Happy Halloween!!!

The cutest little piglet on the farm!!!!

xxoooooooo

Sugarhouse Road W Burke VT

Continuing on the VT Fall trip.....
Wed morning we made a stop to photograph along Sugarhouse Road in West Burke, shortly after sunrise. The warm morning light was divine!

I titled this image "Where's Waldo"  I did not see my friend Al in this picture until I was processing it!

Just loved the morning light!

Also don't forget to look up!!

And look down........

Prospect Hill, Brownington VT

Day 4 of VT Trip continued:
Our final stop for the evening was to Prospect Hill in Brownington to shoot the sunset.
Here is a view of the steeple of The Brownington Congregational Church, taken from the top of Prospect Hill.

The sunset was just "eh" on this particular night. Was hoping for a more dramatic sky, but it wasn't meant to be.

I learned a new technique from one of my camera club friends while shooting on this evening......it is a landscape panning technique which I had never done before. This was my first attempt:

It's a fun technique. I will be showing you another image I did using this technique on a future blog post.

A waterfall/ Chandler Pond Farm

Day 4 of Vermont trip:
This was the day that Mr S headed home, and I was joined by 8 of my camera club friends. We had fun right from the get-go.
Our first place we photographed was a waterfall in Sheffield VT. I believe this is an unnamed waterfall, as I can not find it listed anywhere. It surprises me, because it is a very easily accessible waterfall, and it is pretty. The lack of rainfall prevented us from seeing the full beauty that this waterfall is capable of, but it was still pretty....just not as large as I have seen it in the past.

The sun came out towards the end of our visit here, and it provided some beautiful reflections.

From here, we went to Chandler Pond Farm in Lyndonville......one of my favorite farms in the area, and the owners are always super nice and accommodating and allow us free access to the entire barnyard and property.

"I'm A Happy Dog"

"Slurp"

Friendly kisses

"The Watchkeeper" standing watch over Chandler Pond.

There's a small trail at the top of the hill and the sun gave it a beautiful glow. This is one of my camera club friends basking in the glory of the foliage,

Pumpkins at the farmstand warmed by the golden late afternoon sunlight.

It was a great start to our camera club foliage trip.

Day three VT trip continued.......
Friends of mine rent a house in Killington every Fall, and we try to get together each year when we are up there. This year they came up to the NEK......they arrived at our house around 10 am and we went out for a foliage/photography ride. Our first stop was to Lake Willoughby. I have photographed this lake every Fall for the past 100 (or so it seems!) years, but I never get tired of this amazing majestic view.

I changed it up a bit and looked for some different views to photograph.

This iconic sailboat is moored at the South end of Lake Willoughby every year. I'm sure every photographer who has photographed this lake has at least one picture of this sailboat in their files. Here is a different take on this often photographed sailboat.

We then drove to Island Pond and had a nice picnic lunch. Here are a few shots taken at Island Pond. I was shooting into the sun for this next image, so it is heavily processed to get out the details and colors.

We then drove up to Island Pond in search of moose. We did pass by two moose, but when turned around to go back to take pictures, they were gone back into the woods.

A few years ago, a moose viewing platform was built along Rte 105 in Bloomfield (I think). We have seen moose from this spot on a few occasions, but none on this day. Here are Mister S and my friend M in the viewing platform.

Finally, a milkweed going to seed taken from one of our stops.

It was a wonderful day spent with friends! Tomorrow's blog post will feature day one of being joined with some camera club friends in VT. Oh how much fun we had!!!!!

Crystal Lake/Barton VT

Day three of VT foliage trip:
Monday morning I went off by myself to shoot the sunrise. Mr S stayed home. I went up the road to the Crystal Lake boat access ramp along Rte 5 to catch the sunrise. I set my tripod up and waited for the magic to happen. It would have been nice to have more fog.....low fog makes some dramatic lighting when the sun rises, but it was still beautiful nonetheless.

Once the sun came up, I turned the tripod around and shot the scene that was directly behind me. Peak colors along the shore of the lake.

Here's a shot taken just before I returned to the car.

From here, I went up through the village and stopped to photograph the Pines Farm from across the Barton River.

Gotta love that morning light! Next post will feature Monday afternoon's images.

Chasing a balloon and pizza the NEK way!!!!

On the way back from Holland, I shot this view taken from Burton Hill Road in Irasburg.

