Take a seat

Late October, fall-color photo workshop weeks in Woodstock, Vermont

  1. A white steeple rising out of mist among red and orange hills 07
  2. The same steeple, framed tighter, the pick of the roll 08A
  3. A red covered bridge over a still river in full fall color 09
  4. A road curving through orange forest, seen from above 10
  5. Red and yellow maple leaves floating on dark pond water 11
  6. Photographers with tripods on a ledge at sunrise above a misty valley 12

Dawn shoots, prints by Friday. Week two · Oct 18–23, 2027 · 3 seats · $690 Take a seat

Fall-color workshop weeks · Woodstock, Vermont

Six days in Vermont’s last color. You shoot it at dawn; by Friday it’s on the wall.

Eight photographers, two teachers and a barn with a printer in it. Every morning starts in the dark in a hayfield or by the river. Every afternoon ends at the light table, where Elspeth’s red pencil finds the frame you didn’t know you had.

Three weeks in 2027

Pick a week

Monday afternoon to Saturday morning, $690 a seat. Each week is eight seats.

  1. Week One

    Oct 11–16, 2027

    Mon to Sat · Eastern Time

    Peak in the valleys, the hills turning rust

    $690Full · waitlist

    Join the waitlist

  2. Week Two

    Oct 18–23, 2027

    Mon to Sat · Eastern Time

    Valley maples at their reddest, oaks gone bronze

    $6903 seats left

    Take a seat

  3. Week Three

    Oct 25–30, 2027

    Mon to Sat · Eastern Time

    Late October proper: oak, beech, gold larches, bare hilltops

    $6905 seats left

    Take a seat

Included: six days with two teachers, every dawn drive, daily edits, five 11 × 14 prints on cotton paper, Friday’s show, breakfasts and Monday’s supper. Lodging is your own; we send a list of quiet places in town.

Week two, Oct 18–23, 2027

The week, one contact sheet a day

One roll, 36 frames, Monday to Saturday. The red circles are Elspeth’s. All times Eastern.

MonOct 18

Arrive, and walk to the bridge

  • Seats at the barn: coffee, cider, cameras out
  • Walk to the covered bridge
  • Sunset
  • Supper, and the plan for dawn
  1. A hilltop farm with a sugarhouse and stone wall in late golden light
    01f/8 · 1/125 · ISO 200
  2. The hills behind the farm, layered rust and gold
    02f/8 · 1/160 · ISO 200
  3. The covered bridge and its reflection
    03f/11 · 1/4 · ISO 100
  4. The covered bridge, a stop darker
    04−1f/11 · 1/8 · ISO 100
  5. A dirt road between stone walls and maples
    05f/5.6 · 1/60 · ISO 400
  6. The kitchen table at night, cameras and coffee
    06f/2 · 1/30 · ISO 3200

TueOct 19

Dawn one: the steeple in the mist

  • Coffee, then out of the barn in the dark
  • Tripods up in the hayfield, blue light
  • Sunrise comes through the mist
  • Breakfast
  • Back roads, one stone wall at a time
  • First edit: pick three, Elspeth circles one
  1. A steeple in the mist, wide
    07f/8 · 1/15 · ISO 100
  2. The steeple, tighter
    08f/8 · 1/15 · ISO 100
  3. The steeple, a stop brighter
    09+1f/8 · 1/8 · ISO 100
  4. Five photographers from behind in a frosty hayfield facing a red barn
    10f/5.6 · 1/60 · ISO 400
  5. The red barn and orange maples in mist
    11f/8 · 1/30 · ISO 200
  6. Back roads under the maples
    12f/5.6 · 1/60 · ISO 400

WedOct 20

Rain, and the best color of the week

  • Rain on the roof. We go anyway
  • Sunrise, if you could see it
  • Breakfast, rain jackets on the stove rail
  • A pond in the woods, leaves on black water
  • Second edit at the long table
  1. A wet black road covered in yellow leaves
    13f/8 · 1/30 · ISO 400
  2. The wet road, a stop darker
    14−1f/8 · 1/60 · ISO 400
  3. Maple leaves floating on a dark pond
    15f/11 · 1/8 · ISO 100
  4. Closer on the leaves on the pond
    16f/11 · 1/8 · ISO 100
  5. A frosted red maple branch, backlit
    17f/4 · 1/250 · ISO 200
  6. One frosted leaf, close
    18f/2.8 · 1/500 · ISO 200

