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Douro River Vineyards

Flamenco Madrid

Susan and I have just returned from a wonderful two weeks in Spain and Portugal. The trip centered on a week-long cruise down the beautiful Douro River. Before embarking on the river, we spent several days in Madrid with excursions to explore the classic city of Toledo and the University town of Salamanca. The Douro is one of the most beautiful rivers I have seen, nestled in lovely steep hills covered with terraced vineyards. The river features a scattering of snug little villages and farms with none of the industrial development seen in abundance on many other European rivers. The Douro drops through a series dramatic locks to the Atlantic in the city of Porto. We finished our trip with several days in Lisbon then flew home, thankfully without any travel complications other than the unavoidable jet lag and mild cases of COVID. All-in-all a great trip blessed with nearly 2000 pictures that I will be working on for the next several months. You can follow my progress on my Spain Portugal Gallery at my website. 

Lights of Porto Portugal

October Glow Guilford Vermont

 We tend to schedule our foreign trips for the fall away from the summer heat and crowds, but I always try to get most of the spectacular New England fall color before we head out. This year’s autumn show was a bit muted, but I still caught some nice color before our trip. Returning after the first week in November, I expected that we would be thoroughly settled into the bland stick season, but I was pleased to discover two flashes of brilliant red among the usual flat tones of dirt and decay. 

Japanese Maple

 As I expected, on arrival home my Maples, Birches, Black Cherries and even the Oaks had lost almost all their leaves, but I was happy to see that my sturdy little Japanese Maple was still showing its lustrous red glow. This tree always hangs on to its foliage a week or two longer than all the surrounding trees and this year it hung on to great me with a welcoming splash of color.

 

Shortly after our return the tree finally surrendered its leaves and I retreated to the studio for my usual November stick season work of editing the pile of autumn foliage and travel images, but then I was treated to one more unexpected splash of color. Earlier this week, it was reported that there was a possibility of a display of the northern lights as far south as our home in southern New Hampshire. Many times, I have been disappointed by these predictions, with my endurance of night-time cold being rewarded only with blank colorless skies. Tuesday night, however, while accompanying Benji on his last lawn visit of the evening, I noticed a brilliant red swarth of color across the western sky. I grabbed my camera and raced to a vantage point on the edge of Spofford Lake, with an unobstructed view to the north. The red blotch was still hanging in the sky to the west, beginning to fade, but still visible to the unaided eye. I quickly set the camera on the tripod, made my best guess at infinity focus, and grabbed a couple of 30 second exposures at f 4.5 and an ISO of 400. Remarkably the red blasted through, although not with the flowing sheets of color that I expected. I later learned that the red color comes from activation of oxygen molecules in the upper atmosphere, where they are less perturbed by currents that are more prevalent at lower altitudes. I was thrilled with the images but surprised that I wasn’t seeing much color to the north. Almost as an afterthought I shifted and grabbed one image from the dull sky to the north. Only later, as I examined the images on the computer, did I discover the interesting array of colors in the northern sky.

 

North Across Spofford Lake

It was there that I saw the red bands complemented by sheets of a greenish yellow glow. It turned out that that exposure of “blank” sky was the most interesting. 

 For years, I have hoped to catch a dramatic aura borealis. I was thrilled that we were welcomed back home among the boring November stick season with these two surprising splashes of nature’s color. Now back the studio until the landscape is once again invigorated with a fresh lustrous kiss of snow. www.partridgebrookreflections.com

Spring Attractions 2025

West Guilford

Spring is progressing and I have been getting out trying to capture the beauty before it disappears.   For me, the season really comes to an end when the fresh, multi-toned green of the early foliage settles into the rather monotonous deep greens of summer. Surely, the bright spring flowers continue to explode, but once the variety of colors in the trees and scrubs begin to fade, I’m ready to move on to summer.

 

Guilford Vermont

Overall, it has been a good spring.  After a prolonged late winter “stick season”, the buds slowly began to pop.  As always, I love the variety of greens that decorate the hills and roadsides.  I call it our second “autumn” season of color and in many ways it is more interesting and longer lasting – with the  added benefit of no leaves to rake after it is all over.

 

Pleasant valley Farm Rockingham Vt

First there is the Flowing Water

Partridge Brook Chesterfield New Hampshire

Chesterfield NH

Of course, early spring isn’t only about the waves of color.  The second major attraction is the flowing water. Even without much melting snowpack the streams and waterfalls have been bursting with this years spring rains.  Waterfall photography is often an early spring gift even before the greens begin to grow.

 

Chesterfield Gorge

This year, I enjoyed a fun early waterfall exploration with a short workshop for a group from the Monadnock Garden Club.  I had planned to visit a number of waterfalls around Chesterfield area over a morning in early May.  I first brought the group to Chesterfield Gorge.  The Gorge has a wonderful variety of dramatic drops and babbling cascades and it turned out that location provided more than enough to keep the folks busy for the entire morning.  The group came with a wide range of experience and equipment, from sophisticated digital SLR’s to iPhones.  I was happy that everyone had a tripod, but some barely qualified for that designation.  There certainly were many opportunities for diplomatic instruction and the brisk flow of the stream provided all we needed to capture lovely images.

