An overdue roundup of snapshots of August through October in Virginia on film — many, many days at home with books and food and light that started to disappear earlier, punctuated by little outdoor trips and many suburban walks.

Skyline Drive and Shenandoah National Park have long been one of my favorite parts of Virginia, luckily not too far from where I grew up. My family has made periodic trips out there for a scenic drive and walk, but I hadn’t gone in a few years. I kept missing the fall colors by just a week or two when I happened to be home. This year, finding myself at home for much, much longer than a weekend here or there, we started getting out more, finding parks in northern Virginia that we hadn’t gone to before. We also took advantage of this time to go to Skyline Drive, not once but twice — first in late summer, and then again at the peak fall foliage time.

In the summer, the view really lives up to the name of the Blue Ridge Mountains. While I can glimpse the faint blue ridges from afar year-round while driving around my hometown, the mountains are seriously blue when you get there too. Then in the fall, glorious fall colors frame the drive, transform any hiking trail, and blanket the valley below. I took film photos of both visits, and when I got the film back a few weeks ago, I was excited to compare the two sets of results.

One humid day after work in July, we drove over to Scott’s Run Nature Preserve for a nice walk, a waterfall view, and some time by the Potomac River. Shot on Kodak Ultramax 400.

Just after the country rapidly shut down, I left an already eerie NYC and came home to Virginia, thinking I would be home for a month or so. (Oh, how wrong I was.) I hadn’t packed too much, mostly the most comfortable clothes, books, and what I needed to work from home. I also brought my camera, though, and a couple of random rolls of film I had lying around. Throughout the spring, I periodically took photos on a roll of Kodak Gold 200. Unsurprisingly, there was not much to photograph during a stressful, scary time when I was barely leaving the house or doing anything exciting inside, so this roll was mostly a few outdoor moments and a handful of stray, random photos at home.

Between Christmas and New Years, my mom, brother, and I spent three days in Norfolk, Virginia, where my brother’s basketball team was participating in a tournament. My mom and I were left with plenty of free time around the game times, so while my brother stayed with his team for practice and team activities, we went out to eat, read, saw a movie (Little Women!), drove in circles on highways crossing the water to travel around Norfolk and Hampton. Before one of the games, we stopped at Fort Monroe, now a national monument.

My mom and I can’t resist a trip to the beach, even a quick one in the winter. However, the weather was unseasonably warm throughout the trip - sunny and 60 degrees - allowing us to take off our heavier coats until nighttime, and it was a nice bonus that we were able to walk along the beach for a bit while we were there. I took some film photos while there. Shot on Kodak Gold 200.