This year, I started doing a series on my YouTube Channel where I pick one OM System camera and one M.Zuiko lens and I go for a walk in nature to see what I can photograph. If you want to see the series of Morning Walk videos I’ve done so far check out my playlist here!

It’s October and for this autumnal day I’ve chosen the lightweight, but powerful OM-5 with the equally lightweight lens 12-45mm f/4. I’m taking this gear with me to a river near my home to see if I can use some of the special features such as Live ND and Focus Bracketing to capture the flow of the water and the surrounding colourful autumnal colours.

The first thing that caught my eye was a mushroom standing out perfectly on a mossy log by the river. Unfortunately it was a bit ragged looking, but a good subject to start off my photo walk.

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I used the built in focus bracketing for this image, which means that I could use the lowest f-stop for a shallow depth a field and a blurred out background, and still get the mushroom sharp. I used a total of 24 frames that I stacked in Helicon Focus, you can see a video of how I use Helicon Focus Here.

Next, I got to the edge of the river and tried a couple of compositions using the built-in Live ND 16. This allowed me to use a slower shutter speed as it simulates the effect of an ND filter.

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Further up the river I found a cascade where there was more flow in the water.

The colours in nature at this time of year is just fantastic and I never seemed to have to walk far before something caught my eye again. For this yellow leaf lying on the moss there wasn’t much need for using focus stacking, but raising the f-stop to f/7.1 meant I had sharpness throughout.

Eager to try out more focus stacking, I found a shrivelled leaf with a nice background and a stalk with the casing of two nuts lying on the moss.

Further up the stream I came across a tree that had a large branch reaching over the water. I thought the branch and the green ferns in the foreground helped to frame the scene in front of me, so again I used the Live ND and went for a slow shutter speed image to get the smooth flow in the water.

What also caught my eye was a dark green fern, with a single coppery beech leaf resting on it.

Watch more of my Morning Walk Series where I pick one OM System Camera and one M.Zuiko lens and go for a walk in nature.