Monthly Archives: July 2012

Canadians Invade!

Posted by Mike on

Geese that is! Yesterday at work a gaggle of geese invaded our lawn in front of the building. I didn’t get exact numbers but there had to be close to fifty geese. They were fearless! Crossing the driveway in front of cars with no regard for themselves. I sat out under a tree during lunch snapping pictures and they were getting as close as ten feet from me. It was definitely cool but you really had to tread lightly!

Invasion
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/400s, 200mm, f16, ISO 800

Goose Walk
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/400s, 200mm, f16, ISO 800

Flow Gate

Posted by Mike on

On my way back home from the West Canada Creek the other day I stopped at another location I had spotted earlier in the year. It is an old flow control gate for the Cincinnati Creek which is accessible from a fishing location off Route 28 just east of Route 12. I really liked the rusted gate mechanism as you can see in the pictures below. Obviously, this has been a favorite location for kids over the years…

Lost Control
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/50s, 50mm, f11, ISO 400

Gate Master
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/60s, 35mm, f5.6, ISO 800

Three turns to the right…
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/125s, 32mm, f5.6, ISO 800

Pixley Falls

Posted by Mike on

We attempted to explore Pixley Falls State Park on Saturday but we were unable to beat the rain to the park. My daughter and I drove up hoping the rain would hold off. We entered the park just as the rain began. We waited for about 30 minutes but there didn’t appear to be a break coming, so we drove back home.

Pixley Falls is about 25 minutes from my house up Route 46 between Rome and Boonville, NY. There are numerous trails for exploring and quite a few secondary streams producing plenty of photographic opportunities. Obviously ,the main attraction is the big waterfall.

Pixley Falls Front
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/40, 1/10, 1/2.5s bracket), 24mm, f22, ISO 100

Pixley Falls Side
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/40, 1/10, 1/2.5s bracket), 17mm, f22, ISO 100

After some exploring we found this small stream which had a lot of potential. If it hadn’t just rained we would have been able to go farther upstream which had even more dramatic areas with small waterfalls. But, the rain had softened the ground and made navigating off-trail a little slippery. That will definitely be for another day.

Pixley Falls Tributary
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/8, 1/2, 2s bracket), 24mm, f22, ISO 100

I didn’t have a chance to investigate the area prior to driving up so I guessed at 4pm as the optimal time to photograph the waterfall. I knew from a visit last fall that the waterfall would be deep within the trees and very early or late day sun would be out of the question. As you can see from these pictures, there are quite a lot of shadows from the trees even at 4pm. My next visit this summer will be around 10am to see if I can get the sun lighting the waterfall better.

Trenton Falls Overflow

Posted by Mike on

Overflow Big Look
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/50, 1/13, 1/3s bracket), 28mm, f18, ISO 100


Overflow Detail
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/50, 1/13, 1/3s bracket), 32mm, f18, ISO 100

Among the Rocks
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/400s, 38mm, f5.6, ISO 400

Chittenango Falls

Posted by Mike on

My daughter spent a few days with her grandma and tonight after work I had to drive to Cortland, NY to pick her up. On the way back I asked if she was in a hurry to get home and luckily she wasn’t. We took a quick detour to Chittenango Falls State Park between Cazenovia and Chittenango on Route 13. As I was driving there the sunset was producing some amazing light, unfortunately, it didn’t hold until we arrived. Still, not too bad of conditions to capture a few pictures before we continued home.

Chittenango Falls
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/10, 0.4, 1.6s bracket), 32mm, f22, ISO 200