Good afternoon and Happy Autumn Equinox everyone! This seasonal change always brings a lot of emotions for me. Usually come late August/early September you can just feel nature’s life cycle winding down and I can say I have felt that very distinctly this year. But then, right around now and going into October, the changing leaves and crisp air tend to get me fired up for the last hurrah, Nature’s Grand Finale!
I’d be lying if I said this hasn’t been an extremely challenging year, but I am so excited and looking forward to the next few weeks -
I’ll be heading out Thursday for Vermont to try a brand new festival in Quechee, near the popular town of Woodstock. The show runs Friday to Sunday, hours and specs here - www.brandonklinewnp.com/art-festival-lineup-2025 - Anna and our dogs will join me over the weekend for camping at Quechee State Park and then we’ll head up to the Northeast Kingdom for the following week of camping and hopefully catching the spectacular display of Autumn Foliage up there!
Then the weekend of Columbus/Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I’ll be in Northhampton, MA for the Paradise City Arts Festival. And with any luck, I hope to get some good backpacking in during that first full week of October!
So, if you find yourself in New England during any of these time frames, I’d love for you to come see me at the shows and enjoy Autumn’s show as well, New England rarely disappoints!
I plan on lining up weekly Photo Spotlights to be released from now through October/early November showcasing some of my favorites of the season and will keep you posted as I can…
Oh and the on-line store is still open, any orders placed while I’m on the road will be fulfilled as soon as I can (approximately a 2-3 week timeframe).
Ok, here’s the fun stuff…
“To Last a Lifetime”
“It was myself, my brother and our father, in The Great Smoky Mountains National Park for the first time and the first time my brother and I got our Dad out backpacking! It was truly unique experiencing these beautiful Appalachian Mountains on this grand of a scale and just how bio-diverse these ancient Smokies really are!
Despite being one of the wettest and dampest adventures overall that I have experienced, and thusly being a bit of a damper for our father, it was nonetheless an amazing experience traversing through different climate zones and such a variety of forest types. From mixed deciduous hardwoods, through rhododendron tunnels (which we dubbed “the enchanted emerald forest”), and up to huge Hemlock realms we hiked.
This image is, to me, a beautiful representation to sum up our adventure. The photograph was taken right beside our camping location on a mid-September's late afternoon. To my companions chagrin (haha!), the fog really made the atmosphere for me, creeping through this dense forest of towering Hemlocks and Red Maples. As I was setting up my camera, my brother was asking me where exactly I was going to hang my hammock...
“Oh, you mean using that dead tree there?” he asked.
“Ahh I’m sure it’s fine” I responded.
Eeeeerrrrrrrr, BOOM! About 30 feet to my right, a tree fell over... No one hurt, laughs all around, and needless to say I reconsidered my sleeping placement.
We soon got a fire going to warm the spirit and later were serenaded to sleep by the chattering katydids and crickets in a thundering echo like I have never heard before... It all still rings so loud in my mind. Much like the ancients dwelling here, memories were made "To Last a Lifetime."
“Of Things to Come”
“A little known image in my portfolio, as I don’t typically advertise it or have it on display in my booth. But I still love to gaze at it from time to time and is about as good of a presentation of a close-up as you will find in my portfolio.
The reason, I share it along with “To Last a Lifetime" you ask?
Well, the reason is quite simple - you see, if you were standing right where I was at the same moment I was when I photographed “To Last a Lifetime” and you panned the camera down towards your feet… Ta-Dah!
I just loved how damp and green the forest floor was and having this perfectly placed Red Maple leaf adorned in its Autumn hues just laying there, recently dropped from the towering tree canopy above on this mid-September day, whispering a signal to us “Of Things to Come.”
Find them both in the store directly here! -
www.brandonklinewnp.com/printpurchasing/to-last-a-lifetime
www.brandonklinewnp.com/printpurchasing/of-things-to-come
And as always, any questions, concerns or anything, don’t hesitate to reach out to me!
All my best,
Brandon