Falling around

Fall in New England is a visual cliché of the first order, and exactly as advertised. Only better this weekend, because it’s been unseasonably warm, as well as clear and perfectly gorgeous, complete with full moons each night.

We’ve been out at a church retreat at Otter Lake, New Hampshire. And it’s been a healthy break for me, coming as I am off one of the worst colds in a long time. The fever broke yesterday morning, and the cough ended last night. It was the first night in a week when I actually slept the whole night and it was blissful.

Meanwhile, I’ve loved walking along the lake and in the woods. The loud colors at a distance usually turn out to be comprised of leaves with blisters, chewed-out edges and other signs of wear & tear. What I love about the forest here is that it’s mostly evergreen with deciduous trim. You can see one felicitous effect of that in the shot above, where pine needles hang like ornaments from the stems of maple leaves.

I’m pretty sure the shot above is of a sugar maple, though it might be a Norway. Maybe one of ya’ll can help here.

Anyway, we’re home again tomorrow and back to work.

Oh, by the way, all the shots in this series were taken with a little pocket camera rather than my big (and somewhat broken) SLR. Still, does the job.



4 responses to “Falling around”

  1. Sugar. Norway only turns yellow. Lots of yellow in Oslo right now, and I don’t just mean the blondes. Here for an Edu-Debian conference and Gnash hackathon.

  2. Concur on Sugar

    Nice shots
    Compelled me to quickly assemble “fall color”
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/37996599816@N01/sets/72157607990679315/

    Also shot with either Poweshot 850 or earlier 550
    Some fiddling with iPhoto (crop, adjust balance etc.)

    Ciao
    Chip

  3. Color isn’t a distinguishing characteristic for identifying maple trees. Of the five Norway Maples in my backyard, two are red, two are orange and one is orangish-yellow. Of the four Sugar Maples that provide sap for our very tasty maple syrup, one is orange, two are yellow and one is bare. That’s this year. They can vary.

    The best way to identify a maple is by the leaf pattern. The leaves in the photo are from a Norway Maple. Sugar Maples have a rounded notch, like the skin between our fingers. Norway Maples have v-shaped notches with wide lobes. Silver Maples have deep v-shaped notches with narrower lobes.

    More info available at maple-trees.com.

  4. I’m just driving south out of NH myself and continue to find strage advantages shooting photos with the little pin hole like camera that comes with the blackberry curve. Something about the parameters/restrictions makes me “see” a little better…

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