Saxon River Falls

Brockway Mills Falls Chester Vt

The waterfall photography has been great all spring and I have been out a number of times to catch the action.  I love it when I discover new waterfalls.  This year, my friend Lucky introduced me to a couple of dramatic falls around the Bellows Falls, Saxon River area in Vermont.  It is exciting that, no matter how long I wander about the roads of my corner of New England, I still can find fresh areas of beauty and wonder.

Partridge Brook Chesterfield NH

There are various ways that shutter speed can render the appearance of flowing water.  Rapid exposures freeze the splash capturing the turbulent energy of the water, but I continue to be enamored with the soft dreamy appearance created by long exposures.  Previously, I have discussed my view of the optimal shutter speed, but it depends on the rate of flow, the distance to the falls as well as your own taste.  My goal is to get a soft look without losing all the detail in the water.  There is no one “perfect” shutter speed, a bit of experimentation is usually required.

Partridge Brook Dam Spofford NH

Nearby, my local falls were all brimming with action.  Partridge Brook, which flows behind my house on its way to the Connecticut River, provided many interesting cascades as it ran through the old mill dam and down alongside the road toward Westmoreland.  The Gulf Road, in the southwest corner of Chesterfield, has a number of falls which are dependent on the fresh run-off, but when the rain is strong, the falls can be dramatic.   

 

Gulf Road Falls Chesterfield

Jelly Mill Falls Dummerston Vt

I also got across to Vermont for one of my favorite falling water spots in Dummerston, where Stickney Brook drops through the Jelly Mill Falls, with a series of lovely cascades to the West River.

 

Spring Green

Roads End Farm Chesterfield NH

As spring progresses, my attention is increasingly drawn to the evolving color of the bursting greenery.  It was great to have an excuse to explore around my familiar locations in both New Hampshire and Vermont.  

 

 

Each day, I found different shades of color as the season progressed.  I could also vary the colors by simply heading north or south, or by changing my altitude. The greens are settling out down here in far southern New Hampshire, but just last week I was able to catch some beautiful hillside greens on a misty afternoon farther north in Charlestown along the Connecticut River.  

 

Twin Peaks Charlestown NH

Every year, I am amazed at how quickly the leaves explode on the trees.  They must know how short a season they have to store energy for the long winter.  It is sad to see the multitude of shades of green settle out, but I do have a pile of images to work through, and I can sit back and enjoy the relaxing shade until the blast of autumn color shakes me from my summer lethargy.

Broad Brook Guilford Vt

 

Jeff Newcomer
www.partridgebrookreflections.com

 

Monadnock Garden Club Waterfall Workshop

 

Shooting the Gorge April 2025

Upper Fall Chesterfield Gorge

It has been a while since I hosted a Photography Class or photo workshop.  It all started with my dissatisfaction with resorting to Zoom courses begun in response to the pandemic.  I missed terribly the face-to-face exposure of live classes and workshops.  As the pandemic waned it seemed hard to get back to a schedule of programs.  Of course, a touch of laziness also contributed.

For a number of years, I had offered my Introduction to Digital Photography Course through the Keene Community Education Program, but recently the program has dropped general enrichment courses such as mine and now focuses solely on academic, and vocational enrichment classes, including apprenticeships. I found myself looking for a new home. 

Big Drop Chesterfield Gorge

I have enjoyed the opportunities I have had to share my passion for photography and photographic editing and I have greatly missed teaching about the amazing advancements in digital image making.  I know that I need to find ways to get back out there.

It was with all this I mind that I was excited to hear from my friend and former student Robin Turnbaugh with a request to lead members of the Monadnock Garden Club on an abbreviated spring waterfall photography workshop.  Last Thursday, I was joined by a group of enthusiastic club members for a morning exploration of some of the local falling water.  A half day is short, but after a brief discussion of the key aspects of waterfall photography, we headed out to sample the beauty of the spring runoff at Chesterfield Gorge.

The Gorge provided the opportunity to sample a variety of falls and cascades in one compact area.  As I suspected the group came with a range of equipment from sophisticated Digital cameras to one iPhone.  Everyone had tripods, but a few of them were quite flimsy or actually falling apart.  Regardless, there were great opportunities for teaching, and everyone seemed to come away with some nice images and, hopefully, many important lessons. Given that this was a garden club group, my only disappointment was that the early date precluded any exploration of streamside spring wildflowers. While coaching the participants I was able to grab only a couple of my own images, but my shots were all hand-held with no chance to break out my tripod.

Gorge Cascade Teeth

Catsbane Brook Falls

For my part, I finished with a desire for more.  I would have loved to have had more time to tour some of the other waterfalls in the Chesterfield area, including those along the Catsbane Brook and the Gulf Road.  My usual waterfall workshops span a day and one-half over a weekend and include classic spots in both Cheshire and Hillsboro Counties. Perhaps I can drum up some interest in a more extensive workshop in a few weeks.