My Very 1st Autumn Shots (2008, Sapporo)

As promised (to myself) that I'll create a post just for my autumn shots. Here we go...

The 1st three shots were taken during an autumn trip organized by Hokkaido University International Student Association.

Photo below is the famous Otaru Canal...



See photo below, the B&W polarizer is so powerful that it made the trees 'pop up' from the sky as if it's fake... At close up, the leaves look very attractive in yellow, be it in focused (the foreground) or off focused (the background), the whole shot give me a golden touch, so I believe many ppl will love this shot very much too - who don't love 'gold' anyway! Again, all these shots are taken from the same street- One of the main entrance into Hokkaido University (North 8, West 4). At both sides of the street are rolls of these tree (I don't know the name) that turn yellow at late autumn. Thus it's one of the attraction during autumn where it will be visited by thousands of people (or maybe million?). My apartment is at North 11, West 4, so I pass by this road everyday when going to my lab. I usually cycle to the university, but start walking after the trees turn yellow.
I am not a poet, so I don't know how to express how beautiful is the scene, but hope that my photos do... Many artist visited the place for painting, while I paint too; As photography is defined as "painting with light", so I am right to say that I am painting too, just that when the artist uses paints, brushes and paper, I am using lights, lenses, and photo sensor.
And guess what, there are other's painting in my painting :p As mentioned before, there are so many people visited the place, so happed that my friend is one of them... she was passing by when I am busying 'painting'. I said to her "Hi!... how about..." and so she became my 'painting' subject too.
The shot required great patient, because the place is so crowded while I wanted my portrait shot without distracting background... Finally the following shot is made with a long wait and a little touch out in Photoshop; to get rid of people that I can't avoid while in the scene.
Photography tip of this post:
So from the last paragraph, you should have noticed that I pay serious attention to the background of my shots, just as I would to the subject.
Go look around photos that you think best, they all have the same feature - Non-distracting background!
Just imaging that while my subject is posing there, background are old nanny collecting fruits on the floor, while obasan here and ojisan there taking photos of their grand, and some children playing with the fallen leaves - The whole shot will be spoiled!