Late October Corn Maze

Boyden Farm ~ Cambridge, VT

Just like I had said in my last blog, fall is my favorite season. To expand on this passion I am sharing the more artistic photos of my journey through Boyden Farm's 12 acre corn maze, as well as a quick summary of what happens in a corn maze.

Venturing through the corn maze with me was Bryan and mutual friend Ed. Unfortunately for Ed he did not have muck boots like we did and got his sneakers very dirty and wet within the first 15 minutes of the adventure. This was due to extreme flooding in a section of the trail. Ed diverted from the path into the corn in order to avoid over-the-ankle water, but the corn field got the last laugh when the ground was anything but dry.
Bryan turned into the leader with Ed and I trailing behind, but we soon stripped him of deciding which way to go every time there was a fork in the trail. At first we took turns on who decides which way to go, but as the wrong paths became longer (we had to walk back to the fork and go the other way if it was a dead end) we started voting on which way to take and majority ruled.
At every fork in the maze there was a different sign ranging from "Lost Cows Ahead", "Watch for the Children of the Corn", "Beware of Dog", and "No Dumping Allowed" at which point Bryan pulled his pants down to show his butt and gave a thumbs up in front of the sign while in a squatting position. I spared my blog and didn't post that one.
The maze was still muddy in spots, and I luckily caught my balance after slipping backwards. At one point the guys were playing football, where I got a nice shot of Bryan throwing an ear of corn overhead. Another section of the corn maze Bryan stopped, disappeared into the side of the maze and returned with a dead mouse hanging by its tail. The mouse was then thrown right at me! Luckily, I dodged that one, but it was too close for laughs. 
After walking for about 45 minutes there was a crop circle just visible from the trail, which started a short conversation on aliens and the movie "signs". 
We were ready to stop walking up dead ends and get out of the maze!!  
There was a clearing shortly after the crop circles, it felt really good to step out of the maze and look at something other than corn. Deep Breathes. Back into the corn maze we went.
Over an hour after we entered the maze we finally saw an opening to the field. We had been walking for so long, and had to back track so many times we all questioned each other if it was honestly the end. 
It was; victory had never felt so good.

Hello, Autumn, My Old Friend



Manchester Valley

Who doesn't like it when the trees change from green to vibrant yellows, reds, oranges, pinks, and so on before falling to the ground? Or just sitting outside on a nice sunny day with a breeze blowing the leaves off half bare trees. This is my favorite season. Why? I'll tell you why. 

Fall is the only season you have the best of both worlds; the temperature is always warm, but not hot. Visually, its the best, because you have green grass, pumpkins, flowers, hay bales, corn stalks, and of course the ever changing leaves. It's sunny most days, but you get the occasional much needed shower; unlike winter where you are begging for a sunny day, or spring when showers are not wanted!

Food. Food is a main aspect of fall, especially living in Vermont. October defines cider donuts, apple cider, fresh picked apples, apple pie, fresh corn, corn fritters, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin bread, and later in the season pumpkin pie. I have exercised my mouth and have had all of these wonderful fall creations already!!

All Hallows Eve. Fall also represents Halloween nearing, my personal favorite holiday. Who doesn't like being able to dress up as who or whatever they desire...even if it is hardly enough fabric to cover your ass! What once was pillowcases full of candy is now costume contests and alcoholic drinks, but it is no less fun!! And who can forget to watch a few classic horror films as the holiday nears, I know I'm itching to see Hocus Pocus again! ...Don't judge me!!

And of course when all the fun is over, the leaves have fallen, and the pumpkins have rotted, its time to kill a Turkey! OK not really, they are already dead, plucked, and frozen, but Thanksgiving is right around the corner after Halloween. Lets be honest, we love stuffing our faces, getting drunk with family, and watching TV. It's the American way.

So hello Autumn, my old friend, don't leave too quickly, but when you do make sure it snows soon after so I can get on with my next favorite season, Winter.

Aladdin's Cloud

Remember when you were little watching Disney's Aladdin? Itching to just fast foward through Jasmin & Aladdin's midnight magic carpet song while they flew around the clouds.... Maybe it was released too late and you were already hitting puberty, but that is what these clouds reminded me of.

