Vermont Fall Foliage - 2025 - Part 3 - The Search Continues

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE OTHER significant "agenda" shot for me was the Fleury Maple Farm, in Richford. Over the past 2 years, I have seen shots of this picturesque farmstead and wondered where it was (and why I had never seen - or shot - it before). It is not in the PDF, because neither of us had photographed it. Rich had a pretty good idea where it was, and racing (we thought) against dwindling colors, we made it our morning destination Sunday Morning. As it turned out, we needn't have worried, as the color "hung in" in this location for several more days.

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025

BEING A somewhat unusual year, we searched for two things: good color and certain "agenda list" scenes. Whenever possible, we hoped the two would combine for great photographs. The Fleury Maple Farm was on my personal agenda and - happily - did just that. Sunday morning dawned with nearly crystal blue (and perhaps unfortunately, cloudless) skies. I was pleased with our take on Sunday morning, particularly with the glow behind the distant mountain range. Rich, though, wished for something more in the skies. We agreed that time and conditions permitting, we would re-visit this scene before the week was out. 

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WE DID, getting back there 3 days later, on a day that was predicted to be partly rainy, but clearing later. We headed out that morning in clouds and drizzle, hoping maybe things would open up and present the Fleury scene with more dramatic skies. Again, I wasn't disappointed. Some blue sky eventually appeared just above the clouds for the more intimate shot above, of the barns. Below, the clouds were persistent, but with enough variety to provide interest. I thought about the scene below as a candidate for B&W. But when I got home and processed it, I thought my B&W version was "just o.k." I wanted some "pop" in the image and I think my semi-"colorized" version below does that, revealing just some hints of the blue sky to come, while adding visual weight to the red barn and yellow flowers. Opinions vary on these image experiments, but I like it.

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

ONE OF the surprising things to us was how the color maintained in that part of the state. Generally thought to be one of the first areas to succumb to leaf drop because of its well northern proximity, we marveled that the best color we saw all week was up along the Vermont - Canada border! I got one of my favored "up close" shots and though I like the color, shape and texture, I really think this one favors including the distant mountain range in the background. What I missed was moving even further back than we did. I saw that image days later, by another prolific Vermont photographer, and asked myself why we didn't move further up the road and look at the scene. Guess I will just have to go back. 😃

Fleury Maple Farm - Richford, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

I HAVE to say I don't know how we missed this one, but it ranks up there with the 2 or 3 best farm scenes in Vermont that I have photographed. It has a couple things going for it. First, it is on a back road that doesn't appear heavily traveled. Second, it is tucked way up in the Northwest corner of the NEK (maybe not even technically in the NEK), and therefore, off the beaten path, which makes it - I hope - more likely to be admired from afar than overrun with tourists.

Farm on Irish Settlement Road - Underhill, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THAT AFTERNOON, we had planned to meet up with a group of friends (not coincidentally, Carol, Margy Meath, and Betsy McDonough Brown; co-admins on our Facebook Group: Vermont Fall Foliage Fanatics), to shoot some farms in the area between Cambridge and Underhill known as "Pleasant Valley."

Farm on Irish Settlement Road - Underhill, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

BETSY, A native Vermonter from the nearby Burlington Area, showed us another farm, just off the Pleasant Valley Road, on Irish Settlement Road. My first impression was that it was a kind of one-dimensional scene, but our first view of it was during the mid-afternoon and the light was still pretty harsh, which I am sure affected my viewpoint. Rich and I returned later that afternoon as the light just began to come down and shot it. As we "worked" it I found that there were actually a couple different angles from which to shoot. The farmstead is right along the Irish Settlement Roadside. Across the road is a quite steep bank, and by scrambling up that bank, you get a nicer perspective of the trees and foliage in the background, and in the distance, Mt. Mansfield comes more fully into view. We had noted during our week that the western slopes were holding there foliage and color better, and this one faces east. This was some of the best foliage we saw all week long.

Somewhere near Montgomery Center on SR 118 - Montgomery, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

THE FOLLOWING morning, we were out again early, headed back to Montgomery, to shoot the farm we had scouted up the mountain the day before, on Black Falls Road, which starts near the foot of the Fuller Covered Bridge in the Village of Montgomery. As we approached Montgomery Center, just south of this, I spotted a farm road with a green tractor and a red and yellow implement out in the field behind it, waiting, no doubt, as its owner was, for daylight to begin the work day. The eastern slope, surprisingly, was still showing decent foliage coverage and color. What had originally drawn me was the curving drive out to the field. Ultimately though, it is the contrast of the light on the field that I think makes the image interesting.

Barn - Black Falls Road - Montgomery, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WE MADE our way on to Black Falls Road and up to the spot we had identified the day before as the most likely best vantage point to shoot the red barn from. While not the most exciting farmstead shot I have made over the years, the elements came together to frame it between some tall trees in the foreground and the color in the background was decent. All in all, we found some nice farmstead scenes this year.

West Hill Brook - Montgomery Center, Vermont
Copyright Andy Richards 2025 - All Rights Reserved

WHILE IN Montgomery, we returned to The Creamery Bridge to shoot the small stream - West Hill Brook - beneath it. I had been attracted to a colorful, reflective pool the day before when we were there, but it was too late, and the light just too harsh and bright. We spent the balance of the day doing some scouting for other possible shooting locations.