PHOTO ESSAY. NATURE PHOTOGRAPHY

Some Game, Fallen Leaves, and Frosty Temperatures

A visit to a nearby game park

I’ve driven past the sign to this game park countless times since last year. Yet we somehow never got around to visiting it. This weekend when I was driving to work I drove past it again. The trees were shining in the first rays of sunshine while a light mist was hovering above the ground. I had to focus not to burst out in awe and forget to look onto the road.

At that moment I told myself we have to come here. Now. This week. Not any later.

Temperatures have dropped and if you want to know what I mean by “dropped”, look at this picture. Taken at 8 a.m.

While the morning was frosty and hazy I couldn’t wait for the day to move on. We both had a dentist appointment today and agreed on going to the game park just after that.

It was 4 p.m. and the sun was standing low above the horizon. The days keep on getting shorter and especially when you live in between mountains you’ll realize how soon the sun disappears.

We get to the parking lot and quickly leave the car behind making our way towards the game over a path covered in fallen leaves. Last week’s storm has blown lots of leaves off the trees. Some are now rather naked while others are still green.

It’s incredibly beautiful right now. The forest. But it won’t last very long. A few more cold nights or another windy day and all the glory will be gone.

But let us focus again on why we came here.

Why did we come here again? Because I wanted to see the forest in full colors, I wanted to take out my camera a shoot it in its full brightness. But we also came here to hopefully see some wildlife. And we came to fly our drone.

We bought a second-hand drone only a few weeks ago and are still learning how to fly it. We are experimenting with all kinds of tricks and hacks. It’s fun and surely gives great results.

When I spotted this dear through the tree’s leaves, my husband commented “well spotted”. Having a person on my side who grew up on farms in Africa, has worked as a guide, and can spot animals like no other, it rarely happens that I spot an animal before him. Disregarding where we are in the world.

But what I didn’t see from my perspective and only saw it later from the footage of our drone was the circle the fallen leaves had created surrounding this tree. So special. Somehow perfect. To me, at least.

A small river was running through the park and we both enjoyed seeing and hearing flowing water. Water still amazes and inspires me.

Whenever I am near water I am happy.

"People are like a river. They meander through our lives, some tickling our little toes like pebbles as they flow around us, and others washing over us with such power and grace that we are never quite the same.” — Susan Gale

We stopped on a beautiful old wooden bridge and decided to try out the function “rocket”. The drone starts just above your head and shoots then straight up into the sky filming you getting smaller and smaller on screen.

This was when I realized how lush green that meadow next to us still was. From the ground, it didn’t look that green.

We continued our hike around the fenced-up area when I found beauty in the different shapes of leaves painted the happiest colors. Fall is made for artists. From the artist above them all.

Nature.

"Art is born of the observation and investigation of nature.” — Cicero

From the moment we got out of the car we could hear the deer. It is breeding season and the males are going crazy trying to get the women’s attention. There are several different species in this park but they live peacefully together.

The fallow deer and the red deer are the most dominant animals in the park. A small herd of some type of wild sheep is living peacefully among the bigger animals.

Having a husband who had been working as a tour guide in a national park in southern Africa, I got the right partner next to me. He was calling this male deer and I could get some great closeup shots. Photographs I’d never be able to get in the wild since these animals are usually very shy.

But here, in the fenced-up area, I had plenty of objects to choose from and had all the time in the world to take the photograph. For at least as long as my husband got the animal's attention.

The photographs above are taken from a dominant male fallow deer and the male in the picture below is a red deer. In front are some wild sheep grazing on the meadow.

I’ve been a sucker for watching wildlife since I started hiking with my parents in the alps. And still today, I do enjoy spotting any kind of animals in nature. Even this one. It’s a fenced-off area, but it’s not a zoo. This park is included in the nearby forest making it look as natural as possible.

We continue our hike surrounding the territory of these animals. The trees are shining in the most colorful shades of yellow and orange.

The memory card of my camera is full and when I go back into the folder I realize I’ve got all images since my trip to Spain in April this year still on the card. This is surely not the time to delete images but I’ve got to make some space to be able to take new shots.

Well, and this is what I look like most of the time during hikes. But especially during this time of the year. Somewhere, I am shooting something involving fallen leaves, foliage, or a panoramic view of the forest.

We didn’t fly the drone too close to the animals since we surely do not want to disturb them but we realized our drone is rather silent. It caught their attention but they quickly went on their way.

We decided to film instead rather ourselves since we don’t have many photographs of both of us together. Apparently, I prefer nature photography over portrait photography.

I was a bit disappointed by the line the shadow was making on the hill, but it was that late in the day, the sun had disappeared behind the hills already. I surely have to come back here one day around lunchtime. Rather sooner than later because the leaves are quickly changing and dropping.

We left the territory of the deer behind and turned back towards the parking lot. The trail makes a loop and also comes past a great outdoor playground for children. Or maybe also for older children. They’ve got some cool features, let’s put it like that.

I decided to capture the sky as well. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get the blue of the sky and the orange-colored leaves in one shot due to the lighting. But I’ll try my best to get that on a picture on my next visit.

Since the sun had disappeared a while ago it was getting rather chilly in this valley. But it remained a lovely day in October. After all, it was a golden day in a golden season.

“Autumn leaves shower like gold, like rainbows, as the winds of change begin to blow.” — Dan Millman

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