Marshfield Pond, Noyes Pond and more Vermont Fall Foliage day 5

 Day 5 of the Vermont trip was the morning I **REALLY** wanted to have some fog. Our first stop of the day was to photograph Marshfield Pond (aka Turtleneck Pond) in Marshfield VT. I photographed at this location one Fall morning a few years ago and got some of my all time favorite VT shots that morning. I knew we needed to arrive here early. Well before sunrise, so we left the house around 5:30 AM. This pond doesn't have much space for photographers to get the good shots.  When we arrived on site, there were at least twenty plus photographers already lined up with their tripods in place. I may have made a mistake when I wrote in the e-book to arrive at this spot well before sunrise. :-) I know that at least one of the photographers there had the e-book because he recognized me and introduces himself. The e-book by the way is titled Photographing Vermont's Foliage: Where to Find  the Iconic Shots. Volume 2 written by me good friend and fellow photographer Andy Richards and myself. The e-book is available on Amazon.com.

Here are a few shots from this location. We got about 30 seconds of a pink sky and reflection in the water as the sun rose, and quickly after that the clouds took over.

I used the telephoto lens to zoom into the center of the above photo to get the details of the beautiful colors, fog, and reflections.

Our next stop of the morning was to photograph Noyes Pond in Groton. This is another of my favorite spots to photograph.

This first image I heard the geese honking in the distance and was happy to have my tripod set up in the right spot to catch them as they flew over the pond.

After about 25 minutes at this location the sky began to clear. Alleluia :-)

From here we made a stop to Ricker Pond, but the clouds came back. However, this was the last of the clouds for the day!

We headed back towards home after this and I actually stayed and took a nap. I was still recovering from pneumonia, and although I was feeling a lot better, I knew we were going to do a Milky Way shot that night and wanted to make sure I took care of myself. Shocking even to me that I would make such a decision during a foliage trip but it was for the best.

I had set my alarm and was in a sound sleep when it went off. It took me a few seconds to get my bearings as to where I was and what time of the day it was. I then headed out again to photograph one of my favorite sugarhouses in West Burk. The sun was shining and was lighting up the maples crazy good. In fact, on day one, we stopped by this location in the fog and it didn't interest my friends at all, but when my friend saw it with the sunshine he was quite pleased and finally understood my attraction to this location.

From here, we went back to Darling Hill Road in East Burke. If you remember in a previous blog post, we went here on a foggy morning. This time is was blue sky and sunshine.

From here, we went to the South end of Lake Willoughby

Our last stop of the daylight was to photograph a farm. I had contacted the farmer the week before, and asked permission to photograph there. He was very kind and welcoming and allowed me and my friends access to the entire property. Kindness matters and photographers should always be courteous and ask permission instead of just trespassing on people's property.

From here we met some other photographer friends for dinner at The Burke Publick House in East Burke and had a wonderful dinner. After dinner, three of us went to photograph the Milky Way. Those photos will be published in the next blog post so stay tuned.

 Day 4 of the VT NEK Fall foliage trip began the way every other day began. We had some thick morning fog. We again headed out around 7 AM, as once again we knew there weren't going to be any sunrise opportunities. This is sounding a bit like the movie "Groundhog Day", but we made the best with what we were handed from Mother Nature.

Our first stop of the day was along Darling Hill Road in East Burke. This road is a favorite of mine. Here is Burke Mountain, draped in fog.

Morning grazing along Darling Hill Road:

Along some of the backroads in the area:

The fog was finally beginning to lift but we had gray skies to deal with. Here's another dirt back road shot:

From here, we headed toward some back roads in East Burke and found some great barns to photograph. I once again kept the gray skies out of my shots if I possibly could.

We then headed back to the house to eat a quick lunch and made our way down to Stowe to meet up with a few other photographer friends of ours. It was so great to see them. We keep in touch year round but we always get together to go shooting for a day or two every Fall. We met them at 2 PM in Stowe and look what we saw..........

The blue sky! I kept this photo with 2/3's sky and 1/3 foreground to emphasize the sky.

The blue sky didn't last long. :-) Here's Grandview Farm in Stowe Hollow:

The last stop to photograph is this beautiful red barn sitting up in the highlands in Waterbury Center. I photographed here about 2-3 years ago around sunrise but figured out it would be best to shoot this in the late afternoon with the sun behind my back lighting up the barn and the mountain behind. We were "supposed" to have sunny skies this afternoon, but as you can see the forecast was a bit wrong. Sigh. I'll have to return here another time and hope the weather cooperates.

We then all went for a delicious dinner at The Reservoir Restaurant in Waterbury. It was a long day by the time we got back up to the NEK, but it was a fun day. 

VT Fall foliage 2021 Day 3 Bald Hill Pond Jobs Pond and others

 Day three started out pretty much the same as days 1 and 2. Clouds and fog, but at least there was no rain. Again, we knew from the forecast that we weren't going to get a sunrise shoot. We headed out around 7:00 AM. We wanted to go to Jobs Pond, which was rained out the day before. We decided to go back to Bald Hill Pond, which was pretty socked in with the fog the day before, because it was on the way. Day three had some morning fog, but it wasn't as thick as it was on day two. The colors were so good at this pond, it really did deserve a second look.

We then made our way to Jobs Pond. It's one of my favorites and I've photographed this pond every Fall for the last 20 plus years. The colors this year were as good as it gets here. 

