A photographic essay by Cameron Booth for Palmes, depicting a group of friends on a weekend trip to upstate New York. Below, Booth shares his ideas on the vital ingredients to a weekend of October rallying between friends (recommendations also applicable if you don’t feel like playing tennis, but come on, of course you do).

”An open fire, multiple cases of beer, fresh tennis balls, 15 pounds of steak, a litre of whiskey and a tennis court all to yourself. Each week, New York City toys with welcoming fall into full swing but I can assure you that as of October 1st, if not earlier, the leaves are changing and it is prime fall-tennis weather. If you cannot find a tennis court to call your own, we highly recommend you to not forget the whiskey and red meat (that is unless you don't partake is such consumption). If that is the case, you'll likely be all the more readily prepared for the on-court activities.’’

“Some other off-court activities that we have validated through rigorous research include sitting around a fire and silently staring into said fire, cooking various root vegetables over the fire, which you started in a wheelbarrow, or watching '3 Kings' with George Clooney, Ice Cube and a young Mark Wahlberg. All of this would then be followed up with more tennis until it feels as though your knees are going to give away and you can barely see straight.”

Photography by Cameron Booth