Highland Pond in the Torrance Barrens
As the fall colour display is winding down rapidly, with a large percentage of leaf fall, I am catching up on processing some of this season’s images. The image above is a three image HDR processed with Oloneo PhotoEngine that was captured at Ontario’s Torrance Barrens / Dark Sky Reserve near the town of Gravenhurst. I was immediately drawn to the line of white pine needles along the rocky shoreline and the cloud formation in the sky at Highland Pond. I composed the scene with the pine needles forming a strong diagonal line coming out of the lower right corner to draw the viewer into the scene. The Torrance Barrens was the first site designated as a dark sky reserve and is quite popular with astronomers. I hope to try some night photography in the future. The terrain here is dominated by exposed bedrock covered with lichens and moss and mostly Red Oak, White Pine and White Ash trees. I particularly enjoy the area right around Highland Pond, which is accessed from the entrance on District Rd. 13 (Southwood Road). I often arrive here for sunrise and then wander the trails afterwards to see what I might discover. Below are two additional images from my recent visit to the barrens and three sunrise images from a previous visit a couple of years ago. The Torrance Barrens / Dark Sky Reserve will be featured in my upcoming eBook.
What an amazingly huge sun in the last image! I’m loving these sunrise shots and the near monochrome lighting. I also like the contrast between the dark foreground trees that are practically silhouettes compared to the misty background tress. Very captivating.
Thanks Mike, very much appreciate the comments!
Andrew, They are all so lovely, hard to pick a fave but I’ll go with #1 and #4!
I just landed in Homer Alaska!
Thanks Denise, 1 & 4 are my faves too! It is a really cool place to visit. Hope you have a great time in Homer and capture tons of great images…can’t wait to see them!
Very nice, makes we want to visit the Barrens.
Thanks for the comments Steve…if you visit the barrens you won’t be disappointed!