Leaf Peepers Unit ! (Oak Ridge: oil, ticket, building)

[LauraC]

Originally Posted by Tennesseestorm

Beautiful photos Laura and MB!

Well, I just got back from visiting relatives in northwestern South Carolina, but along the way I took some photos... they initially start out in mountainous east Tennessee on I26 and show how the leaf color is so much less as we enter South Carolina.

Tennesseestorm, how would you compare the same places to last year at this same time?

kamoshika, do you think your colors come faster because you are further east or further north or higher up? Or, is it just because it has been colder in Kingsport, longer?

Tinman, to answer your question, my camera is a Panasonic FZ18. It's an ultrazoom with some manual control options. I call it a tweener. It's between a point and shoot and a digital SLR. I got it because I like to take photos of birds and you can't get close to them and they're tiny so I wanted as much zoom as possible with the ability to crop and enlarge (megapixels) on the computer. The ultrazoom has 18x optical zoom but if you change the pixels from 8 to 5, you can get a 23x optical zoom. The photos almost always need computer tinkering and if you crop and resize to make your tiny subject bigger, you get more noise in the photo...or it's more apparent. Eventually, I suppose I'll get a good digital slr (I really need a filter) because the photos are so much better but right now I'm not keen on lugging around lenses and other attachments/equipment and the birds don't sit there and wait for you to make manual adjustments to your camera for the perfect shot...which, in my opinion, is why you see a lot of great bird photos at feeders by casual hobbyists like me but birds in the woods photos, not so much.

[kamoshika]

Originally Posted by LauraC

kamoshika, do you think your colors come faster because you are further east or further north or higher up? Or, is it just because it has been colder in Kingsport, longer?

We tend to be 3-4 degrees cooler than where you are, so that does have something to do w/ our earlier colors (prob. 6-8 days before y'all in a normal year). This year, our low temps reached the mid- to upper 30s from Oct. 2-4 while Oak Ridge was in the low 40s during that same period, and I think that led to a color boost in some areas around here.

But I'm a bit baffled w/ the foliage this year as there doesn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to it. Whereas we peaked in mid-November in Kingsport last year, some heavily wooded hills between here in Bristol peaked 3 weeks earlier. This year, those same hills are nearing peak, much of Warriors Path State Park is already at or past peak and most of Kingsport has sporadic color, but we still have a good bit more than Rogersville or Greeneville. Foliage changes seem to be a lot less predictable these days, I'm sure in part from the drought.

[SPLIT]

Gang: Guess they qualify as they have leaves. Maybe a tad early , but our sidewalk CAMELLIA has put out two tone blooms for its 1st time. Pink & White leaves with yellow center. These also get very fragrant.
. Maybe 70 ft Black Walnut past its leaf peak, but a few more Green golf balls to drop. Chattanooga forum had some posts on these. Know the wood is valuable $$, also the roots for making Gun / rifle stock handles. Maybe 7 or 8 others along the Trail. Two church neighbors will help OPEN or process for Holiday nut cakes.
..

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[Tennesseestorm]

Originally Posted by LauraC

Tennesseestorm, how would you compare the same places to last year at this same time?

Well, this year has been strange. Last October was very warm with little cold. Its been warm this October as well, but with a couple of more harsh cool spells.

In spots, it seems like some trees have progressed more than this time last year, while other areas seem the same. Still seeing alot of green trees around here.

[Tinman313]

Originally Posted by LauraC

Tennessee Storm, how would you compare the same places to last year at this same time?

kamoshika, do you think your colors come faster because you are further east or further north or higher up? Or, is it just because it has been colder in Kingsport, longer?

Tinman, to answer your question, my camera is a Panasonic FZ18. It's an ultra zoom with some manual control options. I call it a tweener. It's between a point and shoot and a digital SLR. I got it because I like to take photos of birds and you can't get close to them and they're tiny so I wanted as much zoom as possible with the ability to crop and enlarge (megapixels) on the computer. The ultra zoom has 18x optical zoom but if you change the pixels from 8 to 5, you can get a 23x optical zoom. The photos almost always need computer tinkering and if you crop and resize to make your tiny subject bigger, you get more noise in the photo...or it's more apparent. Eventually, I suppose I'll get a good digital slr (I really need a filter) because the photos are so much better but right now I'm not keen on lugging around lenses and other attachments/equipment and the birds don't sit there and wait for you to make manual adjustments to your camera for the perfect shot...which, in my opinion, is why you see a lot of great bird photos at feeders by casual hobbyists like me but birds in the woods photos, not so much.

Still very nice well cropped / edited photo's... I'm also looking at a bigger camera making decisions before Santa gets here.......

[LauraC]

Got a good website page for leaf peepers to put in their Favorites. It's the UT arboretum's website on Fall Color. It helps you to identify the trees by their leaves and tells you about weather, chemistry, physics and geometry as it relates to fall foliage in the state.

The University of Tennessee - Forest Resources Research and Education Center

[Grizzlybear34]

Alright, these are not in Tennessee, but since this is the forum I hang out in, this is where I will post them, if that is okay. We took these pictures in Bryson City, North Carolina, this past weekend. I'd say peek season is going to happen there within two weeks, since I still saw plenty of green.

[Tennesseestorm]

Thats a beautiful area!

[LauraC]

The WATE weather guy showed a map last night (or the night before) that indicated the Smokies will be 75 - 100% this coming week and that the rest of us west of the Smokies (valley and plateau) aren't there yet.

[mbmouse]

I noticed a lot of color change up here in the Tri-Cities today...maybe we will be hitting our peek in the next couple of days?