As my friend Lisa Lacasse and I were wandering around southern Vermont looking for great foliage, we stopped in Newfane for some lunch. We had driven a lot and were getting a bit tired, so we left the cameras in the car and headed into a country store. As soon as I walked in I saw this older gentleman with a great face sitting at some tables in front of a big picture window. The soft light flowed on him and I spun around and went back to get the cameras.
I’m not shy about talking to people, at least when I have a camera around my neck. I told the man who I am and that I like his face and the store and I’d like to take some pictures. I talked to him a little and then shot some pictures but I didn’t like the light and knew it would be better from the other side. So I went around and Lisa sat down near where I was standing and we talked with him a while. William is 93, lives down the road in Brattleboro and was a regional planner for many years. Even though he told his daughter he wouldn’t, he occasionally gets in his car and drives to Newfane where he lived with his wife before she died a few years ago.
Even though I was out looking for leaves, meeting William was the highlight of the day.