September 16, 2012
Algae Pattern in the San Juan National Forest, Colorado

We're back in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, this time for the fall color. Yesterday was mostly a scouting day, but we did stop at a small wetlands covered with algae. Jan had seen the area as we were heading up the road and wanted to stop on our way back. After she got her gear ready, I wandered over to see what she was going to shoot and I was intrigued with the splotches of green algae growing among the dark brown shallow pools of water. As I worked the area with my 90 Tilt/Shift so I could align the plane of focus along the pools, the patterns I wanted to capture were smaller than the area I could capture. I decided to try a 1.4x extender for the first time on the 90 Tilt/Shift, and it worked well. My favorite composition doesn't have much of the green algae but has a wonderful pattern created with various shades of orange. A polarizer removed the surface reflections and really let the wonderful colors come through.