There are few locales that can match the expansive beauty of Fall in New England. And yet I have found both in my photos and others I have seen that capturing the magnificence that is so easily observed by eye is often difficult. Standing on a cliff overlooking a New Hampshire valley, one can feel Fall all around you. But snap a picture, and all you get is a bunch of colored leaves that are really, really tiny…
Because Fall comes but once a year (well, twice if I could fly to Southern Hemisphere), there is a brief window to practice. I missed the peak of foliage color, which typically falls in this area near Columbus day. But as Rumsfeld once observed, you have to photograph the Fall you have, not the Fall you want. So the past two weekends, when the weather was nice, I managed to shoot a little around town.
Two things became immediately clear. First, finding a quintessential New England building surrounded by 100 year old maples makes a great picture. Second, you can sometimes get better color by shooting behind the leaves. It’s a neat effect.
Full gallery of pictures from that day:
