Snoqualmie Valley autumn

I spent this morning poking around the Snoqualmie/North Bend area looking for some fall colors. Fall color in the lowlands of western Washington can be inconsistent, but it's often more photogenic than I expect.

First, a composition that uses the sun. I used an aperture of F/22 and partially obscured the sun with a branch to achieve the ray/star effect. The hazy shape of Mount Si is visible in the background. From the Snoqualmie Valley trail/Three Forks Natural Area.

Next, the Snoqualmie River from the Snoqualmie Valley Trail. This worked surprisingly well for a sunlit shot, in my opinion. F/18.

Next, two river shots from earlier in the morning, at the Three Forks Natural Area, when the sun was still behind the hills.  They'll need some attention to lighting and white balance - what you see here are some preliminary tweaks through the old Picasa program, which helps, but not as much as Lightroom will. F/20.

Finally, two shots from later in the day at a drive-up viewpoint. Contrast is high, but I like how the colors turned out and would be willing to play around with them in Lightroom. These ones look over what I think is at this point the Middle Fork Snoqualmie. Mount Si, of course, is the landform in the background of the first in this pair. F/18, F/20.