Nichol's Ledge

This Fall seems to be all about new discoveries. I really should start a book or at least a list of favorite places in Vermont. I finally made it to Woodbury and Nichols Ledge today and was not disappointed. The colors are definitely past peak now (at least in the northern parts of the state), and morning light would have been better. But no complaining about a sunny, mid seventy degree day in the middle of October! Just splendid...


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Turtlehead Pond (II)

Since Saturday was an overcast day, my photos included very little or no sky at all. I just wanted to follow up and give the "big picture" (panorama incl. blue sky) from the same pond as shot today. What a difference in foliage just a few days make...


Turtlehead Pond Pano

Shortlived Foliage Season 2017

A very dry second half of Summer 2017, together with windy and rainy conditions on the Columbus Day weekend will probably shorten the Vermont Foliage Season this year. After our photo tour on Saturday under overcast skies, Sunday was partly sunny again. We decided to explore the local Preston Pond area in Bolton. It features a few beaver ponds and a beautiful outlook, called Libby's Look. Thanks to the high dynamic range sensor of my SLR and the editing capabilities of Lightroom, even the backlighting conditions in late afternoon resulted in good photos from the top. Instead of the all too common broad view of colorful trees, I played with reflections, abstracts, camera movement and sunstars. Oh what glorious colors and photographic opportunities nature provides!


Preston Pond Loop Abstract


Sunstar


Libby's Look

Preston Pond Reflections (I)


Preston Pond Reflections (II)

Turtlehead Pond

We (Thomas and myself) stumbled upon this little gem in the Marshfield Town Forest more or less by accident. On our quest for Foliage photos, we went along VT Rt. 2 on Saturday and stopped in Plainfield (Martin Covered Bridge) and Marshfield (amazing hillside colors). But then I found two small ponds on the map in the vicinity and we just went there. It turned out to be an amazing site. Even without blue sky, the view from the lower end of Turtlehead Pond with the cliff in the background was well worth the drive!

Turtlehead Pond (I)


Turtlehead Pond (II)


Turtlehead Pond (III)


Turtlehead Pond (IV)

Vermont State House

Talking about Vermont being a rural state... From this particular vantage point (the National Life parking area), all you can see from our capital is the golden dome of the State House. I have been there many times and the view is getting tighter and tighter every year (someone needs to clear those trees!). But I have still to time it right for the perfect foliage colors in the trees on the slope behind the State House...
BTW: For those of you interested: The statue on top is Ceres, the Roman goddess of agriculture. Fitting!

State House (I)


State House (II)

Moss Glen Falls and my Switch to Adobe Lightroom

Moss Glenn Falls (VT 100, Granville)
This is the Moss Glen Falls along VT100 between Warren and Granville (there is another one north of Stowe). I am not sure how often I have taken photos of this place, but this one is (a) taken with my shiny new camera (Canon 5D Mark IV) as well as (b) developed with Adobe Lightroom (and again, a pinch of Topaz Glow).

After many years of using Apple's Aperture (I was one of the first adopters), I finally made the switch to Lightroom. It took a while to convince me, still hoping for Apple to turn the corner and make their "Photos" app into something meaningful after they gave up on Aperture a while ago. I loved the Aperture interface, and had so far not warmed up to Lightroom during initial trials. But after reading Jason Bradley's book and watching Thomas' use of the tool, I gave it a serious second chance and quickly got the hang of it. Long story short: Since August 2016, all my photos are managed and developed by Lightroom. And I believe the quality of results has improved quite a bit with that move.

I still have not decided how to handle my many photos, hidden inside Aperture's database. But I will keep my old Mac Mini at the last OS version that officially supports Aperture for the time being. More on my new computer hardware in a future post.