ThuOct 21

From above, then the river

  • Up the hill before light
  • Sunrise, the road below in orange
  • Down to the river while the mist holds
  • Bram’s hour: what makes a print
  • The hilltop farm in the last light
  1. A road through orange forest from above, a stop dark
    19−1f/8 · 1/250 · ISO 200
  2. A road through orange forest from above
    20f/8 · 1/125 · ISO 200
  3. The Ottauquechee River in mist at dawn, wide
    21f/11 · 1/2 · ISO 100
  4. The river and the covered bridge in mist, tighter
    22f/11 · 1/2 · ISO 100
  5. The sugarhouse and the stone wall
    23f/8 · 1/200 · ISO 200
  6. A maple at the edge of the farm
    24f/8 · 1/200 · ISO 200

FriOct 22

Prints by Friday

  • Last dawn, for whoever wants it
  • Bram prints your five, 11 × 14 on cotton paper
  • The wall goes up in the barn
  • The show: cider, friends from town, and your week on the wall
  1. A hand circling a frame in red grease pencil on a contact sheet
    25f/4 · 1/60 · ISO 800
  2. The red circle and the loupe on the light table
    26f/2.8 · 1/60 · ISO 800
  3. Wednesday’s pond, printed
    27f/11 · 1/8 · ISO 100
  4. Tuesday’s steeple, printed
    28f/8 · 1/15 · ISO 100
  5. The wall of prints in the barn, people looking
    29f/4 · 1/30 · ISO 1600
  6. Rows of fall prints pinned on a white board wall
    30f/2.8 · 1/30 · ISO 1600

SatOct 23

Home, with a box of prints

  • One more sunrise, if you like
  • Breakfast, prints boxed flat
  • Goodbye. Next fall the maples will do it again
  1. Coffee and cider donuts on the table before dawn
    31f/2 · 1/30 · ISO 3200
  2. A hand around a mug, cameras on the table
    32f/2 · 1/30 · ISO 3200
  3. The group with tripods at sunrise above the valley
    33f/8 · 1/30 · ISO 200
  4. The hayfield, one last time
    34f/8 · 1/30 · ISO 200
  5. Leaves on the dirt road
    35f/5.6 · 1/60 · ISO 400
  6. The road into the birches
    36f/8 · 1/30 · ISO 400

Where the color is

Why late October, and why here

Color comes down Vermont from the hills to the valleys. Woodstock sits low, so it keeps its maples after the ridges go bare, and the oaks and larches turn last of all.

Typical fall color by region and week
RegionSep 27Oct 4Oct 11Week oneOct 18Week twoOct 25Week three
Northeast Kingdomhills over 1,500 ftturningpeakpast peak, rust and bronzebarebare
Green Mountain ridgesover 2,000 ftpeakpeakpast peak, rust and bronzebarebare
Central Vermont valleys700 to 1,200 ftstill greenturningpeakpast peak, rust and bronzepast peak, rust and bronze
Woodstock and the Ottauquecheeabout 700 ftstill greenturningpeakpeakpast peak, rust and bronze
Oaks, beech and larchessouth-facing slopesstill greenstill greenturningpeakpeak

still greenturningpeakpast peak, rust and bronzebare

A typical year, from twelve falls of Elspeth’s notes. A color report goes out every Sunday from mid-September.

Prints

Friday’s wall

Picks from past Fridays, printed by Bram at 11 × 14 and pinned in the barn. Each with its settings, as written on the back.

Rows of fall-color prints pinned on a whitewashed barn wall under string lights, three people looking
Friday, 6:20 PM. The show in the barn, week two last fall.
  • Steeple, 7:14 AM, Pomfret, week two 2026
    Steeple, 7:14 AMPomfret, week two 2026f/8 · 1/15 · ISO 100 · 85mmNadia R.
  • River, before the mist lifts, Ottauquechee River
    River, before the mist liftsOttauquechee Riverf/11 · 1/2 · ISO 100 · 35mmTom H.
  • Wet road, Wednesday, Barnard back road
    Wet road, WednesdayBarnard back roadf/8 · 1/30 · ISO 400 · 50mmInes K.
  • First frost, Hayfield edge, Woodstock
    First frostHayfield edge, Woodstockf/4 · 1/250 · ISO 200 · 100mm macroPhone, Ruth A.
  • The road from above, Mount Tom
    The road from aboveMount Tomf/8 · 1/125 · ISO 200 · 24mmSam O.
  • Sugarhouse, 5:31 PM, Hilltop farm, Pomfret
    Sugarhouse, 5:31 PMHilltop farm, Pomfretf/8 · 1/200 · ISO 200 · 70mmElspeth
Elspeth Gray, a woman with short silver hair in a green sweater, at a barn worktable with film and contact sheets, a loupe in her hand
Elspeth at the long table in the barn. f/2.8 · 1/60 · ISO 800

Teachers

Elspeth Gray, and Bram

“Frame 08 on a roll from October 2011: one red maple in the fog on Route 12. I printed it that Friday and have been chasing that week ever since.”

