Took a ride to Cherry Plain State Park in Rensselaer County. I had been here before and had pictured making a photo like this in my mind. I would have liked some red in the image but I liked the way the fallen orange leaves frame the roadway and lead the eyes through the scene towards the golden yellow trees.

Took a short ride to Richmondville in Schoharie County after watching some football this Sunday afternoon. The color wasn't bad at all as far as the trees are concerned but the light was less than spectacular. I liked this scene looking down the hill with the street curving through the frame and the backdrop of the colorful hillside.

This was one of my first attempts at "star photography". I had attempted to shoot star trails once before several years ago and learned a valuable lesson when I changed lenses right near a campfire. My sensor was filthy after that and I had to have it cleaned (I have since learned to clean my camera sensors myself).

I recently listened to a great podcast called "Alpha Mirrorless" hosted by Juan Pons and Andy Williams. The podcast centers around mirrorless cameras and more specifically, Sony mirrorless but they touch on a wider gamut of photography topics. Recently they discussed star photography and nighttime photography and I decided to give this a shot at my camp on Galway Lake.

The key to these types of exposures is to shoot at a wide aperture (2.8 or wider is ideal) and a long shutter speed but not long enough to obtain star trails (unless that is your goal). I shot this with my D610 and my old Nikkor 20mm F/2.8 prime.

There is a ton of room for improvement but I was pleased with the way this came out after editing in Lightroom. I look forward to going back and shooting some more images like this once there is less "light pollution" around the lake. Sections of Galway Lake are more or less seasonal use only so once late fall/early winter hit, there is a lot less artificial light around the lake.

Please feel free to check out the Alpha Mirrorless podcast that I mentioned.

http://thisweekinphoto.com/category/alphamirrorless/

I came upon this scene yesterday when I was in the area. Unfortunately, when I came upon it the first time, the sun was high in the sky and although the foliage was stunning, the light was less than interesting. The second time I came upon it, the farm in the background was in deep shadow. Basically, I hit it too early and too late. I decided to take the trip back tonight (40 minutes from home give or take five) and wait out the light. This area of Schoharie County is really rife with photo opportunities. So many beautiful farms and hillsides.

I took this photo from several angles. I really wanted to incorporate the glowing sugar maple in the foreground along with that larger row of trees that helped add a sense of scale to the valley below. Another five minutes and that farm would have once again been in shadow.

Timing is really everything in photography. We wait all year for color in the trees and then sometimes our vision of the image we want to make can come down to just minutes of possibility. In another week, this scene will look drastically different, as it did one week prior I'm sure. That's life.

Taken with my 70-200 F/2.8 and trusty old D7000.

Roseboom

Nothing increases motivation for photography like a beautiful October day. I usually find foliage reports pretty unreliable and that might have a lot to do with my expectations as opposed to those reporting. That being said, I checked out the I Love NY website's foliage reports and saw that the Otsego County area was near peak. 

I drove out to Cooperstown via Route 10 to 165/166 and checked out a scene I had photographed in the past. I drove by the scene you see here on the way out and thought to myself that if the location I had in mind didn't pan out I'd come back to this one. Well, the other scene didn't offer me the color I was hoping for so I came back to this one as the sun was setting. 

If you have seen any of my photos, you know that I generally gravitate towards farms and old farm buildings. I think this image would look much better without the house and willow trees in it but seeing as though this is someone's home I don't feel quite right just erasing it from the scene. 

Hard to believe it has been almost a year since I posted here. As has been the theme in the past, other pursuits have gotten in the way of photography. It's never been far from my mind however and I've wanted to get out and shoot something for quite a while. This was taken in a familiar location in West Charlton, NY. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

Fall Day on a Galway Farm

Fall Day on a Galway Farm, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

If I had to be limited to photographing one thing and one thing only, I'd be hard pressed not to choose farms. I'm instantly drawn to the old barns that dot the landscape in rural areas such as Galway, NY. Often accompanying these old barns are sprawling fields, old farm tools and animals.

Farms and old barns are disappearing from our landscape. Developers snap up old farms to turn them into characterless houses and housing developments. Barns, many with hand hewn beams cut from trees that were old before early settlers came here, are decaying and lost forever.

Sunsets and sweeping panoramas of fall color make for gorgeous images but usually lack the story component that an old working farm can provide.

Taken in Galway, NY with my Nikon d7000 and 80-400mm VR lens.

Last Days of Summer on the Boquet River

Last Days of Summer on the Boquet River, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

My love of photography really stems from my love for fly fishing. When I started fly fishing, I found myself on all of these beautiful creeks and rivers and found myself wanting to document them. I would almost always have a point and shoot camera on hand on the odd chance I caught a nice fish and I started taking snapshots of the waters that I would fish. More and more I was seeing that these photos weren't doing justice to the areas in question.

