Scenes of Vermont Forums

We went up I-93 to St. Johnsbury, VT, then up I-91 to Orleans over to Irasburg, Hazen Notch, route 118 was nice, 114 ok around in that area, following someone from this forum who said it was fantastic. We had sun, but high overcast.

Well, we've been doing foliage for 20 years in VT so maybe we are a lot more picky!! There were some nice spots, but a lot of leaves were off and the color just wasn't brilliant. Then we went down to Danbury, Peacham and Barnet., color fair. came home down I-91, then I-89, from Lebanon to Concord, NH that area had some of the nicest colors, but of course you don't stop on that road to take pictures. I took a lot of pictures out the front window, sometimes I get real nice ones that way, NOT this time, they are all throw aways. It was a nice day but not worth $85 in gas.. Glad we didn't stay overnight.
Shirley

The last 2 days have had strong sunlight. This will affect foliage viewing. The colors you see from the leaves are a product of reflected sunlight. Try to imagine looking into a mirror and holding lit flashlight of your head and pointing the light down at an angle. The reflected light will probably be at belt buckle level. Standing straight you will see the light beam but it's not too bright. If you drop down to belt buckle level you will be blinded by the light beam. The reflected does the same thing with the leaves. That means the best view on bright sunny days is with the sun behind you and the trees above you. Now some one walking around with a camera can position themselves for the perfect shot. some one in a car will have few options. I notice this all of the time. I'll be driving into the sun and the leaves don't look so good. I turn around and look behind and they look great. If you can drive south to north, or east to west in the morning and west to east in the afternoon.

There is nothing like a backlit tree, practically glowing as sun reveals the brilliant color in the leaves. Driving against the light is excellent advice.



And let me add that, even if there is no sun, wearing warm polarizing sunglasses (I use a pair of fisherman's glasses bought at a walmart store) can cut the glare and accentuate the warmth of the leaves. I heard of one photographer who liked the view through his Serenghetis so much he had the maker put the glass in a filter he used on his camera lens.

Yes, I know about finding the right spot, and using a polarizer, I wear polarizer sunglasses and am taking them off and putting on a lot to see how it looks.
It's just that a lot of leaves were off the trees in the foreground, some high some low. I also know how important it is for the sun to be right, and it wasn't great yesterday.

The Peacham area looks like it might be nice this coming week-end it had nice color but wasn't peak yet. We did see some really nice bunches of color but not great scenes. The color in southern NH is better than what we saw yesterday in VT.

Hope you all find some beautiful colors this week-end.
Shirley

I figured that you may have been aware of finding the spot when I saw you were from NH. I did that post more for the new foliage lovers that might be peaking in.

In 2005 and 2006 (not great foliage years), when I was there, I noticed a "dullness" in some of my photos. I realized, afterward, looking at them that what I was seeing was the 1000's of gray branches of trees (sadly, mostly Maples) that had totally dropped their leaves, creating an almost hazy look.