I've started my forecast and predictions for fall foliage in New England. If you want to compare 2012 to what I perceive at this early date for 2013 then you can read my blog on Jeff foliage.com. In my article there I explain what I saw  last year and why I feel the coming fall foliage season will be the way it is.

2013 fall foliage forecast

I'm going to say simply that as of this moment, I would say the outlook is good based on the factors that I outline in my article on my fall foliage blog. But I also have to say that so many factors will contribute to the fall colors and a failure in any of them will degrade the foliage viewing in New England.

Warming trend

Right now I'm concerned with a short warm up this coming week. If we enjoyed a week or three of unseasonably warm temperatures then we could see trees starting their buds early (far too early and this is a bad way to start the year off. 

I'm also hoping for more snow. We need the cold temps to really let the trees rest before the ground warms up again and they start producing Chlorophyll. Also, we need the snow or rain but I prefer the snow... It's much prettier in New England with a nice thick blanket of snow.

I will be producing fall foliage forecasts once a month based on the long range predictions by the NOAA climate prediction folks and my own observations.

If you would like to see my 2012 forecasts then visit Jeff Foliage.com and look on the menu line for forecasts and foliage reports, this will give you an idea of what I write about in my forecasts.

Jeff "Foliage" Folger

Shooting stars and the resulting trails is fairly simple and only requires a few pieces of equipment. 

1. A camera capable of long exposures 30 seconds or a bulb setting (open shutter longer)
2. A tripod that is sturdy
3. Those are the biggies and while you can go into things like extra batteries and cable release, only those two items are critical.

I think the first thing I thought when my photographer friend, Tom Gaitley told me that he was out at Annisquam light looking for star shots and asked if I wanted to come along... Sure I said... But by the end of the night (remember, 13 Dec, 29 degrees, and a clear night) I was saying what was I thinking?

It wasn't that bad but I wished I dressed warmer and maybe brought some chemical hand warmers. :-)

I've seen my share of star shots and star trails and the one thing that makes them great is having an object on the ground to anchor the shot.

This evening we had the Annisquam lighthouse as our anchor. I took a couple of 4-5 minute shots and then I wanted to make a star trail shot. Star trails are accomplished by leaving the shutter open for a long period of time. How long is long? Well 5 minutes at least but in general any thing over 30 seconds is long enough to start to see the stars elongate into streaks of lights.

There are many techniques to be tried and I have yet to try them all...

The images below were either a 30 second exposure with different treatments the star trails was 51 images combined, each taken at 30 seconds in the raw format. I light painted the the lighthouse with my head lamp switched to its red mode. It's not very bright but for 20-30 seconds it is seen by the camera.

Do you need a lighthouse? Of course not I included a tree shot that was next to the lighthouse.

Jeff Folger

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This fall foliage season wasn't an easy one but it was a glorious one!

I saw such beautiful colors from Northern New Hampshire to Connecticut and everywhere in between.

This one was in one of my favorite locations, a cemetery and it was one of the older cemeteries being in Ipswich Massachusetts off 1A.

In my travels I always tell people to just get out and explore. Take a good map and if you can a GPS.  Why both??? Am I mad or do I just get lost easily? :-)

Well instead of rewriting the answer to this question please visit my Fall foliage blog that covers the Art of getting lost!

I hope you enjoy looking at my New England fall foliage body of work. I travel all over new England exploring the nooks and crannies trying to find views that people usually miss on a day to day basis. Some days I get lucky and some days not.. But it's always interesting no matter what I find. 

Jeff “Foliage” Folger
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We drove along route 119 and arrived in Townsend Mass on 11 October 2012. The colors were sparse but then I saw this bandstand and the beautiful gold maple standing above it. I of course got out to look the scene over the goldish green colors of the maple glowed in the afternoon sun.

Jeff “Foliage” Folger

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Just posted a new article on the real covered bridge in Old Sturbridge village and what looks to be one but is actually something else... http://new-england-foliage.com/a-vermont-covered-bridge-in-massachusetts/

Secret Places in New England

You know them, little out of the way places, forgotten by most everybody during their rush of daily activities.  Maybe you’ve found a few of your own that you like to share?

This begins during my first fall foliage trip with my now, wife. We were traveling in the RV and based in Quechee, Vt. (This is also known as  zone based exploring) We traveled over route 107, to get to Quechee, and the color along 107 almost had me driving off the road, and with an RV that isn’t a good thing.  That afternoon we were retracing our steps and needing gas, we stopped at the junction of routes 4 and 107, at Dick’s gas station. I went in to pay and met Dick.

Now here is the secret of finding fall color… shhh… don’t tell anyone, ok?  I asked Dick where there was good spots to find fall color.  That’s it, just ask a local and assuming they’re as nice as he is, you’ll get all the spots in a ten mile radius. Well, he told us to drive up the road a piece (don’t ask me how far a “piece” is) and take the Old main road which follows the river and doesn’t get much use any more.  Apparently they cut a new road that was straighter and more direct than the old main road.  We found it and followed it along the stream and stopped a few times for me to take a few pictures. It was late in the day and overcast but this can be a real good time to photograph color, since it saturates the colors.  The stream was moving slow like molasses, so the reflections of the trees on the other bank were very clear.  With the day overcast, like this the colors were very deep and dark and the reflections of leaves and boulders alike were mirror like.  This is why we travel the back roads of New England, to find little surprises like this.

Don’t miss Part 2 What can be found off a rail trail…

Jeff Foliage

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