Road Trip; Part VII, The Wrap Up

White Lake, Adirondack Park, New York (click to enlarge)

X-T2, 50-140mm f/2.8 lens @ 140mm; 1/60th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 400

You know the iconic images of autumn in New England showing the small, white clapboard church surrounded by the countryside full of colorful leaves?  You know the scene.  You've seen them in every image of New England which is taken in the fall.  Well, I wanted to get just one of those but never saw a white, clapboard church that had any color but green around it!  Oh well...

The road trip continues and comes to an end due to Hurricane Matthew.  More on that later.

First Congregational Church, Woodstock, Vermont (click to enlarge)
X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 22mm; 1/680th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

We drove into Vermont and made a stop in Woodstock.  I'd always heard of Woodstock, Vermont, the quaint small New England town with a variety of shops, general store, churches and slow flowing river. As are many other small, New England towns, Woodstock is full of charm.  Just as I expected.  Not getting my iconic fall foliage photograph of a white New England clapboard church, I did photograph one in Woodstock, albeit with a deep, blue sky in the background.  We also visited Billings Farm and Museum, truly a wonderfully interesting place.

After some time in Woodstock, we traveled to Burlington and Lake Champlain, where we spent the night.  I had been to Burlington before, on business, but it was nice to see it and its surrounds in a leisurely way.  We spent time walking in the downtown just window shopping and enjoying the day.

Billings Farm, Woodstock, Vermont (click to enlarge)
X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 28.3mm; 1/1400th sec. @ f/3.6; ISO 200

As our trip progressed, we decided to drive through the Adirondack Mountains of upstate New York and I'm glad we did.  Again, we found unbelievable color all across Route 28. The drive was relaxing.  There were almost no other cars on the road.  We traveled through small towns, passed many lakes and looked in awe at every turn as the reds, oranges and yellows just got brighter and more colorful. We spent most of one day driving across the Adirondacks and I wish we had budgeted more time to spend there.  I made some satisfying images and would liked to have wandered more of the back roads of the area.  It would have been nice to stay somewhere in the Adirondacks and catch that really early morning light.  Also, it wasn't on our route, but I would like to have seen Seranac Lake and Lake Placid.  I've seen them in Public Broadcasting documentaries but that doesn't compare to visiting them directly.

Seventh Lake, Adirondack Park, NY (click to enlarge)
X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 42.7mm; 1/50th sec. @ f/11; ISO 800

After thoroughly enjoying our drive through the Adirondacks, we drove south to spend the night in Ithaca, NY.  That would be a staging point for us to visit Watkins Glen and Watkins Glen State Park as well as a visit with my friend, Mike Johnston "The Online Photographer" the next day.

Chairs, Blue Mountain Lake, NY (click to enlarge)
X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 55mm; 1/180th sec. @ f/11; ISO 200
I just happened to spot this as I was driving by.  Then the parallel rippled wave, caused by the wind, appeared
making this scene a bit more interesting.  It was a very dull and foggy day and you can see the tops of the trees obscured
by the fog in the background.

Watkins Glen State Park has, if I remember correctly, has 19 waterfalls to which you can walk. However, the cost of seeing all of them cost is climbing up over 800 steps.  We didn't do all of them, but we climbed and I photographed for a couple of hours.  I enjoyed the unique scenery, gorges and waterfalls of the park.  Truly a special place.  Overall, the people of Upstate New York have some wonderful natural areas.

Falls, Watkins Glen State Park, NY (click to enlarge)
X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 25.7mm; 5 sec. @ f/9; ISO 200

We next drove over to see Mike Johnston.  I first started following Mike when he was the editor of Darkroom Techniques Magazine.  It must be more than 20 years ago now.  I've always enjoyed Mike's writing and his thought processes.  His mind works a bit differently than mine and I appreciate him sometimes approaching a subject from a different point of view than my mind works.  We had a nice long conversation in Mike's kitchen, then a tour of his home and some playtime in the back yard for hos two dogs, Butters and LuLu.  Mike offered to drive us to a wonderful lunch in nearby Penn Yan.  Good choice.  Afterward, we went to a Mennonite farmer's market to buy a few things and I saw some of the nicest examples of vegetables and fruit that I have seen in a long time.  

Intimate Landscape, Watkins Glen State Park, NY (click to enlarge)
X-T2, 16-55mm f/2.8 lens @ 38.8mm; 2 sec. @ f/16; ISO 200

Finally, we went back to Mike's home and we soon had to depart.  Thank you Mike for your hospitality, conversation, friendship and especially, your writing.  I know thousands around the world enjoy his blog.  I highly recommend "The Online Photographer" for a variety of photographic related items, including the occasional print and book sale.  Mike, to me, is at the heart of the photographic writing industry due to his extensive knowledge, superb writing and thoughtful discourse.  Of course, Mike never writes about billiards!

Now about the hurricane.  We live in southeastern Virginia and were watching Hurricane Matthew's predicted path in our hotel room in the evenings.  The doggone thing kept changing and we were a bit worried about our home.  It had been raining in our hometown almost everyday for the past two weeks and the ground was saturated.  If even moderate winds and more rains came, I was afraid trees would easily blow over.  During Hurricane Isabel in 2003, it did exactly that.  We lost two trees but luckily didn't hit our home.  Each night we talked it over as to where we would go the next day or just head home to protect our property.  The path of the hurricane seemed to change every day.  Finally, I made a command decision just to go home.  So, we left Mike Johnston's home at just after 4 p.m., drove straight home and arrived at 1:09 a.m.  I was glad to get home and I surprised myself by not being tired after being awake for 18 hours and driving over 500 miles.

Mike Johnston, The Online Photographer, at TOP World Headquarters (click to enlarge)
X-T2, 35mm f/2 lens; 1/75th sec. @ f/8; ISO 200

Sorry to quickly wrap up this road trip, but 7 episodes is plenty.  We drove a total of 2718 miles over 16 days.  I made 2722 images (you can double that if you count RAW + JPEGs), saw and experienced some amazing places in New England.  I think what will stick with me the most is the visual aspect of the trip.  That is expected since I am a photographer. The colors of the red of the trees in New Hampshire, western Maine and all across the Adirondack Mountains on Route 28 were like none I've ever seen before.  I want to keep those memories of awe and wonder which reinforce my notion of how unbelievable Mother Nature can be.  I'll continue never to take my environment for granted.

I'll soon be leaving for a week in Great Smoky Mountain National Park for some more wandering and photography.  I'm excited about that road trip as well.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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