Leafpile #3 - Sept. 30th, 2009

The third round of weekly foliage reports (for northern New England) are in and I can't believe it's the last day of September already! Expect more updates within five days.

Before we get to that, however - here's an update from photographer/leaf peeper B. Lombardi of Rhode Island:

I just got off the phone with my sister. She just returned from a 3 day trip up through Errol NH and over to Rangely Me. She said that whole area is ablaze with color. This is the same area we were in about 3 weeks ago. According to her, Lake Umbagog is brilliant, The Balsams, Dixville Notch are also showing a lot of color. She said it's near peak so most likely this weekend. If anyone is wondering where this is it's up on RT. 16 in NE New Hampshire and NW Maine, not far from the Canadian Border. You can consider this report to be very reliable. She's an accomplished photographer and fall foliage is one of her main subjects. She also said that mid VT. is progressing slowly so it sounds like Columbus Day Weekend might be around the high point for color in the middle section of VT.

Maine - colors in the northernmost counties (zones 6 & 7 on the Maine Foliage color map) are at peak or are near peak. This weekend (through next week) will be the time to take a drive up in northern Maine, NH and VT. Storms and strong winds can wreak havoc on the foliage so you might want to enjoy it over the next 10 days or so while it lasts.
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New Hampshire - For the northern half of NH: "...the colors are changing at all elevations now, and it will just be a matter of days before this area reaches peak fall foliage." About 75% there. (see postscript below).
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Vermont - "Foliage is reaching peak color this week in sections of the Northeast Kingdom and Lamoille County...good color will be found on pretty much any road from Stowe to Quebec.”
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Raking it all in: This is a good time to head north.

PS - Jeff "Foliage" Folger of Yankee Magazine was interviewed on the Weather Channel last night. He's heading up to northern Maine too; perhaps I'll see him up there. Jeff spent some time in northern NH (in the Sugar Hill area - one of my personal favorites) and he mentioned that the colors were getting close to peak in NH but were "not quite there".

Jeff also mentioned that some of the colors seemed "a little on the dull side" to him. Having said that, I thought the colors in the shots Jeff posted looked very nice, and the Weather Channel reporter conducting the interview commented on this as well. "I dunno Jeff....that looks pretty good to me!"

Here's the deal: good photographers like Jeff have to view things with a critical eye. I'm the same way. And as I watched the brief interview I think I understood what Jeff meant to say. That some of the colors might not be as vibrant as a some people might prefer, but that doesn't mean that the colors aren't there. It's all relative.

But the way I see it, there's no need to worry about "dull colors". Don't let that scare you away from a day or weekend trip if you have the time. Get out there and enjoy the season while it lasts, because the colors I'm seeing where I live are gorgeous!

Starting today, the next three weeks should be "all she wrote" for northern New England. And a good nor'easter could shorten that time span considerably.

Photo Tip #1: Dream A Little Dream

This is the first in a series of simple photo tips which I've posted here in the hopes that it will get you away from your computer and out into the field with your camera and tripod. (Drop me an email if I have succeeded!)

NOTE: What I've outlined here is a quickie technique I often use while shooting out in the field. No filters or Photoshop skills are needed if your camera is capable of generating multiple exposures. If your camera doesn't have a multi-exposure feature, some basic image editing skills will be required.

Creating Dreamlike Pictures
For some reason I find myself using this technique often in springtime and in autumn, although variations of it can be applied to your photography at any time of the year.

1. Begin with a straightforward photo of whatever scene you have chosen. Use of a tripod is highly recommended. Focus and exposure should be normal:













2. Take another photo of the exact same scene, but this time defocus the lens. The amount of defocus is up to you. I usually defocus the lens until the scene looks as blurry to me as it would if I took off my eyeglasses. : )













3. As I mentioned earlier, my Nikon allows me to combine multiple exposures in-camera. So I don't even manipulate the image in Photoshop (other than basic color correction and sizing). If your camera lacks this feature, you'll have to combine the two images in Photoshop or any image editing program which allows you to "sandwich" images. You may need to adjust some opacity settings, and perhaps play around with some "blend modes".

Sigh. I did say that I wanted you to be out in the field and away from the computer, didn't I? So much for that idea!

Anyway, whether your camera generates the two shots or you combine them in Photoshop, you should end up with something like this:













The image should be soft and hazy and yet detailed at the same time. It's not the same thing has having a blurry, out-of-focus shot, and this technique can lend a nice "dreamlike" quality to leaves, trees, landscapes...you name it.

