The Road to Halfmoon Lake (w/alternate image)

I posted this in Man & Nature about a week ago where, like most things in M&N, it was mostly ignored.

Thought I'd see what you folks think of it. This is technically, believe it or not, a county road, but a high-clearance vehicle is recommended. I always left my car at the head of the two-track, on a graded (but unpaved) forest road and walked the very pleasant 1 1/4 miles or so down to Halfmoon Lake (Hiawatha National Forest in the UP). It's not only a nice hike--there are countless shooting opportunities in the birch forest on the way to the lake when the light is even and the wind is relatively calm. Taken a bit more than two months ago.

I like it Kerry, nice bold colors and soft lighting throughout. The road serves as a nice path for the eyes to follow through the scene.

Kerry, I concur with Kevin's comments. The colors are VERY Nice. My only nit is that part of the left tire tread path of the road is cut off by the bush. I personally would like to see the whole road! Really nice capture!

Kerry, I like the colors and the composition. The top of the frame might be cropped a bit to make the colors below pop. I really like the road here and the location you mentioned. Its definitely on my list for next October. Well done and thanks for posting!

I'm jealous, as we had no fall to speak of in Chicago and I missed the colors at my cottage in NW Wisco. Nice colors.

Beautiful colors. I agree that a couple of steps to the right would have made a good shot a great shot. Had the same problem with a shot in the UP this fall myself. Unfortunately it is easier to see the problem on the screen that it is when you are standing in the middle of the road with a car coming.

Thanks for all the comments.

Actually, I did expose a frame a step or two to the left--you can see the entire two-track. I honestly don't like it as much...the road seems too centered to me; the comp seems a bit static to my eye. Also--though there's no way anyone could tell without being on the ground--I don't think the color display is as impressive. In any event, I'll dig that other shot up some time this weekend and post it for comparison.

Oh, and Phil...there's rarely any real concern about a car coming down this road, believe me.

Very nice colors. Looks like it was a good walk.

Here's the alternate shot I mentioned earlier...I was wrong about it including the entire two-track...but this was two or three steps to the right of the spot where the original was taken. I still prefer the original; the color kind of died off to the right in the mid-ground and moving over also included more of the comparatively unattractive FG dead ferns. Anyway, it's a matter of opinion, like pretty much everything else.

Both of the images work for me, Kerry. Excellent fall colors and I love the birch trunks!

Good call the color is better on the first one.

I prefer the composition of the first. Nice shot. This looks like the same area that Danny Burk took a pano of the road during some fall fog - I assume it probably is?

Joel, Danny and I ended up shooting more or less the same scene on a misty morning five years ago (without knowing the other had done it...we end up doing this sort of thing all the time, sometimes separated by years); he used one of his 617s; I shot a conventional horizontal. (My shot is here.) I the shot at the head of this thread is the same stretch of road. It's interesting to see how this area of forest has changed over five years...some of the birch snags, for instance, have collapsed or have been swallowed up by the woods.