Ohio Fine Art Photography
The Story. The Gorge to Rim Trail in Clifton Gorge State Nature Preserve connects gorge hikers to John Bryan State Park. As the light on the Little Miami River changed to shadows, I began walking out of the gorge at sunset. Though I’ve been on this trail before, on this autumn day and under yellowing backlit leaves, I became enamored with the golden light and how it raked across the dolomite-layered trail.
The Rest of the Story
For me, photography is about catching the light and finding the right composition. I like the contre-jour approach where I point my lens into the light. The exposures are unforgiving. I mitigate some of the challenges through bracketing. For me, when I started climbing up, all I saw was eye candy. The colors were so vivid. There was an alignment of the setting sun and the slope of the trail heading out of the gorge. The light gently raked across the rocky trails while the sunrays backlit the mid-October leaves in hues of green and yellow. There was a heavenly feel of climbing into the light.
Starburst Effect
My favored lens is a Canon EF 11-24mm f/4L. Its wide, bulbous lens with 9 aperture blades and 16 lens elements creates nice starbursts. At the lens’ 11mm setting, the sun is nearly always in the frame. Rather than have a white blob hanging in my skies, I render the sun as a starburst. To produce this effect in-camera also requires unforgiving given the long exposures. A slight breeze or passing hiker often plays havoc in capturing the scene forcing me to start the process over. I dwelled at this spot for fifteen minutes shooting 150 images. Most were lost to those unforgiving challenges, but this scene captures one set of images where it all came together.
If you’d like to more pleasing scenes from this region, check out my portfolio of Greene County Ohio art prints.
