Autumn – Part 2 – Shots from the Road

How time flies when the holidays are here.  Each day brings another obligation or distraction and now I’m posting the promised second autumn piece on this, the first day of the winter solstice.  Terrific. 

First resolution for 2012 – I’ve got to be more timely and regular with this enterprise.

Near Auburn, WV (21 October 2006)

In the last post, I promised additional images from other autumn experiences.  These will be limited to my digital period since there was no time to find and scan images from the earlier film period.  Maybe next year, I’ll have a more complete approach to autumn picture-taking…with more examples from great places and new and better images that incorporate helpful techniques.  We’ll see.

Until then, let’s see some other autumn shots from recent travels, starting with the one above.  The first stop on three of my solo Road Trips has been Ron & Lisa’s remote home in one of the hollows of rural West Virginia.  We joke that no matter where you need to go from there, it takes three hours.  On this morning, I was heading out but had to stop to take this shot of rolled hay and the colorful hillside.  The morning light added warmth to the scene.

Along Route 151 in southwestern Wisconsin (24 October 2006)

Sometimes, you don’t need trees to convey a sense of autumn.  While driving toward Madison from the southwest corner of the state, I came upon this hillside cornfield which had been harvested in a manner that created these intriguing, alternating sections of textures and color.

Vermont Lake House (7 October 2009)

The neat thing about this beautiful, lake house setting is that I saw it from the road as I drove from Montpelier to New Hampshire.  What a place for a country home on the water, surrounded by the mountains ablaze with color.  The downside for the residents is that they have to see that road and the people who stop and take pictures of their house.  Great place you have there.

Red Maple Fallout (27 November 2010)

Sometimes, just one tree will make an image and that tree can be bare yet still convey a sense of autumn.  We have a couple of Japanese maple trees and they seem to drop all their leaves in a short time.  I was fortunate to be at Jack and Jo’s home in Chapel Hill, NC right after their tree unloaded.  Success also depends on the lack of wind to blow the leaves away from the tree or add other leaves to cover the striking carpet that surrounds the bare branches.  This was a rare opportunity.

Cabin in Vermont (7 October 2009)

Is this a picture of a colorful, wooded hillside with a cabin in front of it or is it a shot of a great country retreat with a colorful hillside behind it?  I think the answer is yes.  I would be very clean (and wrinkled) with all the time spent in that hot tub in the fall.

The Veterans Memorial, Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis, IN (22 October 2006)

I was in Indianapolis to find the grave of our 23^rd president, Benjamin Harrison.  However, Crown Hill Cemetery is too beautiful, with its big trees and grand, memorial architecture, to not spend more time wandering along its quiet lanes on a beautiful fall day.  Again, I believe that some pictures need only one tree to work.

Next autumn will be better, with new shots that require more gear and better planning.  Like the old joke about the guy who asks for directions to a New York City landmark, “Hey buddy, do you know how to get to Carnegie Hall?  Sure, Pal.  Practice, practice, practice.”

Happy Holidays.