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Autumn Has Come to Australia


Autumn Has Come to Australia
Photo Information
Copyright: John Plumb (JPlumb) Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 852 W: 204 N: 1035] (3111)
Genre: Places
Medium: Color
Date Taken: 2008-04-26
Categories: Daily Life, Nature
Camera: Nikon D200, AF-S NIKKOR 17-55mm 1:2.8 G ED
Exposure: f/8, 1/60 seconds
Map: [view]
Photo Version: Original Version, Workshop
Date Submitted: 2008-05-01 18:58
Viewed: 523
Points: 38
[Note Guidelines] Photographer's Note
First, let me say thank you to Santo (Skippy007), for properly identifying this tree for me.

This is a view of Megalong St. in Leura, which is a small town in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. With fall, the leaves turn colour and drop to the ground. At least that’s what I was used to, growing up in Canada. That’s not always the case here with the Eucalyptus trees. Most of these trees keep their leaves, and may drop their bark. This scene is closer to what I am used to however, so this is what caught my eye for the shot.

The trees on this street almost look like Maple Trees (check out the leaf in the bottom left corner), but they’re not, and they are not Eucalyptus. They are a Plane Tree (or Sycamore) (Platanus sp.) which are an introduced and widely planted deciduous tree. It is fast growing and drought tolerant and tolerates pollution, neglect and poor soils, while providing plenty of summer shade. Most of the southern Australian cities have avenues of Plane Trees.

Leura is a popular town in the Blue Mountains, it is known for its gardens and the Leura Mall (please see workshop), which is a collection of small stores found through the centre of town. It is a nice place to spend an afternoon. You won’t necessarily find any bargains, but there are some unique selections that might be found here.

Leura also has the Leura Park with the Leura Cascades which I have visited before, seen here and here.

Some of this from: http://www.bluemts.com.au/tourist/towns/leura.asp and
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platanus and
http://www.dermcare.com.au/allergens/platanus_spp.htm

I took several shots of this sidewalk before I got what I wanted. The first couple had cars in them, so I did a position change. Then I had people to contend with. Finally, just as I was about to take this a couple of guys went walking by. I waited until they were towards the end of the block and took the shot before others came into the scene. I took another couple without any people after, but came back to this one. The two guys gave it more depth.

Workflow for this shot was as follows:
Shot taken in Raw with JPG reference – (ISO 200 44mm @f/8, 1/60)
NEF files adjusted for exposure, shadow, vignetting, brightness and contrast
Levels – not used
Curves – S-curve for contrast
Added saturation layer +30 to master, +5 to red, +5 to green (see note on save)
Saved as a tiff
Cropped for position, resized, selected on sky and selectively reduced noise, inversed the selection, added a layer for sharpening with USM, modified sharpening with a layer mask (50% opacity black brush), framed and saved for web – on the save for web, with the detail in this shot I had to save at 63% @ 197.8K (very disappointed) – I also noticed a significant colour shift (loss). I went back to the copy and had a look at “view - proof colors”, which showed this shift – based on this finding I went back to the saturation layer and upped it to what you see now, to give me what I first expected.
mvdisco, daddo, Dyerco, bakes888, UnTrained, Clementi, pierrefonds, jhm, alftrek, jusninasirun, zeca, MLINES has marked this note useful
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Discussions
ThreadThread Starter Messages Updated
To bakes888: Deciduous EucalyptsJPlumb 2 05-05 01:43
To daddo: Burning of LeavesJPlumb 1 05-03 03:36
To skippy007: They are Plane TreesJPlumb 1 05-03 03:21
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Critiques [Translate]

Bonsoir John,
You are now in autumn in Australia ;), beautiful season for taken picture with great colors..Excellent scene of autumn nicely composed and presented with great colors and sharp picture, Excellent POV. and details. very well done.
Michel

  • Great 
  • daddo Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1641 W: 29 N: 1668] (7689)
  • [2008-05-01 20:04]
  • [+]

Hi John. Nice 'invasion" of autumn leaves. I wonder if in Canada people burn their leaves as they tend to do in Australia. Living in the Dandenongs can be upsetting, especially on a sunny Autumn day, when every tom, Dick and Mary decide to burn piles of leaves and fill the area with smog. Obviously they have no idea about composting these leaves. Nice light and very good exposure. I like the tunnel effect created by your choice of POV.Regards. Klaudio.

