I am so far outside my comfort zone with this Photo Magic 2013 event at Walt Disney World. I’m having a great time and meeting a lot of great people. Here are a few of my favorites so far…
Tomorrowland
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, (10, 25, 30s bracket), f/16, ISO 400
Chim Chim Cheree
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, 1/200s, f/1.8, ISO 1600
Oscar’s
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/1600s, 17mm, f/8, ISO 400
I believe the car has a mind of its own. It seems like every time I am driving north on route 81 from Binghamton, the darn car ends up exiting at LaFayette and finding its way to Chittenango Falls State Park. It must know when the weather is favorable that I need to stop and stretch my legs.
Sunday turned out to be a nice day to do some exploring so I really didn’t complain when the car ventured off on its detour. The colors were at their peak this past weekend and added a nice change from my normal images at this state park. I was hoping there had been enough rain to provide water in the side alcove I had found early this year but it was not to be. I guess this view isn’t a bad second place… 😉
Autumn Falls
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/3, 1/6, 1/13 & 1/25s bracket), 17mm, f/16, ISO 100
Ithaca Falls
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1/50, 1/13 & 1/3s bracket), 24mm, f/18, ISO 100
On Saturday I wandered off on another early morning adventure. I made my way to Taughannock Falls State Park on the lower west side of Cayuga Lake. This park has been on my list of must see state parks and I was happy to finally make my way there. I parked the car at the lake end of the park which nestled between route 96 and Cayuga lake along the Taughannock Creek. The 3/4 mile gorge trail takes you right to the signature waterfall. It was a happy coincidence that I didn’t make it to this park until autumn. The colors in the gorge are incredible and only enhanced my images.
The Lower Falls are visible from route 89 along the lake and were a great way to start my exploration. There were numerous locations for different views of the small cascade and true to my water fascination I used them all. There was a way to get down onto the creek bed but I wasn’t positive how frowned upon that would be so I stayed on the path.
The Lower Falls
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/8s, 22mm, f/16, ISO 100
Crisscross Cascade
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1s, 35mm, f/22, ISO 100
Many Falls
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1s, 62mm, f/22, ISO 100
The end of the gorge trail did not disappoint. The 215′ Taughannock Falls was impressive, especially since you can get so close to it. The difficulty in capturing this waterfall, at least in the early morning, was the angle of the sunlight and the amount of shadows. I ended up using a two exposure blend to balance the light.
Taughannock Falls
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (1 & 1/4s blend), 21mm, f/18, ISO 100
Not to distract from the beauty of the waterfalls but I truly enjoyed to creek which created the gorge. It took me about 1.5 hours to walk the 3/4 mile trail because there were so many opportunities for me to capture my beloved water images. I’ll have more on those later…
The colors of the sunrise were too good to pass up, so another image from my early morning at Hinkley Reservoir makes it into my stream. This is a 3 exposure bracket HDR image. It was the best way to capture the most light. The sunrise wouldn’t be as interesting if the rocks in the foreground were silhouetted.
Morning Glow
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {1/4, 1, 4s bracket), 17mm, f/16, ISO 100
I finally make it to the weekend and the forecast is for rain. I’m sure I’ll still enjoy the time off from work but I was looking forward to a few events this weekend. The Trenton Falls trails are open again this weekend (as well as next) and there is the Trenton Falls Art Festival. Hopefully Sunday will not be a total washout and I can get some exploring in along the trail and at the art festival.
When I awoke the moon was still shining brightly through the windows so I knew the clouds would have to be rolling in if we are going to get the rain predicted. I packed up the camera and headed to Hinkley Reservoir to capture the sunrise. It was a good plan. The clouds hadn’t completely obscured the sky and the pre-dawn light was incredible.
Pointing the camera into the morning light was going to cause the foreground to almost completely black out. This was the perfect scene for some bracketed images. I properly exposed for the sky and water and tried a few images to ensure I was balancing the histogram. Switched the camera into exposure bracketing, selected +/-2 and let the camera do its thing. This gave me three images, one underexposed by 2 stops, one exposed for the sky and one overexposed by 2 stops. This would give me enough detail in both the highlights and shadows to work with.
I used the ‘Merge to 32-bit HDR’ option in the Photomatix plugin for Lightroom to blend all three exposures together, producing an image with a wider dynamic range. A few adjustments to brighten up the shadows and lighten the highlights produced the image below. The clouds were moving fairly quickly but I let the merge process use all the information which smeared the clouds slightly but I like the results.
Although I am only 20 minutes away from the reservoir this was my first trip up and after the beautiful morning I will be making a more trips in the future. There is quite a few locations along the shore to explore…
Reservoir Sunrise
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (0.5, 2, 8s bracket), 17mm, f/16, ISO 100
Fading light and too much work have kept me from exploring with the camera so here is another image from my exploration of Watkins Glen State Park.
Cavern Cascade
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, (0.8, 3, 13s bracket), 26mm f/13, ISO 100
Sunset Over the Canal
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, {1/40, 1/10, 0.4s bracket), 46mm, f/18, ISO 100
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