Hello, October! Fall is quickly unfolding here in the Chicago area.  The maples in my yard are turning brilliant colors of red, orange and yellow and other trees will soon follow. The predictions indicate that there will be a brilliant show of color this year and peak color should hit around mid-October.

Maple Leaf As the colors of fall unfold, I become more and more interested in capturing the colors in landscape shots, seeing the bigger picture.  My usual focus on close up or macro photography begins to shift.  While we are waiting for the colors to more fully emerge, however, I still have my head in the flowers.  There are many beautiful flowers still in bloom at The Chicago Botanic Garden.  One of my favorite late bloomers is the Japanese Anemone.

Japanese Anemone This anemone was captured in the English Walled Garden using a wide aperture of 3.2.  It's a flower that works well captured in a softer focus way. Another little surprise of fall is the Autumn Crocus.  We expect to see crocuses in the early spring, one of the first flowers to emerge in March and April, but it's always fun to anticipate the appearance of the lovely, soft little crocuses of fall.  The Graham Bulb Garden has been full of them. This one was captured after its morning watering, again with a wide aperture of 4.5, focusing on the water droplets on the outer petals.  

Autumn Crocus The water lilies and lotuses have continued to bloom in the Heritage Garden and the Graham Bulb Garden but they will soon be gone as the colder weather approaches.

Waterlily Lotus Bud Opening Last but not least, the dahlias in the Bulb Garden are continuing to bloom and will be beautiful to photograph until the first significant cold snap.  Last fall I was photographing beautiful dahlias one day at the Garden, the temperature dropped that night and frost appeared, and when I returned to the Garden for more shots the next day, the dahlias were completely limp and faded.

'Bahama Mama' Dahlia This past weekend at CBG the Central States Dahlia Society had their annual show.  The room was filled with 100's of varieties of dahlias, of all colors and sizes. It was a flower photographer's dream...well, except for one thing - the lighting was dismal.  Because it was too crowded to use a tripod I was forced to photograph at high ISOs and shoot at wider apertures to allow more light into the lens.  If life gives you lemons, make lemonade...right?!  I used this opportunity to do a lot of softer focus images.

Dahlia Dahlia Curls Dahlia One of the few higher aperture images I had success with.

Dahlia