Fall is never complete without a hike around Cox Arboretum taking photos.  2026 was an El Niño year in our area, so the weather has been strange.  We’ve had a very warm Fall – I had hoped that all of the rainfall over the summer would contribute to some rich and vibrant leaf colors, but instead we have leaves that have either fallen off the trees or are still some shade of green. Most of the photos were taken with the Canon R5 Mark II and the RF 15-35 f2.8.  Tip:  Most of these photos also have had Lightroom filter Autumn:  TM6 applied, along with Sky Enhancement:  Blue Drama.

There were several good opportunities to stop down to about F13 on the 15-35 f2.8 and create some nice sun stars:

For this long exposure photo taken at the creek with the small waterfall, I set up my tripod low and broke out my R6 Mark III with the RF 70-200 f2.8.  I stopped down to about f20 and used my K&F Concepts 5-stop ND + CPL filter:

The 70-200 also came in handy for some people shots:

I brought along my Westcott Photography Wagon and my Westcott FJ400 II with Oca-M modifier, and had my wife take some portrait shots of me with the Canon 85mm f1.2 DS:

This was one of my more memorable and productive Fall outings to Cox Arboretum.  I got to us a variety of gear and techniques both pre and post photo to get some results of which I’m very proud.