2013 Russian-Fall

17 photos

These 2013 autumn images were taken in Russian Jack Springs Park in Anchorage, Alaska. The large park does not seem to attract many visits from outside local neighborhoods. The area has many fine hiking and cross country skiing trails that transverse through diverse ecosystems. The picture of the Chugach Mountains was taken from within the park looking east. The orange foliage lasted about one week and then the leaves were gone. A person can miss colorful fall scenes if they wait to long. Landscapes have been included to show the variety of plant life in the area. The image of the trail with gnarled roots does not look like it was taken from within the park. Ice starts to form in September and traps leaves and air bubbles in a crystal clear environment. The mushroom covered with spider webs shows how detailed an image can be with a 5 second exposure if there is no wind. One berry image has an insect on the surface. The dark bluish water image shows light simmering around the edges of the yellow leaf, which I did not perceive when taking the photo.
A few of the close ups were taken with a used Tamron 90mm f/2.8 micro I purchased used to see if I liked working with a medium length macro lens. I did and purchased a Nikon 105 mm f/2.8 micro lens, which is very sharp but provides a very narrow depth of field. Most of these images were shot at ISO 100 with an f/11 aperture. The low ISO and small f-stop require exposures of around 1/6 second. To ensure sharp images I used my surveyor tripod with my Nikon D600, mirror-up and wireless remote.