Dallas is not exactly know for its fall foliage, but if you know where to look,the Great Trinity Forest puts on a brief but beautiful display. The peak was probably a week ago, but I was in Brooklyn and New York City.
Saturday morning, I went out hiking with some friends in the Great Trinity Forest along the Piedmont Ridge to check out the color. At the top of the ridge, there is lovely view looking out across the Great Trinity Forest. I photographed it in the morning as we gathered to admire the view, but the contrast between the deep shadows and front-lit forest was too much to hold in one exposure and the foliage is just sort of flat looking.
I wanted a better image, so I came back to the same spot last night, with the setting sun providing backlight this time. Backlight through trees can make the leaves glow with color and life, and that was what I wanted.
The image above was the exacts same spot. (Note that I did shoot it in several exposures to combine later and bring in a little bit of shadow detail).
By carefully framing the setting sun so that the light refracts around something like a tree trunk, you can create a “starburst” like in the image above. Or using a very shallow depth of field, get soft abstracts like the image below.
