Sunday, October 12, 2014


I took a short ride to the Landis Arboretum in Esperance, NY this morning. Lots of nice views but this one was my favorite. The sun was hitting everything just right and the view of the valley below was beautiful.

Sunday, October 5, 2014

Autumn makes me guilty when I am not out shooting. I see the photos that other people take and that exacerbates the situation. I'm also usually easily disappointed in the foliage that I see. I read the foliage reports and various foliage maps but I usually come away feeling like what I'm seeing must not be what everyone else is seeing.

I woke up early this morning and went out with the goal of taking one photo that I was happy with. I headed up the northway, being sure to avoid exit 23 and 24 (Warrensburg's "World's largest garage sale"). I had no location in mind but I got off exit 25 and headed towards Brant Lake. It was before sunrise when I past the lake. I saw another photographer set up at the Brant Lake boat launch and figured that I would give him some space. I kept driving and came upon this barn with the foliage on the hillside behind. I probably would have taken a photo of the barn alone but when I saw the color in the trees behind it, I knew I had to stop. It was quite cloudy when I snapped this photo and the sun had not yet broken thru.

Taken with my trusty D7000 and Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.

Friday, August 29, 2014

I like the idea of shooting for the light. That is knowing where there is going to be nice light or seeing an area of nice light and finding something to shoot based on that light.  There is a small field behind my parent's house that gets great late day sunset light. On the edge of the field were these goldenrods. The late day sun really made these goldenrod glow and as I was practicing with my macro lens. This honeybee alit on the goldenrod in front of me.

Taken with a Sigma 105mm F/2.8 macro lens.

Monday, August 11, 2014


I haven't been shooting much lately (a theme on this blog) but I didn't want to let another full moon pass me by. For anyone interested in photographing a full moon or even just finding a good spot to watch from, there are two indispensable apps that I like to use to figure out just where the moon will be rising and at what time etc. The first one is called the Photographers Ephemeris. It has a desktop version as well as smart phone and tablet apps. I use Macs and iPhones/iPads but I believe that it is also available on Windows/Android. Another similar app which is really a great tool for photographers is called photopills. I won't go into all of the details of these apps but they are extremely handy for determining the points on a map that the sun/moon will rise/set and when. 

I shot this photo along a busy stretch of Route 67 in West Charlton between Amsterdam and Ballston Spa. I didn't want to spend too much time where I was as it was a bit unnerving shooting alongside a highway with tractor trailers going 55+ miles per hour just feet away. As with most of the images I take, I always see things I wish I had done differently after I get the photo onto my computer but there isn't much I can do about that now. Even though I shot this from a tripod, I shot it at ISO 800 because I wasn't confident in the footing of my tripod. I wanted to have a high enough shutter speed to counter any camera shake as a result. While I was happy with the focus of the image, the increased ISO did introduce some noise in the photo, which I removed in Adobe Lightroom. Whenever you remove digital noise, the trade off is a decrease in detail. 

Shot with my D7000 & 70-200 VRII. 

Monday, May 26, 2014

Another One of the Old Barn



This barn has been photographed more than any barn in the Adirondacks, for that I'm sure. The barn even has a Facebook page in an effort to save it. Sadly many barns just like this that aren't on such a well traveled road don't get the attention that this one does. Even with all of the attention, I often wonder when the last time I will see this barn will be. The barn sits on Route 73 in Keene, NY in the High Peaks Region of the Adirondacks. If you've traveled to Lake Placid, you've likely seen it.