Sunday drives...who does not like getting away for a few hours with your favorite music (or audio book) and losing yourself in the countryside. All the better when it is a lovely Fall day in the North East and you have your camera.

Sunday October 9, I found myself driving through and around Bennington Vermont at about peak foliage for Southern Vermont and Northwestern Massachusetts. The sky was mostly cloudy and overcast throughout the afternoon with the occasional breaks in the clouds. The yellows and oranges of the foliage were quite spectacular in the Green Mountains.

For the day's drive, I had the Fuji X100s. All images were shot handheld and processed in Adobe Lightroom CC for exposure compensation and crop. The panoramas were created in Lightroom CC also. A few color images were processed in Nik Software's Color Efex Pro 4 and the black and white conversions were created in Silver Efex Pro II.

Downtown Bennington in and around the monument was quite busy with people and traffic enjoying the views, taking photos, and generally enjoying the day.

My first stop was at the Old First Church in Bennington and the adjoining cemetery. Working around the visitors, I managed to capture a few images of the church and the view.

After stopping at the Old First Church, I headed up in the Green Mountains on Route 9, or the Molly Stark Trail. I travel this road often throughout the year on my way to and from New Hampshire. There are several locations east of Bennington where you are immersed in the hillsides. I stopped at several location along the way to take photos as I worked up, then down, then back up the hill.

After several stops along the Molly Stark Trail, I turned south through the hills and along the back roads of Vermont making my way towards North Adams and Williamstown Massachusetts. The images below were taken on these back roads in changing light conditions.

Winding through North Adams and Williamstown on Route 2, I made my way south to the head of the Mohawk Trail that winds through the Taconic Trail State Forest over the Taconic ridge. At the top at the trail head to the Taconic Crest Trail, I stopped and took photos. Immediately below is an image looking northwest into New York towards the Adirondacks. The image at the start of this post is looking east into Massachusetts and Vermont.

Thanks for stopping by today!

For full screen images click below.