We then went to the Barton Fairgrounds to see our Barton neighbor who was riding in a horse show on that Sunday afternoon. I'm going to print, mat and frame a picture for her as a gift. Here is one of the pictures I took:

Sunday evening we had a dinner date with our friends Terri and Steve (they and their sugar house have been featured here on the blog several times) Terri picked us up and drove us to Lyndonville to have dinner at The Pizza Man. I did not bring the Nikon with me. I was going to, but thought this evening was not going to be about photography, and I didn't want to look like a big dork and bring my camera gear to dinner.

Big mistake.........

On the drive, we noticed a beautiful hot air balloon off in the distant sky. All I had with me (thank God I did) was my point and shoot, which has a great sharp lens, but it has very limited zoom. Poor Terri was driving feverishly trying to get me to a place where I could shoot the balloon. I may or may not have been making her frantic. I don't remember...........

So she pulled over and I was able to get this shot, but I knew I wasn't going to be happy with it.

Terri then asked if I would like to try to get a picture of the balloon over a covered bridge.

Ummmm.......yes please!!!!!!

The balloon is still not as close as I would have liked and I'm not too crazy about all of the wires, but it was great to get a shot of the balloon and the bridge! 

I jumped back in the car and may or may not have asked Terri to "hit the gas let's go"!!! and we finally found the best possible spot to get the photo I was after.

I wonder if Terri and Steve will ever invite us out to dinner again??????

On a final note, the pizza at The Pizza Man was delicious. We all got different specialty pizzas and shared. I tried a slice of the Northeast Kingdom Special...........it is pizza with bacon, caramelized onions, apples, maple syrup, and cheddar cheese. It sounds strange, but I must tell you it was one of the most delicious things I have ever tasted. You must go here and get this pizza if you are ever in the Lyndonville area of Vermont. It's THAT good. 

Promise!

Holland VT/ Holland Pond

Holland is an adorable little town way up in the tippity top Northern part of Vermont, bordering the Canadian border. It is a beautiful spot, enriched with miles and miles of farmland. This was our destination that we headed to on Sunday morning after we left Brownington, which was featured on the previous blog post.
Now remember, I was with Mr. S so I had to be very picky about where I yelled out "stop here" for a photo op. If I were not with Mr. S, I would have taken many more stops, but I have to keep in mind that I drive that man crazy with all of my stopping to take pictures...... but I must tell you that I was biting my tongue and and wringing my hands on my lap because I wanted to stop every 10 seconds.
Here is just one of the many farms we saw, but I wanted to take this picture to show you Canada, which is on those hilltops in the distance.

During my trip planning, I found Holland Pond on the map. Holland Pond? Why, I had never heard of Holland Pond! I have never seen anyone else's pictures of Holland Pond before (I see a lot of VT photographs) I felt like Christopher Columbus finding the new world!!!! So, I knew that this was the place I wanted to go and photograph. I did a good job of reading the map (not my strong suit) and got us to beautiful Holland Pond. We were the only two people there. It felt like we were the only two people on the planet. Well, besides our dog Rudy who was with us and he thinks he's a person so I will include him. 

The foliage was peak and beautiful as we stood there along the shore looking across the pond. The only problem was we were looking directly into the sun. I still managed to come away with a few half way decent images to share. I hope to return here (maybe next year) during the late afternoon light. (And without Mr S and Rudy)

On the drive back from the pond, I yelled out another "stop" when I saw this unusual sight. I titled this image "Ring of Fire"

Now, that's something you don't see every day!

The next post will make you hum up up and away........stay tuned. 

Brownington VT/Brownington Pond

 Sunday morning of our VT trip was a beautiful Autumn morning. There was a touch of fog in the valleys, and there was bright sunshine above. The first stop we made was to photograph this beautiful tree tunnel, along Hinman Settler Road in Brownington.

A few miles up the road from here, a beautiful view opens up to the West, with views of Jay Peak off in the distance. You can also see the morning valley fog, which is typical for the time of year.

After a few miles from here, you will eventually approach Brownington Pond on your right. This is a sleepy little pond, but I got lucky on this particular morning. There was a fisherman out in his boat which provided me a nice subject to photograph. I was shooting into some harsh light, but am happy with the results of this shot.

There were also a pair of loons swimming and feeding which I was able to photograph as well.

Here is another view of the pond. This was taken with the sun over my shoulder, so the lighting was easier to control. These little cabins look to be such a peaceful get-away.

And this was just part of our beautiful Sunday morning drive. Next I will share with you some images from Holland! :-) *wink*