On another rainy day I walked through the woods and tried some vertical panning for photos. I used the same gear I used when Zooming for Photos, a 28-300mm zoom lens and a neutral density filter. The filter allowed me to slow the speed down so I had time to slowly pan the trees in the woods. I would start slowly panning from the bottom of the trees then start the photo and slowly pan to the top of the trees. Lots of fun and something I should do more often.
Last year I documented the thinning of my White Pine forest. This year I have another company thinning my hardwood forest. They started in the early fall but had to quit a few weeks later when we received a lot of rain and it started to freeze and thaw.
I had two different companies do the work because each of them specializes in harvesting different types of wood and uses different equipment. The pine was all harvested by equipment but the hardwood is located on steep hills and had to be cut by hand.
My wife and I spend a few hours this fall hiking along the Hemlock Creek Segment of the Ice Age Trail. We were returning from a multiday fall leaf tour and just happened to drive by the area and decided to stop and take a break from the long car trip. The trail runs along Hemlock Creek for 1.5 miles before crossing a bridge and returning to the parking lot. The hike offers a variety of scenery and is a great hike to take with young kids.
Bentleyville Tour of Lights opened this past weekend when Santa parachuted into Bayfront Park. Bentleyville is Americas largest free walkthrough display of lights with over three million lights. If you haven’t seen it its worth a visit if you are in the Duluth, Minnesota area. 
I still remember last year’s opening when my wife and I were standing on the 5th street bridge waiting for Santa to parachute into the park. A little kid came running down the sidewalk screaming that he was going to see Santa. About 20 seconds later the frantic mother came running after him and caught him just before he was going to cross the street.
Bentleyville Tour of Lights
On one of our fall trips we drove from Clam Lake to Hayward, Wisconsin. We stopped along the way to photograph some of the fall colors in the Chequamegon National Forest.
I have a few more reflection shots from our first trip of the fall. The first two are from Gile Flowage near Hurley, Wisconsin and the third shot is from the Black River Harbor near Ironwood, Michigan.
Gile Flowage
Gile Flowage
Black River Harbor
The first time I tried to shot panoramas was at Oberg Mountain. This was several years ago but I still like to photograph panoramas at the overlooks at the top of Oberg Mountain. These are from this year. The fall color was good but not the best I’ve seen from this location. It’s all about timing.
We were driving though Porcupine Wilderness State Park a few weeks ago and decided to take a brief break late in the day at the Little Carp River parking area. We walked along the river checking out Overlooked Falls and Greenstone falls. Unfortunately it looked like there had been a wind storm because there were quite a few trees in the river.
Overlooked Falls
Greenstone Falls
Little Carp River
Some more shots from our first fall color trip. These were taken at Peterson Falls which is just outside Hurley, Wisconsin.
I love to capture reflections during the fall color season. This year was particularly good for reflection shots at Audie Lake in the Blue Hills of Wisconsin.
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