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 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. 

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.

Horses at Sunrise

Horses at Sunrise
Originally uploaded by UpstateNYPhototaker

Sunrises can be hit or miss. When you work a full time job and the weekends are pretty much your main photography time, it can be a big investment getting up at 4:45am to get some shooting time in. It is especially tough if you don't have a spot really planned out and you are just winging it.

That was the case here. I knew that it was going to be a nice morning so I got up early and set out to make a nice photograph. I had to park on the side of the road near this farm in West Charlton and get up onto the roof of my car to shoot over the fence. I could have walked up to the fence, but I definitely didn't want to trespass.

The 80-200 F/2.8 was a no brainer here and I shot it at ISO 800 to help with the low light. There really wasn't a ton of post processing here. Some cropping and straightening of the horizon and some small changes in the color balance (namely making the photo a tad bit warmer).

Galway Lake, NY - Saratoga County

To see more of my work, or to purchase a photo, go to: ZENFOLIO






Galway Lake, NY in Saratoga County is one of my favorite places to photograph. I have been going to my families camp there for as long as I can remember and my family has been "camping" there for longer than most.

Please visit my Zenfolio page to check out my other photos from Galway Lake and the area. If you are interested you can purchase one of my photos at that site. I also have some postcards made up of the first image at the top of this blog. If you are interested please contact me.

http://smpphotography.zenfolio.com/