An autumn vacation diary - photographing in Vermont

PSA Journal, Sept, 1990 by Thomas J. Moorhead

An Autumn Vacation Diary

Vermont is famous for its quaint villages, mountains, winding roads, tripod holes, and of course its spectacular autumn foliage. Tourism officials of Vermont claim its state of 500,000 people is regularly visited by 800,000 people during the foliage period. One thing to remember about Vermont is it is a small state, but with scenery at every turn, and its winding roads, it can take a considerable amount of time to travel even a relatively short distance. Unless you drive fast you don't even have to stop, there seems to always be a better view just around the corner.

On a Columbus Day weekend in 1977, I travelled to Vermont with a group from the Cosmopolitan Chapter. On the one full day we had, the weather was so lousy we weren't able to photograph any of the places we were supposed to, and the autumn color had passed it's peak.

I vowed I would someday return, for several days during the month of October. That fateful time occured in 1989 with my decision to take a six-day auto/autumn foliage tour of Vermont. On this trip I stayed in the Swiss Farm Lodge, a working beef farm and bed-and-breakfast located in Pittsfield, 12 miles south of Rochester, and some 35 miles northwest of Woodstock. This location was ideal, as I would use it as the starting point for one-day trips.

In many of the various New England photo guides, Vermont's mostly unimproved back roads are described as "unnamed" or "unnumbered." Many PSA members probably do not realize these small, narrow roads, while most are not numbered, virtually all have specific names, however, most of these names do not show up on maps. Not many non-Vermonters may know for instance, that the infamous Jenne Farm is located on Raleigh Road, the nearby "sugar shack" is on Delano Road and the fabled "Grey Farm" is located along Couldland Road.

On my travels in Vermont, I use both of the atlases that were available. The problem with both of them is that each contains information that the other lacked. The Vermont Atlas and Gazetteer, published by the Delorme Company of Maine, is more detailed, displaying mileage, road conditions and points of interest. Whereas the Vermont Road Atlas, published by Northern Cartographic of Burlington, prints the names of most streets, including many of the back roads along with where many of the famous tripod holes are located. In my travels I found myself looking first at one atlas, then the other, in order to find a particular turnoff.

Day 1

Started Road Trip

I started out from New Jersey at about 9:30 a.m. with blue skies and sunshine, but with very little color in the foliage. I was mostly interested in scenic foliage, but there was very little of it between New Jersey and Southern Vermonty. On a major travel day, such as this was (250 miles one-way) it is hard, but necessary, to resist the temptation to pull over and grab photos of moderately interesting scenes, particularly along major highways.

As I was traveling, Southern Vermont stayed mostly green, but as I traveled farther north the autumn colors started to show themselves. I took my time, stopping at a local art show in Weston and meandering along scenic roads south of Woodstock. Upon arriving in Pittsfield, to a less than spectacular display, I was told the colors would peak later in the week.

Day 2

Visited Historic Village

The day started out cloudy, and got progressively worse, with occasional heavy rains falling throughout the day. For this day's trip, I had taken three cameras. I brought my new auto-focus camera, a Nikon FA (which I used for B&W pictures) and a six-year-old FM2, which was to be used only in cases of emergency, such as rain. When the heavy rains came, the newer camera stayed in the car.

On this day I traveled north to the historic village of Brownington, only a few miles south of the Canadian border. Even though the colors up there had somewhat passed their peak, it was still an enjoyable trip.

Day 3

Met Local Storekeeper

A mixed bag best describes my events on this day. I awoke to a spectacular sunrise. Unfortunately I missed most of it by oversleeping. I saw many farmers with various farm machines driving in circles, clearing the now-empty corn stalks from their fields. The farmers, though, have an uncanny ability of disappearing whenever a photographer shows up.

I went to the village of East Topshan, always an object of photographers. While I was there I went into a small store in the middle of the village to buy a couple of diet colas. The owner of the store, Mr. Miller, asked where I was from. "New Jersey," I said. "Let me show you a picture," he said; "go through that door and up the stairs."

He led me through his own living quarters on the second floor, and showed me a stunning color photograph of the village. It was a large mounted print, obviously taken on a sunny day, with a lot more foliage than existed on this day, and shot from the top of a tall nearby hill overlooking the village. It was not the kind of photo I could have improved upon.