If you are a keen photographer, there are certain times of the year you look forward to in terms of photographic opportunities. Most months contain some kind of seasonal or holiday-related significance, as well as personal milestones such as birthdays and anniversaries. But September is sometimes the month where there doesn’t seem to be much of all that happening.
If this is the case for you, read on. September is actually a month full of photographic opportunities. You just need to know where to look. So here are a few tips for some fabulous September photography!
Autumn has been described as “the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness”. And if you can capture that gorgeous ethereal morning mist, you will have some wonderful photos to be proud of. The best time to get good shots is very early in the morning, before the mist begins to be dispersed by the sun. As mist rises around water and wet fields, both of these are good locations to head for.
When you take your shots, you may want to use a tripod to avoid hand shake. This also enables you to use a slow ISO setting, which can help avoid the grey areas of your shot looking speckly. Misty photographs can look wonderful in black and white, but it’s often worth shooting in colour as this gives you greater differentiation within the image. You can convert the image to black and white during post-editing if you want to do so.
An exciting element of September photography is celebrating the gradual arrival of autumn. September is a time when we can feel the change in the air : your challenge is to capture that change visually.
Trees and woodlands begin to change from their summer greens to yellows, oranges, golds, reds and browns. These colours make glorious photographs, either on their own or with other subjects also in the shot.
Also look out for seasonal fruits such as apples, blackberries, elderberries, blackthorns, rosehips and hawthorns which provide rich colourful subjects for September photography. If there is a particular item or items you want to focus on, have a go at blurring the background. One way to do this is to set your aperture as low as your lens will allow, then either use a lens with a long focal length or zoom in on your subject to narrow the angle of view. This should result in a clear image of your subject whilst blurring the potentially distracting background.
Another very evocative early autumn occurrence is that of birds beginning the migration process. If you have Canada geese living anywhere nearby, you will be familiar with the loud honking of a migrating flock. How wonderful it would be to capture some images of that moment.
As well as geese migrating, keep an eye open for other species of bird as they begin storing food for the winter. For example, jays are likely to push acorns into the ground, ready to retrieve later. You may also be able to see squirrels doing likewise, and possibly even get up close to capture shots of them.
Also make the most of local attractions such as wildlife parks, farms and zoos. These will all be much quieter now that the school holidays have finished. So it’s a great opportunity to combine a day out with another strand of September photography. The quieter atmosphere should hopefully encourage more animals to come out and be more willing to be photographed.
Even though the days are cooler, and it gets dark earlier, there are still plenty of opportunities to include dramatic dusks and spectacular sunsets in your September photography. If we enjoy an Indian summer this year, you can expect dramatic red skies at night too. And, even with the nights drawing in, there will be some beautiful golden dusks around just waiting to be captured.
The best thing to do is to get out well before the sun sets and have your camera ready for action. We’d recommend using a tripod for your shots to ensure consistency. As for settings, we suggest starting with a low ISO, fast shutter speed and wide aperture (i.e. narrow setting), then adjusting the settings as you go. It’s also best to use manual focus as your camera may struggle to focus automatically on a sunset, and your shots may come out blurry.
The one thing that may scupper all the above ideas for wonderful September photography is the good old British weather. If we have a spell of bad weather, you could focus instead on an indoor photography project , such as still like. Or perhaps spend the time learning something new, for example experimenting with different camera settings or honing your photo editing skills.
Another option is to write off the time in terms of taking more photographs, but use it instead to get yourself organised. Every now and again it’s good to take stock of all the photos you have, and ensure they are organised in a logical way, and backed up in various different places. There may also be a large number of images that you don’t actually need to keep any more, so perhaps it’s time to get round to deleting those and be able to free up the space for your next photography projects.
So if you can’t work on any new projects or images, use the time effectively to catch up with where you are at and clear the decks for whatever you tackle next.
We hope that this article has given you some ideas and inspiration for some fabulous September photography and that you get some good images to be proud of. Remember to check back here soon for more helpful photography guides from Print Your Memory.
