As a photographer and blogger for Yankee Magazine I get a bit of mail as one would imagine. I received this one and thought it might help others who were thinking of making a foliage trip to New England this fall.
Hi Jeff -
I wanted to wait until the fall season was over (when I know you are out on the road a lot) to write and ask you another question or two. By the way, my NE visit was great even moving it up a week. The color in Vermont and up around Lake Winni was wonderful. I shot a lot of film and plan on scanning the best ones into my computer over the holidays.
stockbridge MA-church by Johanna Land
(I think you have a great capture there Johanna. The color against the stone walls of the church are great compositional aspects in this photo. I’ll have to head to Stockbridge and see this church for my self. I’m also glad that your trip went so well. I never know for sure if the season will be early or late but I watch the weather all year long and I try to make an educated guess. I’m glad it worked out, ok.)
The interesting thing is that when I returned to Portland I discovered that our trees were turning colors more brilliant than I had ever seen before. (We had also had a cooler summer.) Our fall lasted from September through the end of November. This made for many photo opportunities and I carried my camera with me in the car every day. It was truly spectacular and would have given New England some competition.
(There are many areas of the country that get beautiful color from West Virginia to the smokey mountains. I’ve never been in Colorado in Sept but the aspens there can put on a fiery yellow show.)
Here are my 2 questions:
I am already planning my 2009 fall trip to NE! I have never driven around the Quabbin Reservoir but your blogs have now gotten me interested in doing that next fall. I’ll be staying in Manchester at my usual hotel. Would I be able to drive down to – and around – the entire reservoir in one day? Having lived back there I know that distances on a map can be deceiving. I’m thinking it would be a good photography day trip. What sort of time / distances are we looking at for the entire reservoir?
geese on the Quabbin Reservoir
(Well the drive isn’t too bad but I recommend staying at a hotel or B&B (such as the Hartman’s Herb Farm near Barre MA) This way you can start out fresh and not arrive tired from the 1-2 hour drive. (longer if you stop to take pictures along the way.) I would say spending an entire day slowly driving around the Quabbin Reservoir will give a relaxing trip and then spend that night there and really enjoy a good nights sleep before heading out the next morning.
I hope this helps)
My other question is about cameras. After having used my beloved Olympus OM-1 for 25 years, I am finally going to purchase a digital camera next spring. I have started doing my research and in addition to reading reviews, articles, etc. I am also asking other photographers the same question I did years ago when I was shopping for my Olympus: If you could only own one digital SLR, which would it be and why? (Right now I am leaning toward the Nikon D90. Everyone seems to love it.) I’d like to hear your answer and recommendations.
(Well this one is more difficult since I’ve owned Canon cameras for about 30 years. Nikon are really good cameras also and the D90 has good reviews along with the Canon 40D and 50Ds. If you go to DPreview’s website you can get up to the minute reviews on all the cameras that are on the market. The biggest thing is to buy what you can afford and either the Nikon D90 or the Canon 50D will give you outstanding results. If you check B&H audio and video you will get great customer service and value too. I hope this helps somewhat and I look forward to hearing back on this years plans.)
Hope you made it through the ice storm last week okay. We got our first big snow yesterday and today is sunny with brilliant blue skies – looks just like New England!
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