Category: All Things Connecticut

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Winter’s Final Days in the Countryside

Yankee Farmlands № 59 (Old plows beside ornate round-roof barn, Colchester, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 59”
Old plows beside ornate round-roof barn
Colchester, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

With spring having arrived just about a week ago, it’s about that time for my on-going Yankee Farmlands project to make the change, as well! Next week’s addition to the series will be the first springtime farmland imagery this year. In the meantime though, I’ve released two final pieces from the very tail-end of winter.

In “Yankee Farmlands № 59” (at top), antique plows rest silently beside an elaborate, round-roof barn in Eastern Connecticut. With winter drawing to a close, the snows have melted away and soft clouds soar through the blue skies overhead.

If you were to briefly glance at this barn and expansive farm while driving by, it might be difficult to tell that it’s no longer an ordinary commercial operation. Roughly 16 years ago, the last of the previous owners donated the 170-acre farm –barns, machinery and all– for use as a unique “farm museum” where visitors can observe a broad range of both historical and modern farming equipment in use.

Yankee Farmlands № 58 (Snowy farm and hay wagons, Bethlehem, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 58”
Snowy farm and hay wagons
Bethlehem, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

“Yankee Farmlands № 58” (immediately above) captures one of winter’s final blows to the Connecticut landscape. Tractor tracks impressed in frozen mud guide us past wagons and wrapped hay bales into a snowy expanse of farmland in Western Connecticut.

For all of the advancements in mechanization that have revolutionized farming over the centuries, the typical hay wagon has actually changed very little. After all, they are basically just cargo trailers for hauling hay… there’s only so much room for innovation beyond improving materials. If you could drop farmers from the early-1800s into a modern farm, machines like tractors, disc plows and balers would be completely foreign to them. Hay wagons might be among the few pieces of heavy equipment that they’d recognize fairly easily.

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Visit my landing pages for “Yankee Farmlands № 58” and “Yankee Farmlands № 59” to buy a beautiful fine art prints or inquire about licensing either of these images.

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Be sure to check out all of the work in my on-going Yankee Farmlands project, a journey throughout Connecticut’s countryside in celebration of the agricultural heritage of New England.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Seeking Jackson Cove

Seeking the Cove (Seasonal Brook near Jackson Cove, Oxford, Connecticut)
“Seeking the Cove”
Seasonal brook near Jackson Cove, Oxford, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Bolstered by rains and recent snowmelts, a frenzied brook (photo at top) races down steep hillsides beneath a leaf-bare canopy. Warmer months lay ahead, but for now, resilient mosses are the only sign of life in this rugged forest.

Veil of the Housatonic Hills (Jackson Cove on the Housatonic River, Oxford, CT)
“Veil of the Housatonic Hills”
Jackson Cove on the Housatonic River, Oxford, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Small streams, such as this one in the Housatonic Valley with empties into Jackson Cove (photo above), are termed “seasonal brooks” and possess such small watersheds that they nearly run dry between late spring and autumn. Only come late winter and early spring (and possibly after hurricane-level rains) do they snap to life with meltwater and rainfall, swelling to become spirited brooks that eagerly carve their way down from the highlands en route to low-lying river valleys.

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Visit my landing page for “Seeking the Cove”, “Veil of the Housatonic Hills” or “Housatonic Driftwood” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing any of these images.

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Be sure to check out all of my work from Jackson Cove along the Housatonic River.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Further into Yankee Farmlands

Highland Cow (Roxbury, Connecticut)
“Highland Cow, 2015”
Roxbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

If you follow the work that I release each week, you’ve surely noticed regular installments of my Yankee Farmlands project, essentially an on-going photographic celebration of Connecticut’s agricultural heritage.

I released the first photograph in the series, “Yankee Farmlands № 1”, about 1½ years ago in September of 2014. Later this week, I’ll be rolling out “Yankee Farmlands № 58”. Suffice it to say that this has been a long and enjoyable endeavor and I’m certainly not done yet!

What you may not know is that I end up producing far more work during my travels than I can possibly fit into the formal project series. So, I’ve resolved to release some of these pieces from time to time. I produced this “portrait” at a hilly pasture in Roxbury where I discovered a herd of shaggy Highland Cattle idly grazing away during the final days of autumn last year.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “Highland Cow, 2015” to buy a beautiful fine art print.

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Be sure to check out all of the work in my on-going Yankee Farmlands project, a journey throughout Connecticut’s countryside in celebration of the agricultural heritage of New England.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

A Sweet Harvest

Yankee Farmlands № 57 (Tapped maple tree beside farm, New Hartford, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 57”
Tapped maple tree beside farm, New Hartford, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Against a bucolic backdrop of barns, pastureland and leafless forest, a tapped maple tree at the edge of the farm silently siphons sap into a collection bucket. Delicate clouds glide through blue skies overhead, heralding the arrival of milder weather as spring nears.

While we can’t say for certain when Native Americans living in the northeastern reaches of North America discovered the wonders of maple sap, the practice of collecting and boiling the sap down to a sweet, condensed liquid was already well-established when settlers arrived from Europe in the 1600s.

