Autumnal Forest

Autumn is the season when nature prepares for the coming winter. As the temperatures fall trees shed their leaves, mushrooms pop up and many animals either eat as much as they can to grow fat and accumulate energy for the winter or they gather seeds and nuts to hide them away for later consumption.

For the nature photographer the season of autumn is a bounty of vivid colours when the sun is out or a challenge when it rains and the winds blow. Here in Switzerland the colours begin to develop but for the time being it id rather wet and windy. No reason to stay at home and warm one’s feet at the fireplace, though. Appropriate clothing and a few precautions for the camera enable us to take pictures of rare beauty in dismal weather.

Mushrooms are one of my favourite subjects in the autumn. Bright colours are provided by the Fly Agaric:

A more mature specimen

A group of small (“anonymous”) mushrooms

Or the imposing Shaggy Ink Cap

This last one is also edible.

Autumnal forests can provide an excellent setting for fascinating nature photography even in not so optimal weather conditions. One just has to get out of the warm sitting room into the great outdoors without hesitating too much. Why not give it a try?

By the way, all pictures were taken with a highly portable compact camera in RAW format. I usually avoid making straight JPEG files as I would lose the latitude of the digital negative for post processing. This allows for a better presentation of one’s photography and a closer rendering of one’s impressions at the moment when the picture was taken.

More nature photography on http://hhsiegrist.zenfolio.com