This is one of my favorite shots from this trip:

From here, we headed to Pensioners Pond in West Charleston. The sky was beginning to brighten. It wasn't sunny, but the clouds had lifted and there was just a bit of fog remaining in the higher elevations.

Our next stop was in Westmore, near the North end of Lake Willoughby. We stopped to photograph a red barn, and was happy when I heard the tractor coming up the hill, because I knew it was going to add a little something to the barn shot. I just waited for the tractor to come up the hill and started shooting when it was in a pleasing location for the photograph. I briefly went over to say hi to the farmer when he got up to the top of the hill.

The barn as seen through an old wagon wheel.

I noticed the house on the distant hillside and decided to take a telephoto shot while I was just standing there. I love this house. I remember years ago it was for sale, and the real estate listing named the house "The Queen of Willoughby". (My artistic license.....I changed out the sky in this next shot. I was so sick of dealing with grey skies while processing the images that I needed a blue sky!)

From here we went to Jack Brook to do some waterfall shots. I basically just shot from the side of the road due to mobility issues with my foot and ankle, but my friends got some beautiful shots from down in the water bed. I mostly just socialized. :-) I did get this shot from the road that I'm happy with.

That's about it for day three. It was a good day.

Northeast Kingdom of Vermont Fall Foliage 2021 Day 2

 Day 2 was more of the same as day one weather wise. We started our day and headed out around 6:45 AM. We knew there would not be a sunrise shoot, as it was forecasted for clouds, fog, and showers.

Our first stop of the morning was to check out the foliage conditions at Bald Hill Pond in Newark. This whole morning was more or less a scouting trip because of the weather conditions. As expected, Bald Hill Pond was socked in with fog, there were very little reflections in the water, but the good news was the rain briefly stopped for the time we were there.

You couldn't even see the top of the mountain, but I used my telephoto lens and shot this scene of the hillside. I liked the way the fog was dancing around.

From here, we went up the road to Job's Pond, but there was so much fog we couldn't even see across the pond, and by this time it was raining again, so we never got out of the car and just kept going. We revisited this pond another day and photos from here will be shared on another post.

Our next stop was to Island Pond. I wanted to scout a road that I saw on the map to try to photograph the three steepled churches and the village. I think this road might be good spot to shoot from on a nice day with no winds. I believe there could be a decent reflection shot from this location. This is all I got on this day using the telephoto lens,  but will return to this spot on my next trip up North,

From here, we headed towards Morgan on Rte 114. We stopped at the railroad trestle in Island Pond which runs over the Pherrins River. We got lucky as the rain let up for this stop as well as our next stop.

There are some wetland/swampy areas along Rte 114 that I knew would be beautiful with the peak fall colors. I tried to keep my sky out of the shots, as it had no detail.

If you use your imagination, you may see what I saw in the shape of the water here. It reminded me of a heart. I took that as a good sign. :-)

Beautiful peak fall colors on the hillsides. It doesn't get much better than this!

And then it began to rain again. This time the rain was heavier and steadier. We decided to head back to the house for the rest of the day. We relaxed and enjoyed good company with good friends.

Day 3 will be featured next. And by now, you may not be surprised by the way it started. :-)

Fall Foliage Northeast Kingdom of VT 2021 Day 1

 Oh, where to begin? I have spent 9 total days photographing the Fall Foliage in Vermont. Seven days last week, and did two weekday daytrips this week and have loved every minute of it.

I guess I'll begin my blog posts in chronological order and start with day one. So here we go.......

First day of the seven day trip was on Saturday October 2nd. When we arrived up in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont it was overcast, some fog, light rain and drizzle. Speaking of fog, you will note through upcoming blog posts that fog was a theme several days this week.

We drove up from MA and got off Rte 91 in Lyndon. I wanted to explore some of the backroads that go into the highlands in this area. Here is what we found on that day:

The entire area was peak/near peak and the colors looked good. Really really good! We knew we were in for a treat for the rest of the week. More blog posts will be coming each day from this trip so stay tuned.

Happy Fall 2021/Words For Wednesday

 I'm so glad that I live in a world where there are Octobers."

----------------- LM Montgomery

Happy Fall to all of you. It's difficult for me to pick a favorite Fall photo that I have taken. There are probably over 1,000 of them. It's like asking to pick a favorite child. It's just impossible to do.

This photo that I chose to post today, on the Autumnal Equinox, was taken in 2016. I have only witnessed such vibrant reds on one or two other years. I was brought to tears by the beauty of the colors on this particular day, and no, I'm not the least bit ashamed to admit that fact. 

I've had a lot of adversity that I've faced this past year. Some I've shared on the blog, others I haven't. 

I'm fully vaccinated for Covid 19. Despite that, I have had a breakthrough case and have gotten very sick. I have not had to be hospitalized......only because I am fully vaccinated. It would be a totally different story if I were not and I thank God every day for leading our brilliant Scientists to help us fight this deadly virus. 

I'm not fully recovered but I feel so much better. A follow up chest x ray has revealed I now have Walking Pneumonia. I'll take it. I'm taking my meds. I will recover. I will not let it stop me from going to Vermont. It's "walking" pneumonia. I will not run, I will not hike, I will not exert myself, but I am damn well going to photograph the beauty of Fall in Vermont. Oh, and I still have more time to recover before I go :-)