Category Archives: photography

The Challenge

Posted by Mike on

I decided to go exploring at Delta Lake State Park again after dinner. The temperature hit around 90°F today but after polishing off way too much food I needed the walk. I hadn’t been out with the camera in a day or two so I had to capture some pictures. I swear this photography addiction is worse than my chocolate addiction!

The sun was producing some brilliant orange light as it set through a slight haze which allowed for some great colors tonight. The dry spell we have been experiencing has lowered the water level in the lake so I was able to walk along the rocks and reach a few new places tonight. Luckily for me most of the day visitors had already gone home so I practically had the place to myself.

I decided to leave my 55-200mm Nikon lens on the camera. Normally I would use my wide-telephoto lens but thought it would be interesting to see this familiar setting through a different lens. It challenged me to find different compositions and I ended up focusing on more of the details rather than the grand vistas.

Here are a few of my favorites…

The Line
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/200s, 86mm, f11, ISO 200

Buoy Jam
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/100s, 150mm, f16, ISO 200

Speeding
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/160s, 200mm, f5.6, ISO 200

Prehistoric Find?
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/125s, 105mm, f4.5, ISO 200

Sentinel Posts
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/125s, 160mm, f16, ISO 200

Silhouette in Orange
Nikon D5100, Nikon 55-200mm f/4-5.6, 1/125s, 90mm, f16, ISO 200

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.