New England Foliage Blog →
Good Planning Saves Gas
How to find items of interest
by Jeff "Foliage" Folger
A photo with a band of color is nice but with no other visual elements to keep the eye interested, it's just color.
Start early in the morning just outside Conway at Jackson NH
Take a train ride to see foliage out of Conway NH
Take a scenic drive over Crawford Notch near Mt. Washington. and come out on the other side with a view like...
This is what we saw on the other side of the Crawford Notch drive. Three days based in N. Conway. before moving to Quechee Vt. for 4 more days
I know, here we are in the dog days of summer (90 degrees yesterday) and I'm posting a fall photo... Why? ..... well read on...
I was reading the two "car guys" in the paper and something they said, which is good common sense at all times but more so now, made me want to post a version of it here...
"Plan your trip in a logical order to save on gas..."
If you are like me and you plan for capturing pictures of the foliage (not that far away), then you need to be out there at dawn or dusk (late afternoon 4PM on). This means that the rest of the day in the middle should be planned for other attractions... Which is why when someone writes to me on the Yankee Foliage forum and they tell me that they only come only for the colors, I try to explain to them that they will be getting bored quickly... I mean the colors are wonderful but driving from tree to tree or scene to scene can get boring...
The pictures at right show the progression of exploring the North Conway area. For three days we drove in the local area around Jackson and a train ride up to Fayban's and then a ride up over Crawford Notch to the foot of Mt. Washington and the cog railway.
Our day goes something like this... After we go out (O-dark thirty) and find my morning colors to shoot we (we = Lisa and I) plan on breakfast at a local diner. Then if we're near a town we explore the town, if we're near the shore we might walk the beach. I say "we" since Lisa goes with me most times unless I'm out driving during the week and she's working.
Anyway, Lisa gets the map books out and she scours the pages for things we've never seen before to occupy the middle of the day when the light isn't great.. If your map book doesn't have a POI (points of interest) then check the local town for brochures... This isn't to say you shouldn't take pictures during this time (10AM-4PM) but the quality of the light isn't as good as it will be earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon.
So we explore, trying to find something like a general store, a museum of firefighter equipment, anything we haven't seen before... and when the light is right she turns the decision on where to go over to me and we start scouting new photographic opportunities. I try to have a location in mind but sometimes (most times) I will spend my gas at this time just looking for good vantage points with ponds for reflections and maybe an old building in the reflection. It's amazing how hard it is to find a scene with all these elements...
Well, this is supposed to be about maximizing mileage and not a how too take good fall pictures... plus I have work to do.. Jeff @ Vistaphotography
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