I considered photoshoping Aladdin on his magic carpet swirling around the cloud to add another dimension to it, but after some thought I realized I don't have that much time on my hands.

Feel free to drag this image to your desktop and add a magic carpet riding, genie bearing, princess loving, poor boy of your own. Share it on here if you want to show people how much free time you had!

Tunnels of Light

Have you ever wondered around a ski resort in the summer? One that isn't still covered in snow and ridable? Well, I did, and you wouldn't believe what I found! You know those dumb magic carpet things, basically a big conveyor belt for youngsters not ready for the lifts? Well, they are actually pretty cool looking in the summer with light shining through. I bet you wouldn't have known what you were looking at if I didn't tell you. If you live near a resort you too should check it out during it's off season, bring a picnic lunch and just relax. 

The Moon and a Boy

After receiving a new 70-300mm lens I didn't really know what to do with it! After all that time thinking to myself "man if only I could zoom in more" I have no good use for it now that it's mounted on my camera. Well, a few days went by and an opportunity presented itself- the moon! An eerie moon at that.

The Boy picture below is Bryan's nephew. Like most boys that was the only time during our visit he was still for 2 seconds. After this great photograph of the little man he was climbing in and out of his toy cars, climbing up gravel piles barefoot, and climbing up a tipped over wheelbarrow. When his father returned Colby greeted him with two swift feet in the face after being lifted up by his arms. That brought on a gargantuan smile! 

A Weeks Worth in 1 Post

Due to a car accident last Sunday my only concern was finding a new car to replace the totaled one. Unfortunately this took a toll on my normal day to day habits like photography and blogging about it :( .  Not to fret I accumulated not only an awesome new car, but  took enough photos for a blog!

^ I don't know if someone planted a sunflower seed in the middle of the pond or if by some strange miracle it seeded itself, but it was uncanny.

^This happened after a nice shower. I started searching for a rainbow once the sun came out, sure enough once heading up the road to my house there it was.Didn't even worry about my camera getting a few drops of water on it.

^The cloud photos were taken during a sunset. These 2 are my favorite, but the ever changing sky allowed me to capture mellow light blue and calm yellow clouds before the orange dominated!

And if you haven't noticed I've created a donation button to the right side of the blog. To give you a reason to donate some of your hard earned cash I've decided to give back for any donation of $20 or more--an 8x10 photo of your choice printed at my local photography store and mailed to you via USPS. Plus if you don't see what your looking for on my blog, just ask and chances are I have it! Of course you can see it before you decide! All donations go towards a new lens for my camera.

HDR generating software

HDR- High Dynamic Range photographs blend multiple exposures of a photo into one HDR image. The most popular of the HDR software is "Photomatix  Pro" which is for Mac or PC retails at $99 but you can try it for as long as you like by downloading it at HDRsoft, all your photos will just be watermarked with "photomatix" as you can see below. There are a handful of others- the free ones just don't do as much, and the other companies seem to all be more expensive.


When I first played with Photomatix I was under the impression I needed to capture one scene in 3 different exposures, but the program would never except them due to slight differences in dimensions...which I cannot explain. So I used one image and Gimpshop (free) to make the image overexposed by 2 stops and under exposed by 2 stops, exporting them as .tiff files; as well as turning the original into .tiff. After importing the three photos into Photomatix it generated the worst looking photo EVER!!! This is true HDR. Inorder to make it appealing I used the tone mapping sliders and just moved them until I liked what I saw. You can, however, at the bottom of the tone mapping sliders choose what it is you are turning into HDR and have the programs pre-determined settings do the work for you. Once I decided I was done and the photo looked as good as it ever will, I saved and exported it.


The image I used to test Photomatix is actually a sore story. Driving home from Stratton Resort there is this dead tree on the right in a decent sized field. I always mean to stop and photograph the tree, but the light is never quite right. This time when at the stop sign, I look over at the tree and there are 4 or 5 crows perched on all different branches of the dead tree. After pulling off the road and changing my camera settings, I get out of the car and walk to the edge of the field. The crows don't even move. I put my camera to my eye and before even focusing they fly away. This is the only shot I got with those damn crows in it!