Saturday one of my co-workers and I spent the afternoon on three separate flights, two airplanes and an absolutely fun afternoon chasing fall colors on the St. Croix in Osceola, WI.

First flight we flew a Decathlon, and the next two a Super Cub on amphibious floats. We did two flights while we waited for some rain showers to pass by. We did a few splash and go's in a couple of area lakes, doing high speed water taxiing around the lake enjoying the fall colors. We got a few looks from some fall fisherman. One guy decided to race us in a bass boat...unsucessfully.

The lighting was never what I was hoping for except for one 10 minute window at the end after one shower passed through and the sun went behind the approaching cloud bank to the west. Should have gone in the morning but I wanted a setting sun for some of the bluffs around Taylors Falls.

I used two cameras, 50D and 17-40 and Mark IIN and 70-200. I had those lenses switched at first but found I needed just a bit less reach with 70-200 because of our altitude so the above combination worked better.

The 50D got a nice workout, I had highlight priority on and used the Auto lighting optimizer on strong. Both seemed to get me good results especially compared with the Mark IIN. All shots were with the windows and doors open and me hanging out when necessary. Almost lost a lens hood on the 17-40 because of wind blast. (Note to self gaffer the hood next time!)


#1 Our first ride of the day.



#2 One of the tour boats on its way to Taylor's Falls



#3 Rain moving by



#4 Rainbows after a rainshower.



#5 Love the reflections on the river.



#6 One of my favorite images from the day. I'm not sure what the white birds were but they caught my attention and got a few nice shots.



#7 Cloud reflections.




#8 Another of my favorites, I am posting this a bit larger than our standards, the shot needs the larger size.



#9 Mist beginning to form on the river.



#10 Taylor's Falls




As you can see the light was just so close to being perfect, but just not quite good enough. Oh well next trip.

And one last shot,

Me hanging out the door getting that "remote" shot.

Those are incredible Dan! Beautiful colors and scenery. Thanks for sharing.

Wow - amazing shots! Thanks so much for sharing - I'm not sure I can pick a favorite.

#8 IS ROCK SOLID LOOK AT BOTH SIDES OF THE RIVER GREEN TO GOLD

Those are completely awesome pics, makes me want to get up in one of those super cubs again.

#8, #7 and #5 in that order are my favorites! A very different perspective of fall colors, thanks for posting them!

Those are some breathtaking shots, which most of us will never be able to see from the bird's eye view.

Sweet images of great color, Dan. Great work!

#7 for me. Nice work. How ya likin that 50D?

Thanks all, it was great fun shooting these. MM I've only got 500 or so shots with it so far but I like its capabilities so far. More in-depth testing will be required though.

Very nice, the St. Croix River Valley is indeed a treasure. Not many are lucky enough to get the perspective you've had today.

Awesome shots Dan! All great! When I went up in the Piper Cub a couple of weeks ago, the pilot said he'd open the door if I wanted to lean out and get some shots but I didn't have the guts to do it!

Cool! I bet AM is hiding out there somewhere!

SOOOOOOOO COOL!!!