Another option would be to use a soft focus filter for this little exercise, and some of those filters work really well. But do you really want to carry around another filter if you don't really have to? (While I'm nagging - do you really want to spend money on a specialized soft focus filter that you may not use very often in the first place?)

Also, the effect of a filter is "fixed", yet with this approach you can adjust the sharpness and defocus to your liking, so it's much more flexible than a filter. Experiment with different focus/defocus settings to get the effect you're after.

Here's another example:













While we're at it, if you ARE using Photoshop, you can apply this technique to just about any photo you have taken in the past. Some subjects work better than others. Simply copy your image and paste it into a new layer, and use the Gaussian Blur filter to your liking in order to create the defocused image, then sandwich the two image layers into one photo, again adjusting the opacity and/or blend modes if necessary.

This is just a beginning. You can experiment with all sorts of different multiple exposures. And why stop at two images? I've combined several shots into a single frame with interesting results. Have fun!

PS - for the ultimate in low-tech soft focus, you can try breathing on the front of your lens just before shooting a scene. In certain conditions, the lens will fog up nicely and it will take a few seconds for the fog to evaporate. I used this old trick once in a pinch while on assignment and it worked out rather well!

Frost Advisory

More than a few leaf peepers (mostly photographers and a few anxious tourists) have sent me private emails, worrying over the state of the "greenery" up north and the "slow moving color season".

I dunno. Everything seems to be on track as far as I'm concerned. But I guess I'll leave it up to the National Weather Service to cheer these people up with the forecast of a weekend cold snap. Cover up those tomatoes!

It's supposed to drop down to as low as 28 degrees tonight in some locations in Maine; around 32 degrees where I live. That should give the colors a little goosing. The northern counties of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are all on the verge of a fall color explosion. This weekend might be the tipping point.

I'm looking at the northernmost maps of the Maine Gazetteer with a mental highlighting pen, mapping out my planned trip to Aroostook County. I'll probably head out on Monday.

Leafpile #2 - Sept. 23rd, 2009

The second round of weekly foliage reports (for northern New England) are in and things are beginning to happen. Expect more updates within five days.

Maine - colors in the northernmost counties (zones 6 & 7 on the Maine Foliage color map) have shifted from "low" to "high" within five days. It almost always happens quickly!
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New Hampshire - Colors are changing in the northernmost counties of the state but are not at their peak just yet. Frosts contributed to some fairly rapid changes, however. Color is estimated to be at about 30% over a larger area, up from the "small pockets of color" of last week.
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Vermont - See my other post about being in a holding pattern, but: "...foliage is moving into mid-stage color in the higher elevations with varying shades of orange, russet, yellow and red. Red maples located in moist low-lying areas are close to peak color, and ash trees are beginning to turn purple-yellow."
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Raking it all in: I'm planning to head up to Aroostook County in a few days to do the St. John River Valley loop drive, something I've always wanted to do. I'll drive north on Route 1 (out of Houlton) to Caribou, Van Buren, Madawaska and Fort Kent before pointing my Toyota south on Rt. 11 to head back to Brewer. And I'll stop at Baxter State Park on the way back, naturally! The colors in Baxter aren't at their prime yet but I can't pass Millinocket and not turn west for a detour. Moose watching is something I like to do whether the leaves have turned or not.

PS - Speaking of moose, The Cozy Moose has posted some fall color tips for the Moosehead Lake region, which is nice at any time of the year. Also, some of these Aroostook-based webcams give you at least a small preview of what's happening up there.

Holding Pattern

Heard from some people who drove through northern VT this past weekend:

"Just got back... NEK is getting reading to pop (24-25th) I think. NW VT is still mostly green but the Green mountains are showing signs. South into NH and MA not much of anything... just hints."

(NEK is the Northeast Kingdom, in case anyone is wondering.) Things will fall into place quickly, but we're not quite there yet. I'm still working along the Maine coast for the next couple of days and nights. Nice to have these foliage updates so that I know how to plan and prioritize my trips.

The Trees Are Alright

After reading this article in the Bangor Daily News about fungi attacking maple trees in Maine (especially Norway maples), I had to wonder what kind of a foliage season we would have this year.

