Photos With Nop & Dave: Fall Color at Hickory Canyons

Dave Stonner shot this photo of colorful fall trees at Hickory Canyons Natural Area near Farmington. You can take great fall photos, too. Just follow Dave’s advice:

• Shoot on a cloudy day. Dave says colors seem richer when the sky is overcast. Bright sunlight creates harsh shadows.
• Look for contrast. The red leaves in Dave’s photo pop against the background of green. He says orange leaves look great with a blue sky, and purple and yellow look nice together, too.
• Get up early. Dave makes many photos during the “golden hours,” those times in the early morning and late afternoon when the sun bathes everything in gorgeous golden light.
• Explore. Don’t take one shot and call it a day. Dave shot hundreds of photos at Hickory Canyons, including sweeping scenics of an entire hillside and a close-up of a single red leaf on a bed of fuzzy moss.
• Change perspective. Dave says humans are used to seeing everything from 4 to 6 feet off the ground. To make your photos stand out, lie on your back and shoot up through the trees for a bug’s-eye view. Or, climb atop a bluff for a bird’s perspective. That’s what Dave did for this shot, and it turned out nicely, don’t you think?