The Holyoke Range is a dominant feature here in the Happy Valley….named such because we have five colleges, lots of arts and a very liberal community…and is a very interesting mountain range as it is one of the few that runs east and west. In the image below we can see Mount Hitchcock with the rest fairly well shrouded in fog. Long Mountain, Mount Norwottuck and Bare Mountain to the east and the Seven Sisters and Mount Holyoke to the west are all hidden from view…lost in the fog or framed out of the composition. The trail across the range is part of the Metacomet (CT)-Monadnock (NH) trail. During the Cold War…which hopefully is not being rekindled…there was reputed to be a Dr. Strangelove type bunker under Bare Mountain.
I’ve driven by this scene a few thousand times and have always hoped to see the fog and light come together. This is close to how I’ve envisioned an image here. In front of us is a hayfield that has recently been mowed. Alternately it is a corn field which also can be found to the west and around the corner. There are a few trees dotting the landscape as in this image which make for a lot of possibilities.
The image is a stitch of 6 separate captures with my 70-200 so I could have a wider view but not have to crop the sky and foreground too much. Detail was not as big a concern as with a fogless landscape. 🙂 I hope you like this one..
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
Very nice image Steve – the detail is very good especially as it’s a stitched image. What a lovely scene. I hope one of Peter Seller’s friends isn’t lurking about under the hill. Sellers kept me in stitches too – not you can. I’ll have to try some stitched photos when we visit Scotland in a few weeks. Although it will most likely be hand-held efforts as baggage allowance on Queesy Jet is very limited.
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Thanks, Rod. I should use the video capability on my camera so you could hear the mooing as well.
I always enjoyed Peter Sellers…both in the early comedies with Alec Guinness and the Pink Panther films.
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Beautiful rural scene. I really like this type of photograph too. The fog adds a lovely soft tone which adds more interest to the pic. There is certrainly lots of beauty near and around you.
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Thanks, Yvonne. It is beautiful around here. Not everywhere, but in many places. I just read an article today on the Boston Globe’s web page saying that New England has replaced a good portion of the woodlands that were pretty much decimated by the mid-1800s. And we are now the most heavily wooded region in the US….per square mile. Great news. Now I need to get out there even more. 🙂
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Gee that is really good news. I had no idea the woodlands had been revived.
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Scenes like this are a sight for eyes. Particularly the sore eyes of a nature lover living in the midst of urban Jakarta. You are a fabulous tailor – I’ve tried this picture stitching lark and made a right old mess of it in the past. You’ve done a marvellous job and produced a beautiful, seamless image 😀 Nice one Steve.
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Thanks very much, Lottie. Stitching is not much of a problem if you make sure both your tripod and camera are level. But it can work handheld with some good results too. Give the software lots of overlap to work with…a good third of the frame for each exposure and make sure your images have the same aperture, exposure time and focus. Sounds like a lot but not really. 🙂
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Sorry, sore eyes!! Oh dear, I need another cup of tea…..
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🙂
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Great job with that panoramic Steve! Love a foggy scene.
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Thanks, Phil. I’m glad you enjoyed the image.
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They say that a stitch in time saves nine, but here a stitch from six gave you your kicks.
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That they did, Steve.
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