Happy Halloween

I hope you have a spook-tacular evening!!!

Full Harvest Moon Sky Over May Pond Barton VT

One of my favorite photography nights from this Fall was spent at May Pond in Barton. I was planning on photographing the full Harvest Moon rising over May Pond, but a cloud cover moved in and I wasn't sure if it would be possible. I love when Mother Nature cooperates with my plans, as she provided a sliver of clear sky just as the moon was cresting over the hillside. What looks like a sunrise is actually a moonrise!

There were some breaks in the clouds as the moon rose higher which allowed some of the clear sky and stars to be seen.

More photos from this night from another location in the next blog post.

Four Corner Falls Jay VT/ River Road Covered Bridge Troy VT

Day six of foliage trip:

Our first stop of the day was to photograph Four Corner Falls in Jay VT. This was a new adventure for me and I was happy to photograph here. It's a short hike down a hilly path to get to the water. The waterfalls and rivers during this time period were all very low due to lack of rain. When we arrived at the water it looked rather ho-hum.....

After a short scramble down again, and a short hike up, this is what we saw:

I can only imagine what this must look like after a heavy rain or in the Spring!

A beautiful reflection on a road side in Jay VT:

River Road Covered Bridge in Troy:

A view of Jay Peak from one of the roads in Troy:

We came across this farm.......I'm not sure if this is Troy VT or Jay VT. If you happen to know where this is, let me know!

More Fall Foliage Photos

Day five of foliage trip:

We headed out early morning and discovered the colors had "popped" overnight. It was wonderful to see such a drastic change. The colors were vibrant and beautiful.

Orne Covered Bridge in Coventry VT:

Here is McAllister Pond in the Hazen's Notch area:

Belvidere Pond in Eden VT:

Stand of birch trees:

reflections in a boggy area along the side of the road in Eden:

The color each day from here got better and better.

Moon rise over Peacham VT, and Martin's Pond night shoot

The end of day four foliage trip:

After a wonderful day in Killington, we went to Peacham on the way back to Barton to photograph the full Harvest Moon rising over Peacham Village. It was partly cloudy so didn't really see the moon "rising" but was able to see it shortly after it rose.

It was a lovely evening.

My friends M and M and Patty came up from Killington with us to photograph the moon rise. They brought some steel wool with them to "play" with using a long exposure. It was a lot of fun to do. The idea is to put some steel wool into a Kitchen mixer beater. Tie the beater to a dog leash. Light the steel wool on fire using a battery, and swing it around! We got all sorts of different looks. This one is my favorite because my friend is clearly focused, I like how you can see the trees in the inner circle in the background behind him, and you can also see the trees and the clear sky behind him through the sparks. It was just a really fun thing to do with friends!

We needed to find a safe place to do this without being close to any trees that could accidentally get a spark.......and I knew the perfect place would be Martin's Pond in Peacham.......there is a very large parking area there. (We also had plenty of water bottles on stand by if needed just to be safe but none were needed.) 

While the others were milling around and getting the set up ready, I went to the pond and did a long exposure shot that was lit up from the full moon behind me. You can see the stars in the sky, yet because of the light of the moon it almost looks like day time.

More fun and adventures to come in the next few blog posts!

Killington VT

Continuing on day four of the foliage trip........We met up with Betsy, one of my other foliage friends, at M and M's rental house in Killington, an after the delicious scones, we headed up to Killington Mountain where we took the gondola to the top. It was a glorious day weather wise and even at the top of the mountain the temperature was comfortable and there was very little to no wind.

The views from up there are spectacular:

We had lunch at the Peak Lodge. It was delicious and the views from the restaurant can't be beat. Two of my good friends:

There were a few lenticular clouds in the area and I was happy to be able to photograph these rare clouds.

Chittenden Reservior and Lefferts Pond

Day four of Foliage Trip:

On day four we left my house in Barton at 5:15 AM and drove down to Killington to visit my friends M1, M2, and their friend Patty who I blogged about the other day. We met them at Kent Pond in Killington at 7:30 but it was very windy and there were no reflections, so we then immediately headed to Chittenden which was the next stop of the morning on our itinerary. It was a smart move, as this area is low lying and protected from the wind.

Here is Chittenden Reservior. I was hoping for some morning fog but there was none on this particular day.

As you can see, although not yet peak, the colors in this area were much better than the colors that we had been seeing thus far up in the Northeast Kingdom.

Just a quick walk past the reservior you will find Leffert's Pond. This was the best color we had seen all week.

From here we went back to M and M's rental home and had some delicious homemade scones. I'll write about our next adventures of this day on the next blog post.

Beaver Brook Falls, Colebrook NH

On day three we decided to take a ride over to photograph Beaver Brook Falls in NH. We drove through Victory Road, which is a dirt forest road that runs from East Burke VT to Guildhall VT. The foliage color was not particularly great along this road but we did stop for a few photos along the way when we did find some color.

We then stopped at the Guildhall grist mill, where I have photographed before on several occasions. This time I decided to photograph the photographers.

We then headed North/Northeast up to Beaver Brook Falls in Colebrook NH. This is usually a thundering waterfall, but with the lack of recent rain, it looked like Beaver Brook Trickle from the parking lot! But it was a good opportunity to make some intimate flowing water shots.

Burke Mountain, Sentinal Rock Park, and more

More from the Vermont Foliage Week........

Monday Oct 2:

This was the only truly foggy morning we had all week. I LOVE foggy mornings, as they provide some wonderful photo opportunities. Here is the sunrise over Crystal Lake in Barton that I shot from a pullout over Rte 5.

From here I went to May Pond in Barton where I was able to capture these two Mallard Ducks doing a morning fly over the foggy pond.

After a delicious breakfast at Parsons Corner in Barton, we drove to the base of the Toll Road at Burke Mountain in East Burke, where we met up with some good friends of mine who have a Killington rental home each Fall. M1 and M2 are such a wonderful couple and I always enjoy meeting up with them. This year they were accompanied by their friend Patty who is a very talented landscape photographer and it was a pleasure to meet her. This was her first Fall trip to VT and I was happy to be able to show her around "My" area of the Northeast Kingdom.

Once we drove the toll road to the top we wandered around and decided the chair lift area was a cool place to take some photos.The two "humps" in the background of this shot are The Willoughby Gap......Mount Hor and Mount Pisgah.... with Lake Willoughby laying between the two mountains.

M's beautiful dog Corby enjoying the view from the chairlift.

From here we headed back to my home in Barton to meet up with my friend Rhonda (and my tripod!)  our next stop was to photograph along Shadow Lake Road in Glover where I took this farm image.

We then drove to Westmore to see Lake Willoughby. This was Patty's first time in the NEK and no matter what the foliage conditions, Lake Willoughby is a must see spot and I didn't want Patty to miss seeing this gorgeous location. I actually didn't even take any photos on this visit as I just wasn't "feeling it". I've been spoiled by photographing here so many times in the past with ideal conditions.

From here, they asked me if we could head up towards Bloomfield to search for the elusive moose. We arrived in the area about 35 minutes later and as has been the case over the past several years, we didn't find any moose. The hillsides were past peak in some areas, and still green in other areas. I know.....sounds like a broken record! While wandering around waiting for the moose who never arrived, I decided to take a few shots of things I found to be rather interesting.

From here we said goodbye to M1, M2, and Patty who headed back to their base home in Killington. My companions and I went to Sentinel Rock Park in Westmore and photographed the most beautiful sunset of the week.

The almost full moon rising in the sky opposite the sunset....

It was a wonderful day with friends, and despite the lack of decent foliage colors, I was still able to come away with a few photos that I am happy with.