AlanLichty
Moderator
I posted a shot yesterday from the lower area of the North Fork of the Smith River with some elk resting at the edge of a pasture area. This is a 2 shot panorama that is just to the left of that shot. I was originally thinking of stitching all three shots but I didn't like the distortions that came out when I put them all together. This area was amongst the earliest to get logged when Euro-American settlers first arrived since the hills have gentle slopes and the logs could easily be floated down to the port towns of Gardner and Reedsport along the Umpqua River. The resulting forests have little in common with what you find when you follow the river up to its headwaters in the deep old growth forests surrounding Kentucky Falls. Deciduous trees are the first to get started once an area is disturbed by either fire or logging but if left alone the conifers will eventually form a canopy over the shorter maples and alders and shade them out. The maples and alders in this scene are just about at their peak and the conifers can be seen poking through the leaves as they start to take over again. On the one hand clear cut logging sucks but if the conifers hadn't been cut down this display of fall colors wouldn't exist.
I had spotted these colors along the lower parts of the river the day before when I drove up this road to shoot the falls but the direct sunlight wasn't ideal when I was going up to the falls and was even worse when I was driving out late in the day. On the day I shot this I drove up the road that follows Sweet Creek and then kept going on forest roads that connect up with the ones along the North Fork of the Smith River and decided to keep on going back to this spot. The old growth forest areas are roughly 32 miles up the river from this spot. As a crow flies Kentucky Falls is only about 3 or 4 miles from Sweet Creek but driving on single track USFS roads will take a couple of hours at best and lots longer if you are a photographer looking for places to stop and shoot
Two frames at 70mm.
C&C always welcome.
I had spotted these colors along the lower parts of the river the day before when I drove up this road to shoot the falls but the direct sunlight wasn't ideal when I was going up to the falls and was even worse when I was driving out late in the day. On the day I shot this I drove up the road that follows Sweet Creek and then kept going on forest roads that connect up with the ones along the North Fork of the Smith River and decided to keep on going back to this spot. The old growth forest areas are roughly 32 miles up the river from this spot. As a crow flies Kentucky Falls is only about 3 or 4 miles from Sweet Creek but driving on single track USFS roads will take a couple of hours at best and lots longer if you are a photographer looking for places to stop and shoot
Two frames at 70mm.
C&C always welcome.
