Taking a break from household duties, John Adamski goes on a color run using his truck and favorite camera, seeking the beauty of autumn in the Finger Lakes.
Story and photos by John Adamski
This past Monday was a good time to photograph fall foliage – especially after wrenching my back while working on my woodpile in the morning. Without a doubt, my driver’s seat is the most comfortable chair that I own. I headed for Canadice Lake, which is usually quite colorful at this time of year because of the hardwood forest that surrounds it. I found lots of yellow and gold but not much red yet. Peak colors here are still a few days away. The kayaker had just arrived and went back to his car for his paddle.
Shooting between an oak and a hickory tree, I was able to pick up the orange leaves of a small sassafras tree and the yellow leaves of another small shrub, which are highlighted by the bright blue water and sky. At three miles long and a half-mile wide, Canadice is the smallest of New York’s eleven Finger Lakes and the highest in elevation at 1,100 feet. It is 90 feet deep.
After leaving Canadice Lake, I drove south through Springwater and Wayland and was surprised to see how much more vivid the foliage was just a few miles away from the lake. The stark white trunk of this aspen tree, in contrast with the bright red and orange surrounding foliage, caught my attention. Often mistaken for a birch tree, the aspen, or white poplar, is the most widely-distributed tree in North America, ranging from Canada to Mexico and from coast to coast.
I came upon this cluster of burning bush, an ornamental shrub, growing alongside a barn in Cohocton, which really brightened up an otherwise ho-hum autumn landscape. On the horizon, you can see part of the controversial wind farm that is located between Cohocton and Naples. Each wind turbine stands 44 stories tall.