Early on I was really taken by the blurred water in the shots I was seeing other photographers take. If I had to point to one single thing as a motivator for getting me into photography, I would have to say it was the slow shutter, blurred water image.

This image was taken on the north branch of the Boquet River. This was probably the first stream I ever cast my fly line into and I like to revisit it from time to time for that reason. I hadn't been here since Irene hit two years ago and I was amazed at how it changed the river. Spots where there were previously pools, were now shallow riffles. trees were scattered everywhere.

The area of the river where this image was taken is pocket water and it was not affected by Irene as much as some of the other sections.

This was taken with my Nikon D7000, Sigma 10-20 and Cokin polarizer. In case you were wondering, I did not place those leaves on the rock :)

Funny Blog Post for Anyone that Takes Photos in Public

Thought I'd share this from the Photofocus blog about photographers running into security guards. Made me laugh!

http://photofocus.com/2013/07/17/advice-for-security-guards/

Ferns on the Forest Floor

Ferns on the Forest Floor, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

Autumn's color gets all the praise but the greens of spring are more of a welcome site. Just like fall color the splendor fades too quick as everything fills in and summer takes over.

Taken along the Alplaus Kill in Charlton, NY.

Spring Comes to Charlton

Spring Comes to Charlton, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

I took my nephew fishing Saturday night and saw this scene as the late day sunlight filtered through the trees. I didn't have my camera at the time but planned to come back the next evening as the weather looked promising.

I lucked out and the light was almost a mirror image from the night before. I felt the broken old Hickory was the perfect addition to the photo. I wonder how long that Hickory stood watch over the Alplaus?

Taken with a Nikon 20mm F/2.8D

Monument to the 8th Calvary

Monument to the 8th Calvary, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

I was down in Southern PA this weekend for a wedding and I got a brief chance to go to Gettysburg. I didn't have the time to spend there that I would have liked but I did manage to catch a nice sunset.

The history at Gettysburg is overwhelming and I could really see myself spending days there. That being said, I feel that we are really spoiled here in the Upstate, NY area with all the historic sites we have that are far less crowded. It is possible to visit the Saratoga Battlefield and really lose yourself without the distractions of tour buses and the like.

I'm not overly enthralled with this shot but I'm glad I got a "keeper" from my experience at Gettysburg. I would have liked to catch the sun a little higher in the sky and would have liked to have caught the Calvary soldier at a different angle. It's hard to go to a new location with no scout time and come upon a scene with the sun sinking fast.

I took this with the Nikon 80-200 F/2.8 as it was the lens on my camera and as mentioned, the sun was sinking fast.

As the 150th Anniversary of Gettysburg approaches, as well as many of the other battles, please take a moment to remember the toll that war took on this country.

Red Tail

Red Tail, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

If you have even a remote interest in birding and you live anywhere near the Washington County Grasslands, I would strongly urge you to take a ride. The grasslands are a series of mostly private parcels in rural Washington County (I think of Washington County as being mostly rural) that together make up a large open area of extreme importance to birds. Mostly known for its raptor population, it is a go to spot for birds such as the short eared owl.

It was a clear and sunny day today albeit a bit cold. I saw too many red tailed hawks to count, several coopers hawks, an American Kestrel and a few unidentified raptors off in the distance.

This image was taken with the D7000 and 80-400VR (the old one not the new one that has just come out). Once again this lens left me a bit short as far as how much lens I'd ideally like to have. This is a heavy crop of the original image.

Barred Owl at Night

Barred Owl at Night, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

I was at my parent's letting the dog out when I spotted this owl in a maple tree that was partially illuminated by a spotlight on my parent's deck. He/She was sitting very stoic in the tree and was not bothered by my presence. After a few moments the owl came down from the tree and sat in the best light that was available (the spotlight). The owl was very aware of my presence but did not seem to mind at all. He/She would turn their head away from me and I would make a clicking noise and they would turn back around and stare at me. I was shooting on a tripod with the D7000 and 80-400VR. Unfortunately it was dark and I didn't have the time I would have liked to set up my gear. I shot this in jpeg, which I rarely do and would have preferred the flexibility of RAW. Oh well, next time!

Sunset in the Stockade

Sunset in the Stockade, a photo by UpstateNYPhototaker on Flickr.

I haven't posted in a while. Winter doesn't inspire me like the other seasons. It was a beautiful day and I was on my way home so I swung down by the river and caught some nice light. This was taken in the Riverside Park in Schenectady with my D7000 & 18-105mm. The river was open and the ice was flowing smoothly in the main channel. It was one of those days that makes you realize spring is around the corner.