Autumn is often a favourite season for hikers. The foliage can be spectacular and the air is fresh and crisp making for invigorating hikes. Even though the leaves were well past their prime I spent a very enjoyable morning this week hiking at Niagara Glen Nature Reserve with one of our readers, Ray Miller. It’s always a great experience to go out with someone like Ray who is very familiar with the area.

NOTE: Click on images to enlarge.

The Niagara Glen Nature Reserve runs at the foot of the Niagara Gorge, along the Niagara River. It is accessed by way of a tall metal staircase.

This leads you to a pathway that runs right next to the face of the gorge.

Then you’ll come to a series of stone steps winding through huge rocks that will eventually lead you to the forest floor.

Often when we think about taking photographs in the autumn we try to pick the ideal time when the trees are at their peak in terms of colour. We often forget that even after many of the leaves have fallen we can still capture some interesting images.

Rocks, gnarled root systems, leaves on the ground and moss can all combine and attract our eye.

I enjoy finding fallen branches and trees and use them as composition elements, often to accentuate the visual flow of an image.

Or, as an interesting corner element.

The rock formations on the forest floor created good opportunities to include reveals with some of my images which can help to add a feeling of depth.

Or, simply as a corner anchor.

Forest lighting usually presents opportunities to capture the detail on leaves.

I often look for rock formations that help accentuate a bend in the path.

Or a fallen log that can act as a leading line in the composition.

The trunk of a tree is often handy to use as a corner anchor, and can also help to eliminate too much visual stimulus on one side of an image to lead viewers into the photo.

Finding strong textures and blocks of colour to anchor opposing corners of an image can also create compositions I enjoy.

I also like to crop rock formations and tree trucks to create borders on each side of a composition. I find this can help create a feeling of depth with an image as it tends to pull a viewer’s eye into the centre of the frame.

My intent is to keep this photography blog advertising free. If you enjoyed this article and/or my website and would like to make a modest $10 donation through PayPal to support my work it would be most appreciated. You can use the Donate button below. Larger donations can be made to tom@tomstirr.com through PayPal.

Article and all images Copyright Thomas Stirr. All rights reserved. No use, duplication of any kind, or adaptation is allowed without written consent.