Elspeth printed for other photographers in a Burlington darkroom for nineteen years, which is how she learned that most people’s best frame is the one next to the one they liked. She moved to Woodstock in 2009, started teaching one week each fall in 2011, and now teaches three.

Her rules have not changed: be in the field before the light is; shoot the rain; and pick one frame a day, in red, out loud, so you know why.

Bram Kettle, the printer

Bram ran a print shop in Brattleboro until he decided he only wanted to print photographs. He teaches the Thursday hour on what makes a print, then spends Friday making forty of them: five for each of you, on heavy cotton paper, color-checked against the morning they were made.

  • 2011the first week
  • 8seats, two teachers
  • 40prints made every Friday

Before you come

What to bring

01Any camera, or a phone
A phone is welcome. Half of Friday’s wall last year was shot on phones; Bram prints them just as big.
02A tripod
For dawn, yes. We have six to lend, with remotes.
03One zoom is plenty
A 24–70 or a 24–105 covers the week. A longer lens helps for the hills from above.
04Rain shell and boots
Vermont in late October is 30°F at dawn and often wet. Wednesday’s rain gave us the best color.
05Nothing to print with
Bram prints your five on cotton paper in the barn. They go home flat in a box.
06Fitness
Short walks from the car, wet grass, one gentle climb on Mount Tom (about a mile). Nothing steep.
Coffee mugs, cider donuts, cameras and wool gloves on a farmhouse table before dawn
5:30 AM, Tuesday. Coffee, cider donuts, batteries off the charger.

From past weeks

★ 5.0 from 96 photographers

  • “I flew from Lyon for one week of maples and went home with five prints I would frame tomorrow.”

    Claire D., LyonWeek two, 2026

  • “I shot the whole week on my phone. Elspeth never once made me feel like that was a lesser camera.”

    Ruth A., BaltimoreWeek one, 2026

  • “I teach photography myself. What I took home was Elspeth’s red pencil: it is ruthless and always right.”

    Sam O., MontrealWeek three, 2025

  • “The Friday show in the barn made me cry a little. My mother’s farm looked just like that.”

    Tom H., OhioWeek two, 2025

Where

The barn in Woodstock, Vermont

A mile from the village green. The address comes with your seat. Boston is about 2.5 hours away, Burlington 1.5, and the train stops at White River Junction, 20 minutes away.

© OpenStreetMap contributors
Woodstock, Vermont Seats at the barn Monday at 3:00 PM EDT. We collect you from White River Junction. Open the map

Questions

Before you take a seat

What if the color is early or late?

That is why there are three weeks and why we are in Woodstock: the valleys around here hold their color longer than the hills. Elspeth posts a color report every Sunday from mid-September, and if your week looks thin we drive to where the color is.

What if it rains?

We shoot. Overcast and rain make fall color deeper, wet roads shine and the mist is better. On a hard downpour we edit, and Bram starts printing early.

What does $690 include?

Six days of teaching with two teachers, every dawn drive, the edits, five 11 × 14 prints on cotton paper, Friday’s show, breakfasts and Monday’s supper. Lodging is not included: Elspeth sends a list of quiet places in town within a mile of the barn.

I’m coming from abroad. How do I book?

Book from home: $200 holds your seat, the rest is due September 1. Times on this site are Eastern. Fly into Boston or Burlington (about 2.5 and 1.5 hours away) or take the train to White River Junction, 20 minutes from the barn; we can collect you there on Monday.

I’m a beginner. Is that all right?

Yes. Eight seats, two teachers: one of them is always beside you at dawn. You only need to know where your shutter button is.

Can I cancel?

Before September 1, your deposit comes back. After that it moves once to another week or to next fall.

Take a seat

Hold your seat

Pick the Monday your week starts. $200 holds a seat and comes off the $690; the rest is due September 1. Elspeth writes back herself with the gear list and the color report.

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