Figure 1 – Tree, Norwich, VT, (c) DE Wolf 2013
We have been taking a short vacation to Manchester, Vermont – which is a very beautiful valley set in the Green Mountains. Reminiscent of our vacation last year to Maine, the beautiful weather ended the day we left – but sunshine is where you make it. So once again it was time to be creative with my camera and to continue to learn about the subjects that I like to photograph.
Vermont is, of course famous for its fall colors. But spring too has its own magnificent shades, starting with the perfect chartreuse greens of the newly born spring leaves, emergent everywhere. The flowering trees are magnificent, and even the lilacs are starting to come out in abundance.
On the way up, we stopped first in Norwich at the King Arthur Flour Bakery and Bakery School Campus. I saw a trail that led into a pine forest and couldn’t resist. The colors inside were very subtle shades of reddish brown. A golden retriever greeted me, anxious to be my friend and play. The forest went through a wetland, and a little flat board bridge took me across a bog, where I found the remains of an old tree, covered in moss, and still raising what was left of its branches in a mock spooky greeting. I paused to photograph it using my monopod and experimented a bit to determine whether augmenting the subdued light with flash would improve the scene. In the end, I settled on the subtlety of the natural light.
Figure 2 – Vermont Flannel, Woodstock, VT, (c) 2013 DE Wolf.
From Norwich we drove to historic Woodstock, where we discovered, or rediscovered, the brilliant color of Vermont Flannel. This little narrow shop is a Vermont mainstay. It is famous for the three children (manikins) that sit outside, dressed in colorful flannel regardless of the weather, and is stuffed with brightly colored reminders that winter is never far behind in this part of New England. I had trouble framing pictures because the shop was so long and narrow, but did manage a few images that I liked in the end. Picking up on the same theme, we stopped later in the day at the Vermont Country Store in Weston, VT where I found a pair of women’s rain boots that matched the enthusiasm of all the flannel. So despite the rain I marked it up as a very colorful day in the end.
Figure 3 – Boots at the Vermont Country Sore. (c) 2013 DE Wolf.