The fog was very persistent and I was running out of ways to extend my stay. This is the last image I captured in Old Forge before heading home Friday. This was around 10:30am. I am most certain that by the time I made it back home it was a beautiful day up north, I know it was great at my house… 🙂
Adirondack Color
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/200s, 70mm, f/16, ISO 100
Olympus E-P3, M. Zuiko 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6, 1/500s, 23mm, f/5.6, ISO 200
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
…for the trees
Nikon D5100, Nikkor 35mm f/1.8, 1/160s, f/13, ISO 400
Rainbow Falls – Classic View
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 6s, 28mm, f/18, ISO 100
There is training for work I will be attending in Buffalo, NY on Monday and Tuesday this week so I took the opportunity to visit my parents. It also allowed me to stop at Watkins Glen State Park for a little exploring. I have seen images from this park and knew it was going to be a good time. I was not disappointed.
The gorge trail along Glen Creek is absolutely amazing. As I am sure readers of this blog are aware I love to photograph water. I definitely have a thing for it. It took me a little over three hours to walk the 1.5 mile trail through the gorge. I know I would have stayed longer but as I was returning from the west end of the trail the park was starting to get crowded. The trail is not very wide in a lot of places and setting up a tripod when it is busy just didn’t seem right. I didn’t want to hold people up or be in the way.
This is the view from the stone bridge at Rainbow Falls. I have the more classic view also but I really liked the detail in the gorge walls in this view.
Rainbow Falls From Above
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 8s, 17mm, f/16, ISO 100
This here’s a story about Billy Joe and Bobbie Sue
Two young lovers with nothin’ better to do
Than sit around the house, get high, and watch the tube
And here is what happened when they decided to cut loose
Wait… that’s a song, not my story. My story goes like this…
Come home from work and start the process of closing the pool. First time doing it without any help from the kids. Actually goes better than I anticipated. I changed the method of attaching the winter cover to utilize weighted gallon jugs in place of the wire cable. I think it is going to provide better protection from the wind. We’ll see…
End up working for two hours but I get everything done in one evening. Dinner is waiting when I come in the house which is great since I didn’t have to cook it. Gobble my food down quickly, jump in the shower and then head out with the camera because the sun is setting through some haze which is calling my name.
I drive over to my favorite state park to catch the last few minutes of light over the lake. Well, that was the plan anyway. Today was an abnormally hot and humid day for September in Upstate NY. We reached 90 degrees and very high humidity. I opted to run the air conditioner in the car on the 10 minute drive over to the lake. It was just enough to cool down my camera and lens so that when I walked down to the beach the lens had fogged over. Everything I needed to clear the lens was back in the camera bag in the car.
The sad part is this isn’t the first time I have done this… hopefully next time I’ll remember this lesson. Here is the sunset through the condensation on the lens.
Lens Haze
Nikon D5100, Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4, 1/8s, 28mm, f/18, ISO 100
MLCreations Photography 