fall foliage | At Home with Tech

October 30, 2022

Finding the Bright Spots Past Peak Foliage

If you’re late this year embarking on your weekend leaf-peeping excursion, all is not lost. Here’s how to modify your expectations and still find some of the color you seek.

Suddenly the brilliant colors of fall in New England are gone. It happens faster than you may think. Another year you’ve missed peak foliage? Another opportunity lost? Not necessarily.

My family and I went for a hike this past weekend in Collis P. Huntington State Park in Redding, Connecticut. As we entered the forest, it felt like I had time-traveled forward several weeks. Almost all of the leaves were already on the ground.

“What?! This is not how the trees looked driving in.”

I gripped my little Panasonic Lumix LX-10. I looked up and around. I felt like I had entirely missed this year’s fall season.

But then I looked down and peered closer. Fall wasn’t done yet. No, not by a long shot.

The colors were still all there. They just weren’t displayed en masse any longer. I simply had to bend a knee and tighten my focus.

So that’s what I did, and here’s some of what I saw.

Individual results may vary, but no matter what time of year you spend time in nature, satisfaction guaranteed.

October 10, 2021

Take your Camera on your Next Drive and Turn Off your GPS App

Spending an extra hour on a road less traveled will often reveal new imagery for you to capture with your camera.

My GPS navigation apps have been pointing the way while I drive for years. Whether I’m using Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps or my ancient Garmin, technology has been mapping my ‘fastest’ routes to my destinations. Of course, I sometimes wonder if the AI algorithms are actually sending me the longer way. That’s why I often run two apps simultaneously to see if I can generate directional consensus.

Yes, it feels imperfect, but it usually gets the job done for this city boy, who grew up in the easy-to-navigate box grid of Manhattan’s Upper East Side. (Complicated navigation challenges on the road have always been solved by my wife.)

The Value of Adding an Extra Hour to your Trip
I usually prioritize the shortest travel time when I’m in the car, but if you turn off your navigation app and take a little more time on the road less traveled, you might be pleasantly surprised by what you come across. I know this is not a revolutionary idea, but I’ve found that applying it for an hour or so on drives you’ve previously taken can expose you to new scenery, while not dramatically sacrificing your planned arrival time.

No, you’re not going off the grid for the day. You’re just taking the other route your GPS has shunned, possibly due to just a few extra driving minutes.

Taking my Time Driving through Connecticut
I recently applied this visual exploration strategy on a drive back from northwestern Connecticut with the hopes of finding some quintessential New England fall scenery to photograph.

I was not disappointed.

Something New is Just Around the Corner
If you’re in search of new imagery to capture but don’t have a whole day to explore, turning off your GPS app for an hour or so while driving and sticking to local roads can offer the perfect solution.

October 25, 2020

Why It’s Time to Focus on the Details

**What I discovered on my hike with my family led me to realize how to better handle the stress so many of us are feeling these days…**

“You can’t see the forest for the trees.” That’s what someone might tell you when you don’t see the big picture. But I think much of today’s global outlook is so daunting that it might make sense to take a little pleasure in the smaller details you could be missing while COVID-19 dominates our collective.

This past weekend, my family and I took a hike through Ward Pound Ridge Reservation in Pound Ridge, New York. There’s nothing like taking a brisk walk on a fall day during foliage season. Unfortunately, we found the forested terrain past its peak colors, and disappointingly, many of the leaves were already on the ground.

But that’s not my headline. That’s because I decided to take another look and focus in on the detail. I pulled out my Panasonic Lumix LX10 camera and adjusted it to manual focus. And then it was time to get close. Really close.

You know what? There was plenty of color. Everywhere. It was usually hidden amongst the muted browns. But it was there. Color was everywhere in a forest of browning foliage decay. And so I started snapping away.

Winter is coming, and this could be an especially tough one. But that doesn’t have to be the only outlook. I think in stressful times like these, it’s especially important not to lose track of some of the happier details that may matter more than you know.

And discovering warm color in the middle of a cold forest on a gray day is one way to keep a balanced perspective… so you can also continue to see the forest for the trees.