I wanted to try this image yesterday, but when I got to Mount Pollux there were people there. The nerve. 🙂
So I was fortunate today that the Golden Hour light was similar and the color hadn’t changed much overnight. In composing this, I tried to hide all the houses in the valley behind trees. I also waited for a while until the clouds drifted to where they were balanced across the sky from edge to edge. Little things that make a difference which I would not have thought about when first starting photography.
Here is a different view from last year a week earlier.
This may have been my last hurrah for foliage. Back to work in the morning and the color will fade in the next four days…..unless I head south. 🙂
Stephen Gingold Nature Photography Blog 
I just got back from walking around our little bog, and was treated to golden tamaracks. Wow~ what a beautiful sight. This is lovely, and it was fun to go back a year and see that. I find it deeply satisfying to go back to the same spots, like touchstones in our lives.
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We share that, Melissa. I enjoy revisiting my favorite spots and each year, it seems, I add another. I am happy that you enjoyed both images.
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Classic New England fall shot. Our colors have faded to dark orange, rusts, and browns. Not much that’s fiery red remains. Seeing your nearly daily contributions make me realize, much to my chagrin, that I have essentially missed fall, in a photographic sense that is. Perhaps I need some sort of realignment of my priorities? Seems like I’ve heard myself say that more than once over the last year or so. Perhaps I told you that I’d been following fields of sunflowers since May. Nearly every day I’ve been down there with the camera to capture the harvest. Wouldn’t you know that today when I passed on my way home from work EVERY LAST PLANT WAS GONE! Those darn combines had been at work while I was at work! Couldn’t believe it. Really, couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Called Joanna on the cell nearly in tears. There’s always next year … right? Tell me there’s always next year. D
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Yes, you have mentioned that. I am sorry that you lost out on that field, David. I’ve had similar experiences and most often there IS next year. Or some year. Here is an image, the one on top, that it took me a few years to get. https://sggphoto.wordpress.com/2012/12/19/12-19-2012-mount-monadnock-and-north-quabbin/ I had seen it like this a few years earlier but my 300 f/4IS malfunctioned and the IS would not stop searching for a stabilized position. All my shots were out of focus. But perseverance and time got me the shot again. So there is always next year but…will you still be there?
As far as priorities….the mortgage and similar are unfortunate realities. I finally made it to 66 and am able to reduce my work schedule to 4 days/week. 3 would be better, but the mortgage just is not willing to compromise…and neither is Mary Beth. And, I believe, you have a lot more responsibilities than I. No livestock here, no however many acres you have to manage. I admire your workload but wouldn’t want it anymore.
Another story so you won’t feel all alone. Flowers! Like your sunflowers, my favorites are the Spring ephemerals. Every year I go to High Ledges in Shelburne, MA which is a Mass. Audubon sanctuary to photograph the Yellow Lady’s Slippers. One year I got there to find most of them crushed to the ground. It’s a bit of a hike too. Very disappointing, but there was the following year..
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Thanks for the pep talk. I will persevere. Upward and onward! D
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As the two letters on my TV say…Life is Good.
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The lady’s slippers are beautiful. I’m glad you weren’t crushed when they were crushed. There always are other opportunities, of one sort or another. Still, it’s a little unnerving to find.a lot that’s filled with flowers or grasses can be there when I leave for work, and gone when I come home.
Change up the plants a bit, and Mr. Norwottuck looks remarkably like Point of Rocks, on the Santa Fe Trail. The trees fit nicely, too. The cottonwoods along the rivers and streams were the same lovely gold when I was there last year.
I presume there’s a Mt. Castor nearby?
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That would be Mt. Norwottuck, of course, although Mr. might do, too.
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Mr. made perfect sense to me. 🙂
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I was a little crushed, Linda. But I rebound quickly. The meadow where I photograph grass pinks, rose pogonias and others often gets brush hogged before I am done with it although never while the orchids are still blooming.
I will have to look up Point of Rocks. Yes, there is a Mount Castor a few miles from here,but I have yet to photograph there.
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Very fine, Steve. You got the clouds spot on. Is there no sign forbidding access to others? If not I think you should take one with you next time.
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Yes! No access during golden hour or moon rises. Capital suggestion, sir.
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Well all that beauty and to think that you have to share. :-)How dare anyone without a camera and an unbridled love affair with nature, such as yours, intrude. I can see how that would be disheartening. The colors are wonderful..
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Thanks, Yvonne. Yeah, OTOH, they were there first. 🙂
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A very fine shot. The shadows from the clouds really add interest and a sense of movement.
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Thanks, Rod. I enjoy the effect sidelighting has on a scene and, in this case, adding some cloud shadows from out of the frame creates extra interest.
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