A couple of weeks ago when I hiked out to Moat Lake, the fall colours were just starting to get interesting. This coming long weekend the display should be well along, and the rich reds of the blueberry leaves, the golden yellow of the Jeffrey’s shootingstar leaves, and the brilliant white-flowering rhododendrons should be spectacular.
The golden leaves of Jeffrey’s Shootingstar make interesting patterns in the meadows.
I was pretty tired by the time I reached Paradise Meadows and had actually packed the camera back into my backpack thinking that I was done for the day. The low gray clouds had closed in and the flat light of the early evening didn’t offer much for landscape photography. However, when I reached the main boardwalk around the meadows I was captivated by the patterns and colours in the expense of blueberry, sedge, and other wetland plants. Paradise Meadows is much more open than the smaller Murray Meadows, but it has a lot to offer the landscape photographer!
The bright red of blueberry leaves contrasts nicely with the golden yellow of the sedges and the gray sky.
The light was less than ideal, so I focused on capturing some of the patterns and texture in meadows and worked with the great leading lines formed by the bright shootingstar leaves that filled the shallow trenches with pink flowers earlier in the year. The photos were pretty flat because of the poor quality of the light, but with some white balance work in Lightroom I was able to bring up a bit of punch and colour. A brighter day would have be helpful, but I was pretty happy with the results.
The wide expanse of the meadows with Mount Allan Brooks in the background.
Focusing on photography helped make the last kilometre go a lot faster. It probably added an extra 30 minutes or more onto the end of my day, but it was well worth it!