Here’s another one hailing from back in 2016. Not only was it quite a Summer but one heck of an Autumn too! One of the neat things about going back through the film archives and producing “new” work from photographs taken years ago is being able to remember and re-live these moments.
I was in Vermont, of course backpacking, but also doing the last couple art festivals I had for that first plunge into the scene. It was quite an emotional rollercoaster of highs and lows, as is the nature of the beast. In some ways triumphant, but in many ways I was beat up pretty good which is all part of the learning experience.
But much of the backpacking and photographing and living I did those few months between July and October that year - I had never felt so free, and alive! It really helped keep me going.
To experience the height of Autumn color in New England, especially Vermont, is an experience nothing short of breathtaking, awe-inspiring, mesmerizing… you get the idea. And well, this was one of those trips. I had set up a base camp of sorts about mid-way up Mt. Mansfield off of the Long Trail for a couple days exploring the forest and eventually summiting the mountain (Vermont’s highest!). Please enjoy, copied pretty much exact from my journal that morning after photographing the first light on this beauty…
October 11th, 2016 -
“How glorious this crisp October morning is underneath this canopy of majestic Maples! When the sun breaks the facing mountains at dawn and casts its soft warm glow upon this forest, it’s light sets the fiery orange and red Sugar Maples ablaze! Like rekindling the flame that temporarily burned to embers, the Sugar Maples’ dark orange hue from their nightly slumber is awakened with brilliance!
It truly is Autumn in all it’s glory where I sit right now, sipping my coffee. I have camped amongst some magnificent old beauties this past evening and morning. Although brisk, chilling winds whipped around last night for hours before calming, the sky was as clear as could be - starlit with a waxing gibbous moon glow. And this morning, not a cloud in the sky, that deep crisp blue like only October can produce. The sun gives warmth yet a chill at the same time. And the forest a splattering of fading lime greens, shimmering yellows, glowing oranges and burning reds!
It is calm and quiet, unlike the peacefulness of the birdsongs and insects of Spring and Summer, you can almost hear the air this time of year. And oh, the smell of the leaves! Like only a forest floor blanketed with Maple and Birch leaves can smell… Yes, Autumn is in the air!”
Until next time,
Brandon
“Maple Kissed by Dawn” - Brandon Kline
“Maple Kissed by Dawn” - Brandon Kline