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My Reasons to Look for Color

Maybe you have a few

by Jeff "Foliage" Folger

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Credit: Jeff Folger

I was traveling very late in the season and near the southern tip of lake Champlain I found a roadside pull out and this shot

Credit: Jeff Folger

A grist mill on the land of the Wayside Inn. Near their chapel.

I never really thought about the why, it just was... Then I started my blogging with Yankee and all of a sudden everybody is asking me why I go in search of fall colors. I know from reading "When the Red Gods Call" by Mel Allen (editor of Yankee) that people who lived in New England in the past didn't pay that much attention to the changing seasons or the vibrant colors. It was, as they say, just there.

I'm thinking that as we progressed into the computer age and things started moving faster and faster that we started to long for the harmony of the "good old days" and the natural world around us. For as much as our schedules get overloaded we continue to try and slow down, relax and enjoy what is around us.

For me the "why" gets complicated because I'm also a photographer and that means that finding those postcard-like scenes of fall (really, any time of the year) and it drives me out from behind my computer and, all of a sudden, I'm like a schoolkid again, embracing with wonder the beauty of the world presented to us.

I also love sharing what I find with you, the loyal reader of Yankee magazine and especially in the Yankee online gallery. (I must love it because I have hundreds of pictures in the gallery).

Some people may never travel to here and see the greatest show in New England. So in some small way, what I shoot, along with thousands of other photographers, provides a chance for people to experience a New England fall trip.

Much of my inspiration comes from all the wonderful photographers whose work I see around me. I found a book in a local "consignment" store (read that as a neat junk store). This store has hundreds of books and I like to browse what they get in. One day I found a scenic book, An American Country Sampler (1995). It has all sorts of wonderful pictures of the Northeast -- from an image of a huge orange maple with an old wooden rail fence running off into the distance to a picture of a grist mill in Sudbury, MA.

I didn't assign much interest in this image until last November when I found myself shooting a wedding in Sudbury and I was driving around the area of the wedding chapel. I stopped in the late afternoon at a roadside parking area and I was looking at a familiar building. It wasn't until later that I realized that I had just photographed the same grist mill from the book.

So beauty, tranquility, and colors are all reasons to get out and see the fall colors. Now, how about you telling me why you love to get out and see the fall colors? Why did you travel all the way from your hometown -- and what did you find?