Crisp mornings and vibrant displays of fall foliage call to nature photographers. Great landscape photography requires sacrifices such as getting up and out in the dark to be on hand for great light that usually starts well before the sun comes up.
Last Friday and Saturday a diverse group of Oklahoma photographers participated in
the Keystone Nature Photography Workshop. The weather cooperated, at least there was not a rainout. However, nature and landscape photographers understand - bad weather (prior to, after, and from a distance) is actually good weather for making great dramatic and dynamic photographs.
The Keystone Workshop group set out early and headed first to the Arkansas River near the old State Highway 51 west of Sand Springs. The headlamps and flashlights of the photographers bobbing down the steep grade to the dark and silent river reminded me of a torchlight parade down a mountainside.
The participants set up their tripods in anticipation of the first light. We all watched and recorded the scene as the night sky slowly turned from black into subtle shades of pink and orange, reflecting and lighting up the rock-studded water along the shoreline and the small pools that dot the rock strewn river bottom.
The next stop was Dawson Ridge, a rocky, driftwood-lined shoreline on Keystone Lake, a place where nature’s elements found there sums up the Oklahoma Photography Keystone Workshop’s land, wood, water theme.
Our last stop was the Keystone Ancient Preserve, a wild and untouched section along the shoreline of Keystone Lake where ancient post-oak and cedar trees are scattered among a thick forest of hardwood trees turning a myriad of shades of reds, yellows, and russets.
With beautiful early morning light and spectacular settings, photographers came back with some truly beautiful photographs. Please check out the Participant Gallery.