  • Great 
  • Dyerco Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1166 W: 10 N: 1144] (4969)
  • [2008-05-01 20:13]

Nicely done with the successive trees providing lots of depth. The only thing I fine is the house on the right is a bit distracting due to the lighter parts on the windows?
Phil

Hi John. I hadn’t realised there were any deciduous eucalypts, you learn something new every day ;-). Great photo. This looks very European for Australia. Good depth and colour. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers, Paul.

Helo John
Wonderful autumn shot and autum have maybe the best colors in all season
Good work
TFS
Cheers,Braca

They are two excellent autumn photos with the true colours of the season and the feeling that the weather is turning to the cold side. Here, in Brisbane, this is the season I really like.
Antonio

  • Great 
  • MarcT Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1551 W: 491 N: 2951] (12019)
  • [2008-05-02 1:20]

Hi John,
That's funny automn in your region, spring in Europe. Your note is very interesting.
Cheers
Marc

Hi John,
great play of light in that alley with all the leaves on the ground. Very nice impression with good depth.
Lieben Gruss, Ulf

Hello John,
Very pretty scene, nice composition and point of view, beautiful colors and nice light, good sharpness and depth of field.
Angela

Hello John, Beautiful Autumn colours very well captured. Those maple like tree leafs turn a beautiful brown colour this time of year.
A very nice image, With the row of trees and fallen leafs, I think they are "Plane Trees" not sure though.
Thanks
Santo

Ciao John,
beautiful photo. all these leaves make think that you are in full autumn, excellent the hot colours. good the depth .
nice work
Giorgio

Hi John,

The point of view leads our to the end of the street covered with fallen leaves. The trees are a natural frame to the street. The light bringds out the best of the colors. Have a nice day.

Pierre

John - A lovely scene here with the leaves entirely covering the floor of the pathway. The eye is certainly led down that path.
Also like the management of light - you didnt let the camera overexpose it which it might have wanted to do.
Cheers!

Dave

  • Great 
  • jhm Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 12338 W: 246 N: 16219] (64846)
  • [2008-05-06 4:13]

Hello John,

We see a wonderful carpet of leaves, very well composition with the long parkway, these care for good perspective.
Excellent scene of autumn nicely composed and presented with great colors and sharp picture.
Very well done, thanks for sharing.

Best regards,
John.

  • Great 
  • crckt Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 1341 W: 68 N: 1268] (6435)
  • [2008-05-06 17:59]

Hi John,
First of all thanks a lot for your detailed reply. I was caught up with a lot of work, sorry it took me some time to see it. I will definitely try out what you did, let's see what happens.
About this shot, a simple view turned extraordinary just with your POV. Simply amazing!
Thanks for sharing,
Shaeri

  • Great 
  • mumek Gold Star Critiquer/Silver Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2179 W: 27 N: 2251] (15267)
  • [2008-05-07 3:27]

Good morning John!
Nicely composed scenery from Leura.Excellent play of the colours, light and shadows. I like very much the carpet of the fallen leaves on the ground.Thanks for the interesting note
best regards
ziggy

Hello John. Super shot at this street. The contrast and texture of the fallen leaves are just stunning with tall trees lining up on the left in beautiful branches and canopy. Pleasant diagonal light and cat shadow captured here and I like it. Well done and best regards. Jusni

I'll be back.

  • Great 
  • zeca Gold Star Critiquer/Gold Star Workshop Editor/Gold Note Writer [C: 2789 W: 162 N: 3839] (16542)
  • [2008-05-13 19:42]

And also comes to Brazil! But here you caught really an autumn shot, with all this leaves on the ground. I can hear the sound of walking over it, John! Very nice lights.
Regards,
Zeca

Hi John, A well timed trip to find so many leaves, i thought it looked more like Melbourne at the first glance. The leaves form a very thick bed and look like they may clog the drains a bit too! I like the rustic look of this. In China it is a mild spring but i have been warned the summer is short then back to sub-zero. TFS. Murray.

Nice shadows of the trees. There's so much leaves that it must do a lot of noise when someone is walking there.

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