Grandview Barn near Stowe in Vermont

I’m just back from a gorgeous week near Stowe in Vermont to see and photograph the fall colors. Fall here in West Virginia is pretty nice, but the mix of maple trees and other hardwoods in New England seems hard to beat. We had tried to work out the best time to visit, but this proved to be a less than exact science, although the amount of information provided by Jeff “Foliage” Folger proved to be excellent. Jeff writes about and photographs the New England landscape and offers his own forecast of the peak period for fall colors and he turned out to be completely on the money. The colors were great (as you will see), but the entire week we were there was blessed with sunshine and clear days. Only the car complained, with 2500 new miles added to the clock. If you ever want to see the best that New England has to offer, please check out Jeff’s blog where he has a seemingly endless series of articles about the best things to see and do during the foliage season.

But in this article, I would like to focus on just one location – a historic barn owned by the Stowe Land Trust called Grandview Barn. The trust maintains the building and also the meadow and woodland to ensure that this picturesque rural scene is protected through the ages.

We found this barn on the corner of Upper Hollow Rd and Stowe Hollow Rd just outside Stowe in Vermont and visited it three times during our week. Its location was just perfect with the dirt roads giving a complete feeling of history. I challenged myself to photograph it in as many ways as I could without being too repetitive! This article is the result! All the images can be purchased for your wall with free shipping in the USA and Canada and a 30-day money back guarantee!

This first image is what you see when you arrive. I also thought a vertical format would be a good addition as well to match different types of decor:

The sky was particularly attractive that afternoon with the dappled white clouds. The roof and that small steeple also seemed to really tell the story of this barn and so I took a close up of that section:

The second time we visited, the grass inside the small fenced area had been mowed and that gave a new view of the barn through the gnarly old wooden posts and fences. I like this although the small fence line along the side of the barn spoiled it just a little perhaps?

I moved myself slightly for a different view, but then that metal gate that you can see above was in the way. This next step took quite a bit of time, but removing the gate in Photoshop turned out to be the way to improve the image!

A walk further up the road gave me an opportunity to see the barn from a totally different perspective across the meadow that the trust maintains:

And for my final picture, I wondered what a view from the air would look like? This is taken using my drone from alongside the road in the hollow. You see a different set of trees here, and I think these are perhaps even more colorful in this side lighting that the previous images. This had a little bit of work as well – power lines removed along the road. Those power lines seem to pop up everywhere!

But which is my favorite – I am really not sure, but perhaps I would go for the one with the gate removed. What do you think?