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TOPIC: Fall Colors - Belltown, PA
http://groups.google.com/group/entstrees/browse_thread/thread/205cbc331c2e7328?hl=en
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== 1 of 1 ==
Date: Mon, Sep 29 2008 8:55 pm
From: "Edward Frank"


ENTS,

Today looking out our front window a black gum tree looked as if it were a fluorescent mass of fire. The colors were a brilliant and vibrant red as the sun light filtered through the thin leaves of the trees. The colors were unreal. The raw photos I took did not really capture the essence of the color. In the image below I was forced to increase the color saturation and contrast to achieve the look of the trees in my yard. Whether you believe or not these are the colors as they appeared.


(I really need to find my polarizing lens.)

After these shots I took a drive up along the Clarion River crossing at Belltown and heading a few miles upstream. My mother went along for the ride so I did not get a chance to measure many trees. One I stopped to measure was an 87 foot high, 15' 9" girth red oak. Right beside it along the river was a 4' 3" girth American chestnut. It was in poor shape with one good branch, and a top broken off at around twenty feet up.

87 foot high, 15' 9" girth red oak

4' 3" girth American chestnut. It was in poor shape with one good branch, and a top broken off at around twenty feet up.

 A few other scenes caught my eye as well. One was bright Virginia Creeper climbing up an oak tree:



Little vignettes of color framed by tree limbs:


It is a good beginning for the fall color. In this area we are in the less than 25% category still. Next week I have a couple of canoe trips on the Allegheny River and on the Clarion River. The color should be better then and provide a nice frame for our adventures.

Ed Frank