Although Canada now supplies most of the world’s maple syrup, New England remains the top-producing region in the United States. Vermont alone generates well over a million gallons each year, amounting to more than 5% of the world supply.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 57” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

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Be sure to check out more work from my on-going Yankee Farmlands project, a journey throughout Connecticut’s countryside in celebration the agricultural heritage of New England.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

West Beach Rugged

West Beach Rugged (West Beach, Westbrook, Connecticut)

 “West Beach Rugged”
Long Island Sound at West Beach, Westbrook, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

In my newly-released piece, “West Beach Rugged”, the morning sun climbs through heavy, humid air and feathery clouds, ushering in one of the final days of summer along the Connecticut coast. Gentle waves lap at a sandy seashore nearby, breaking upon scattered boulders encrusted with barnacles and seaweed.

The unseasonably warm weather we’ve been having so far this March has me daydreaming about warm beaches already, but I’m sure we’ll get a reality check soon enough!

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Simplicity

Simplicity (Boyd's Windmill, Middletown, Rhode Island)

Over the next couple weeks, I’m going to be processing all of my latest work from Aquidneck Island in Narragansett Bay. Much of my shooting time was spent at the beautiful Castle Hill Lighthouse on the southwest coast of Newport, but I also managed to work in Boyd’s Windmill.

Here’s a piece from that windmill which I was eager to develop ahead of the others. The title, “Simplicity”, really says it all. Between the silhouetted windmill vanes and the rich tones in the sky, the uncomplicated beauty encompassed in this piece resonated strongly with my first-hand impression of the windmill.

For the curious, Boyd’s Windmill was built just north of Newport in 1810 and harnessed the ocean breeze to grind grain for surrounding farmers.

Keep an eye out for more work from the Rhode Island coast over the upcoming months!

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

An Orchard Older than the Nation

Yankee Farmlands № 54 (Apple orchard, Middlefield, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 54”
Apple orchard at sunset, Middlefield, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Rolling hills bristling with apple trees are immersed in shadow as sunlight gently begins to slip from the Connecticut Valley. Snows from a recent storm cling stubbornly to a nearby hillside and the sky is smudged with swirling color as clouds drift overhead.

For a few reasons which I won’t discuss right now, I’ve generally refrained from naming the specific farms that are seen in my Yankee Farmlands project. But Lyman Orchards, which encompasses the apple trees seen in this piece and more than 1,000 surrounding acres, is truly deserving of some special attention.

This orchard is so old, it actually predates the United States. That’s right: it began on a modest 32 acres back in 1741, decades before the American Revolution. As if that alone isn’t fairly impressive, consider that the 275-year-old Lyman Orchards has been owned and operated by the Lyman Family since the very beginning. Today’s eighth-generation owners are hopeful that a ninth-generation of Lymans will step forward to continue this remarkable legacy well into the 21st century.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 54” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

A Crossing in Wintry Repose

A Crossing in Wintry Repose (West Cornwall Covered Bridge, Cornwall, Connecticut)
“A Crossing in Wintry Repose”
West Cornwall Covered Bridge, Cornwall, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

A jacket of snow-dusted ice clings to shallow boulders along the banks of the Housatonic River in Connecticut’s Northwest Hills. Further upstream, against a backdrop of foggy woodlands and steep hills, a long covered bridge faithfully spans the frigid gorge.

At more than 170 feet in length, the West Cornwall Covered Bridge is arguably the most impressive bridge of its type left in Connecticut. Given the cost of maintenance and increasingly heavier loads it was forced to endure since the mid-1800s, it’s nothing short of a miracle that the bridge has survived to the present day.

There were low points along the way, of course. In 1945, a tanker truck broke through the bridge floor and crashed into the river below. A couple decades later in the late 60s, state officials contemplated tearing it down, but were met with vehement opposition from the surrounding community. Instead, it was reinforced with carefully-hidden steel underpinnings, ensuring the bridge would stick around for several more generations to come. The project was a marvelous success, even earning Connecticut an award from the Federal Highway Administration for exemplary historic preservation.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “A Crossing in Wintry Repose” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Snows Fall over West Simsbury

Yankee Farmlands № 53 (Simsbury, Connecticut, USA)
“Yankee Farmlands № 53”
February snowstorm descends upon windswept farmlands
Simsbury, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Winter snows descend upon the farmlands of Northern Connecticut, blanketing hay wagons and a time-worn pasture shelter. Bare shade trees dot the landscape beyond, eventually giving way to the hazy silhouette of distant woodlands.

At first glance, snow-laden farms may seem rather dormant: tractors sit parked, fields lay barren and barns slumber away the winter. But historically, tireless New Englanders found ways to keep busy on the farm even during the colder months of the year.

