Driving into the park at Delta Lake on Friday evening I was distracted by the view of the “pond” at the entrance. The reflection of the trees on the water illuminated by the sun definitely held my eye. This is the view across the water to the right from my last post of this area (Golden Reflection). I was determined to get to the beach but promised myself I would return the next day a little earlier to get this reflection.
And surprisingly, I made it to the park yesterday! There was a little more haze in the sky due to a thin cloud layer but there was still a reflection to capture. I parked as close as I could and walked back along the entrance road looking for “the view”. I didn’t have many choices but gave this spot a try…
Not the image I had in my head. I searched for a better view but the cattails lining this edge of the pond were definitely an obstacle. And why are the mosquitos so nasty! I neglected the repellant thinking the cooler weather would have reduced their numbers. It did not!
I gave a zoomed in view a try hoping if I focused on a smaller section of the reflection it would be what I was trying to achieve. It is a little better but I was not happy losing the little blue in the sky which would balance the yellows of the leaves and sunlight.
I noticed a pair a of trees behind the branches on the right of the first image that were standing out against the bigger trees. I started thinking I could get a better view if I walk around the pond toward the beach. There is a road heading in the direction I wanted to use. It is for the park rangers but it wouldn’t hurt to give it a try. I started walking.
I got lucky! I found a spot the rangers must use to explore this pond as there was a small boat pulled up onto the edge of the water. I was able to get right to the water and had the best view of my two trees. I even had natural framing between some trees and cattails. Bonus! I grabbed a few images before the mosquitos drained all my blood.
I felt good. I didn’t get the image that was in my head (I’ll try again soon), but I stayed in the area working different angles. The effort paid off! I’ll have to remember this spot in a couple weeks when the leaves are in full autumn glory.
The sun has set. The long day is done. The hectic week is over. After.
I was looking forward to a little tranquility at Delta Lake. To walk the beach, to view the sunset, to listen to the water upon the shore. Unwinding. It was exactly as I wished. I was alone on the beach. I stayed well past the sunset. Decompressing. The color in the sky exploded into a brilliant orange for a few moments. I soaked it in. Recharging. After.
On my way back home from Delphi Falls I couldn’t resist stopping at Chittenango Falls. It was late morning, the sun was high and the park was going to have quite a few other explorers. I still stopped.
The sun was not ideal. The gorge is still in shadow but the sky and top of the waterfall are in full sunlight. A few clouds would have helped me out but there was nothing but blue sky. About halfway down the trail to the bottom of the gorge you can spot the waterfall through the trees. I generally grab an image from this vantage point. Depending on the volume of flow in the falls you can get great definition of the water as it cascades down. Yep! This one is good.
At the bottom of the gorge I captured a few different views but those images will need some attention. I ended up having to bracket the exposures to capture the range of light. One or two are going to be keepers. It wasn’t a long visit at the park as my other go to locations for images along the creek were in full sunlight. Nothing but bright highlights! I would be back, especially when the leaves change. No reason to get frustrated trying to deal with the sun.
Oh, right, the peek at the falls I mentioned earlier.
Sunday was my adventure day. It didn’t turn out to be the adventure I thought it would be but it was still an adventure. My original intent was to hit the parks around Ithaca, NY but sometime Saturday night I saw an image from Delphi Falls County Park and it changed my entire day. I have never been to Delphi Falls and when I realized it was not very far from home a new adventure began.
My day started at Bellamy Harbor in Rome to capture the sunrise. There were not many clouds in the sky but I did get some great fog on the water of the canal. I would have explored more except I did not think the little, nasty mosquitos would be awake so early in the morning. Damn! I’ll have a few images from the sunrise in a later post. It still was a great way to get the day started.
Later in the morning I headed out to Delphi Falls. I had a good idea how to get there but I let the GPS plot its route which took me on a few roads I have never been on before. It was a lazy Sunday morning with warm sunshine streaming in through the car windows, I was in no hurry so I enjoyed the exploration provided by the GPS. You can see a name on a map but when you arrive at the “town” of Delphi Falls and realize it is a small collection of houses along a small country road you start to wonder if this drive was going to be worth it.
It was! The park was very small but the path from the parking area brings you right to the base of the lower falls. This one is sixty feet high with nice cascading flow. I was lucky to get the perfect amount of water in the stream. It allowed me to smooth the water enough for a great effect. The upper falls, which is fifty-four feet high did not appear to be accessible via and path I could find. Of course, I didn’t think to bring my drone! What happened? Well, I now know where I’ll be coming back to when the leaves change! And I’ll be bringing the drone…
Seeing how Delphi Falls is south of Cazenovia I was not going to miss the chance to stop at Chittenango Falls State Park on my way back home. It would only be around 11am so I wasn’t exactly positive I would get many good views with the sun being so high in the sky without any clouds. I sopped anyway. You would too, right?
The sun was definitely an issue. The polarizer was almost useless and I needed to shade the front of the lens with my hat. I managed a few images of the namesake falls but my other go to points in the park were in direct sunlight and the glare was overpowering. I cut the visit short knowing I will be back soon for the autumn colors.
I did have a great experience, for me anyway, and a little out of the norm. There was a large family down in the gorge when I arrived. One gentleman had a Fujifilm camera and tripod so we ended up trading viewing spots as we both worked the scene. We chatted a little bit and he joked about following me using my spots. As I was starting to leave the area another of the gentlemen asked me about the glare he was getting with his iPhone. I explained how the sun was causing it as it hit the lens on his phone. I had him compose his view and then I shaded the phone with my hat. He was so excited at how the image turned out and thanked me for the tip. I will admit to walking a little taller on my way up from the gorge.
I ended my adventure day back at Bellamy Harbor. My plan was to capture the full moon rising. If my calculations were correct I would be able to get an image of it rising over the Mill St. bridge. My only concern was the timing. The sun was setting about fifteen minutes before the moon would rise and then I would still need to wait for it to clear the top of the bridge. The sky ended up getting too dark and the moon too bright to achieve the image I wanted. I did end up with a few images of the water tower with the moon. I’m still trying to work out the processing of those images.
Well, time for me to go to Delta Lake for the moonset. I’m hoping I have better luck this morning. Oh yeah, here is Delphi Falls…
MLCreations Photography 