Vistaphotography

  As I’ve written before, in the Fall when my weddings and portrats slow down I pick up my pen and start writing for Yankee Magazine’s fall foliage website.  At Yankeefoliage.com You can research where the fall color is popping and make plans for weekend getaways.

I was contacted by the AP (Associated Press) Travel editor a few weeks back and since I write as Yankee’s fall blogger, the AP editor (Beth Harpaz) and I chatted over the state of fall color, why I love to chase fall color and where I go for fall color.

I’ve noticed my name in conjunction with this article has been popping up across the country. (Atlanta, USA today, The Canadian Press, and the Boston Herald to name a few) Unfortunately they used their own stock photos and didn’t ask for any of mine… (Darn)

It’s still early for making fall trips for leaf peeping but in talking with two of my more northern foliage spotters, they say color seems to be coming early this year.

I have seen stressed trees (which is nothing to get alarmed about) along route 97 going into Georgetown MA, turning what leaves they do have a nice shade of orange.  But my spotters and I agree there are more than a few trees that are looking healthy and they are also turning color a bit.

NOW DON’T PANIC!!! This doesn’t mean that fall is upon us a full five weeks early in fact I doubt more that 1 per a hundred trees (or a thousand trees)  are turning but it will pay to stay tuned by following my rss feed right here or/and the rss feed over  on Yankee foliage dot com to keep up on where the color is.

If you are planning on a fall trip here in New England then follow along as the color progresses especially in Oct when I hit the road to explore the back roads both near and far to bring you pictures and stories about places that I find and people that I meet.

   I know blogs are supposed to be rather single minded about the information they pass along to you.  I’m supposed to be chatting only about wedding photography but you might think that’s all I know or do… au contraire mon ami!  Now I won’t tell you everything I am and if you enjoy this read you will come back and find out… (hint.. wait until Halloween)

I probably suffer from ADD as do many of you in this information rich but time gobbled up age.  If you don’t know what I mean leave a comment (if you have the time) and we can chat about it.

The first day of fall is more or less, 60 days away at this point and many of you are probably screaming that summer just got here and you haven’t been to the beach yet with the kids and there is so much that you wanted to do. Like go fishing with the kids…  In this photo it was a battle bringing him in but he sure tasted good!

I just started up for my third year of blogging with Yankee magazine where in the fall, I chat about great locations in New England that I find so you can take “picture postcard” shots during your foliage travels.        I try to get out and get an eye on what the foliage is doing and in some cases I will call up different municipalities to find out what the color is doing in their neighborhood.

I try not to call tourism boards since their job is to get you to come and spend money in their area. So lets just say it’s not in their best interest to tell the FULL truth… Not that they would lie! but they may over estimate peak color.    But then what is peak? is the Church here surrounded by peak or is it merely good???

You want to know who to call?  Well of course you can go to Yankee’s foliage website  which has some great info. You can of course come here and I will tell you those things that they (Yankee)  doesn’t want you to know, such as other websites that have updates and forums to find out the specifics of the fall progression. I will post fall pictures with latitude and longitude readings from my gps on my Vistaphotography picture blog and on occasion I run a contest to see if someone can find what the lat long points to. I posted one last week and so far I’ve only had one guess where the person said I was in the Mohawk trail forest area. But I know for a fact that this location can be brought up with the right Google search query with the statue and plaque details…
The person who gives me all this info by putting it into the comments there (not here) will win a free 5×7 photo greeting card (I sell these at craft fairs so they are pretty nice…IMHO)

I have to go and do some real work so I’ll chat with you later…

Jeff Foliage

   Hi, I’m Jeff and my studio is Vistaphotography. You might be asking what a kids portrait party is? It’s where I (Vistaphotography) will come out to the home of the hostess and either set up in the house or weather permitting, set up a large tent in the yard as my studio. All the hostesses does, is have their friends bring their children over for a play date and then they bring them one by one to my “studio” for a portrait session.
The client (or hostess) holding the “party”  will provide refreshments and mail out invitations (which I supply) to their friends and the hostess will receive credits based on number of sessions booked with up to 15% of the total amount of the purchases made by their friends being used towards their own kids portraits.  The number of friends that schedule a party of their own on that day also contributes a credit to the hostesses account.

Now if you say that this sounds like a Tupperware party then you’d be correct. It’s an effort for me to get my work out in front of parents so they can see their favorite subject, their kids…
I had read about this party idea in a PPA,  (Professional Photographers of America) magazine and I went and called the photographer in North Carolina  who was profiled in the magazine. She told me all about the process she goes through. She has been running her studio for 21 years so I figured I would try this.

Lessons learned… There is a reason that the NC photog told me only one child in a session! Because if the kids aren’t in a mood to sit still, then it becomes play time and they will not stay in frame.  I had some good shots depending on the mood and age of the kids. I would say based on one outing that you should strive for a single child so you can give them your undivided attention.    If you have a parent saying they only want a shot of the siblings together…  I would say to tell the parent that you will try and if the shots work, great! If not then tell them that you will come to their home and reshoot in a familiar environment where they may relax and take some direction.

Because if you can’t get the kids to stay together then it will be real hard. I plan to try this with the mother who was up first with her two boys and told me straight out that she can never get a good shot of them together. I got some good (not great) shots when I focused on one or the other but not both in the same frame.  I guess Photoshop is always an option.

Jeff Folger
www.vistaphotos.net

(If any photographers out there want to try this and want to purchase all the forms and information sheets that I’ve created then drop me a line and I’ll give you my paypal account to deposit to and I’ll send you a PDF package.)

  I (Vistaphotography) was down in Salem yesterday looking to work on perfecting my firework technique.  Here is an article link to the Salem News online describing the days events. I find that even after years of practice, getting good fireworks shots are one of the harder things to capture but with practice (roughly once a year) I’m getting the hang of it.    As always people like to get a good seat early so in an attempt to also get a good vantage point I arrived a little after 3PM. Already there were tarps spread here and there (similar to a dog marking his territory), a fireworks watcher will lay down a blanket to mark their spot.

Lisa wasn’t feeling well so I was alone all afternoon… with several hundred others mind you… I was lucky though and a park ranger stopped to talk and was nice enough to mind my camera for me while I answered a call of nature (the downside of doing this alone).
As the afternoon wore on and the threat of rain diminished, more and more people began to fill in and by 9PM there must have been 6-10 thousand people filling the park in front of the Customs house next to the Salem Friendship. Several bands played and over by Capn’s restaurant they had a DJ for the kids. It was a little tough hearing the DJ on one side of me and the band testing their gear on the other side of the park.
It was a little chilly but the weather was near perfect for fireworks. As you can see I tried to include the masts of the Friendship in my shots and I think most of them came out pretty good.

I have these shots up on my website vistaphotos under fireworks. If you are going to “borrow” one I do require that you link back to me as a minimum (it’s only fair) and if you would like a very high quality shot for your wall visit my site and check my photography out. (There are also some nice shots from Marblehead’s fireworks also)

Jeff