dragonfly photo, visit our Tumblr blog.

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iPod touch
Engineered for maximum funness.

F-11 Photo now has the 5th generation iPod Touch starting at $229.99! Stop by the store, or call us at 406-586-3281 to get yours today!

If you have questions on anything Mac, F-11 Photo's Apple Certified Support Professionals can help.