With no fields to tend, farmers set off into their woodlots to fell trees which would eventually be used in the springtime to build and repair barns, fences and sheds. Seems like a terrible time for such strenuous outdoor labor, right? Maybe so, but there was an important advantage to this approach: it was far easier to haul heavy timber back to the farm on a sled over the snow than it would be to overload the frame and wheels of a creaky, old wooden cart in the summertime.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 53” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

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Be sure to check out all of the work in my on-going Yankee Farmlands project, a journey throughout Connecticut’s countryside in celebration of the agricultural heritage of New England.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Luminous Collinsville

Luminous Collinsville (Dams beside the old Collins Ax Factory, Collinsville, Canton, Connecticut)
“Luminous Collinsville”
Dams at the old Collins Axe Factory, Collinsville, Canton, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

In “Luminous Collinsville” (photo at top), just one the pieces I recently released featuring the historic Collins Ax Factory, mist rises from the Farmington River as it courses through old mill dams in the post-industrial factory town of Collinsville, Connecticut. Stricken by days of brutally cold winter weather, waters behind the spillway are glazed over with ice and snow-capped bedrock punctuates the river below.

Factory Town, Autumn Hush (Old Collins Axe Factory on the Farmington River, Collinsville, Canton, Connecticut)
“Factory Town, Autumn Hush”
Old Collins Axe Factory on the Farmington River, Collinsville, Canton, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

When the Collins Ax Factory opened as a modest mill on the banks of the Farmington River in the 1820s, nobody could’ve predicted the remarkable success that lay ahead. Over the next century, as its fame grew and business soared, the company expanded its facilities at the site, brought in rail lines, built bridges over the river, constructed extensive dams for waterwheels and hydroelectric plants and served as the hub for a community that is still called “Collinsville” to this day. My piece, “Factory Town, Autumn Hush” (above), portrays the main factory building beside a large mill pond.

Gates of Collinsville (Dam regulators at the old Collins Axe Factory on the Farmington River, Collinsville, Canton, Connecticut)
“Gates of Collinsville”
Dam gate hoists at the old Collins Axe Factory on the Farmington River, Collinsville, Canton, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

But even this industrial giant wasn’t immune to changing times. First came the advent of the chainsaw, which diminished the demand for axes. Market competition steadily increased right up until 1955 when a massive flood made matters worse by destroying the rail lines that serviced the sprawling complex. By the 1960s the factory was shuttered, ending a 140-year legacy of continuous operation that turned out millions of the finest axes and machetes that money could buy.

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Visit my landing pages for “Luminous Collinsville”, “Gates of Collinsville” and “Factory Town, Autumn Hush” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing these images.

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Be sure to check out all of my work from the old Collins Ax Factory and Historic Collinsville.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

Winter in Tobacco Valley

Yankee Farmlands № 52 (Shade tobacco farm, Windsor, Connecticut)
“Yankee Farmlands № 52”
Shade tobacco farm and curing shed, Windsor, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

The moon crests over drifting clouds as night falls on a frigid tobacco farm in the Connecticut Valley. Dormant fields, still months from being planted in the spring, spread far beyond a nearby curing shed clad in worn, mismatched boards.

The town of Windsor, which flanks the western side of the Connecticut River in the northern reaches of the state, represents a particularly unique blend of rural and developed landscapes. Turn the clock back about a century and you would find the area covered over with vast tobacco fields stretching to the horizon in every direction. Once the tobacco market began to steadily decline after the early 1900s, farmers gradually sold off large swaths of surplus cropland.

This gradual shift in land use has resulted in remaining tobacco farms being tightly intermingled with busy roads, corporate office parks and neighborhoods, maintaining an unmistakable presence in the community and hearkening back to earlier days.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “Yankee Farmlands № 52” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

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Be sure to check out all of the work in my on-going Yankee Farmlands project.

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All Things Connecticut New Print Releases The American Northeast

They Called It Monakewego

Monakewego (Long Island Sound and Greenwich Point Park, Greenwich, Connecticut)
“Monakewego”
Long Island Sound and Greenwich Point Park, Greenwich, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Beneath pastel skies streaked with soft clouds, the waters of Long Island Sound gently rap at tidal flats and salt grasses of Old Greenwich. To the east, further stretches of the Connecticut coast loom on the horizon against the sublime glow of morning twilight.

Tod's Clarity (Long Island Sound and Greenwich Point Park, Greenwich, Connecticut)
“Tod’s Clarity”
Long Island Sound and Greenwich Point Park, Greenwich, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Indigenous people of the Asamuck and Patomuck tribes gave this low-lying peninsula on the west end of Long Island Sound its earliest name: “Monakewego”. If the 17th-century settlers of the Connecticut Colony once knew what that term meant, any record has been lost over the centuries. Throughout the 1700s and early 1800s, the spit of land was part and parcel to a modest community at what is today known as Old Greenwich.

Tod's Labyrinth (Long Island Sound and Greenwich Point Park, Greenwich, Connecticut)
“Tod’s Labyrinth”
Long Island Sound and Greenwich Point Park, Greenwich, Connecticut
© 2016 J. G. Coleman

Throughout those early days, it would’ve been hard to imagine that the influence of New York City, some 20 miles to the west, would eventually swell to such immense proportions that the coastal town of Greenwich and the rest of Connecticut’s Fairfield County would become one of the most affluent places in the nation.

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Click here to visit my landing page for “Monakewego” to buy a beautiful fine art print or inquire about licensing this image.

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Be sure to check out all of my work from Greenwich Point Park, including all of the photographs seen above.