And like many others, I noticed several pockets of mangy-looking trees in our area. Some of these trees actually appeared to be dead by midsummer. On top of that, some of the leaves on certain trees began to change color a good two months earlier than expected.

Autumn colors on the 4th of July: oddly patriotic...

A couple of weeks ago a casual acquaintance from Vermont (also a photographer) mentioned the "stressed-out trees back home", and at one point in our conversation she became visibly agitated while discussing "that damned maple blight." And then she seemed sad and withdrawn. "Without the maples...." her voice quivered a little before trailing off. I began to get a little nervous.

I'm happy to report that my initial reaction to all of this has been tempered somewhat through a little bit of research and a goodly amount of non-scientific observation. I'm not a forest ranger, by the way. If I had to write down my forestry credentials on a resumé, for example, it would read: "This one time in grade school? I actually met Smokey the Bear!"

According to the aforementioned article, a one-two fungal punch of "tar leaf spot" and "anthracnose" is what is responsible for knocking the teeth out of many trees, tussling and spotting up their leaves, ruining their good looks and generally taking them down for the count. At least temporarily; the fungal attacks are not thought to cause lasting damage.

Spotty leaves...yuck.

Apparently, the wetter-than-usual summer we've had here in New England hasn't helped matters.

Or has it?

I like to take passing glances of the trees as I'm walking my dog in a park or taking a short hike somewhere, and one thing seems to have remained constant in this late summer and early autumn season despite the presence of a few disease-ridden specimens: the healthy looking trees look really healthy.

More often than not, many of the leaves I've seen are full and green. They appear to be quite strong, and not at all like the dry, brittle, rusty-brown leaves I've observed after prolonged dry spells in some of the previous seasons.

Clean and green...yay!

And here's another telltale sign that a majority of the trees in Maine are alright; there is very little leaf drop just ahead of the color season. At least it seems that way when I compare this preseason to many preseasons of the past.

I mentioned earlier that I am not a scientist. So is all of this just my fevered imagination? The wishful thinking of a desperate photographer who loves autumn colors and doesn't want to hear the word 'blight'? Perhaps I've gone nutty after spending a little too much time with the squirrels...

Nah. To quote from the first foliage report of the season (compiled by forest rangers in Maine):

The rain that soaked Maine during the first half of the summer was good for something. Leaf-bearing trees throughout the state benefited from the wet weather...(snip)...."Good foliage development is a prerequisite for good fall color," said Bill Ostrofsky, a forest pathologist with the Maine Forest Service. "The plentiful summer rain allowed the foliage to develop vigorously, and most crowns now appear full, dense, and very lush. All regions appear to be on track for another spectacular season."

So there you have it! Go forth and enjoy. While there's no way of knowing what kind of autumn foliage we'll really have this year, I'm going to go out on a limb...hee hee...with the following unscientific prognostication: Forget about the stupid fungi. I'm worried about a hurricane brewing up somewhere, gracefully curving its way north along the Atlantic seaboard, crashing into us like a demonic bowling ball and knocking off all of our precious leaves overnight!

Barring that, I think we should be in for a pretty good show this year.

PS - According to Forest Trees of Maine, published by the Maine Forestry Service, Norway Maples are native to continental Europe and not to New England. They were planted in large numbers here "as a street and shade tree" because of their "aesthetic appeal" and "ease of propagation". The book goes on to explain that because of its aggressive propagation, the Norway maple "is considered to be a serious potential threat to our native flora and further planting of it is to be discouraged."

Leafpile #1 - Sept. 17, 2009

The first round of weekly foliage reports (for northern New England) are in! Expect updates within five days.

Maine - 20% or less color change in the northernmost counties (zones 6 & 7 on the Maine Foliage color map). Other areas are showing 10% or less color change. Cooler temperatures and shorter days mean that we'll see changes soon, however.
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New Hampshire - Still pretty green overall, even in the higher elevations, with some small pockets in the north showing a 25% or less color change, "...but with a frost forecast for this weekend, that could change as early as next week."
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Vermont - Pretty much the same story as NH, with some areas of change evident in the northernmost parts of the state, also in pockets along streams and ridges in the higher elevations. However, it is described as "early color".
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Raking it all in: With little to no color change (except for a few nooks and crannies), my day trips won't be centered around fall color photography just yet. But I really like what I'm hearing. It's heartening to note that several forest rangers in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont all seem to agree that we could be in for a really nice show this year. Woo-hoo!