Tag Archives: Water

Springs and Fall

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I took this image in the Lititz Springs park and I am not exactly sure if this is the main spring or an area that holds the water from the springs, but you could see it flowing up from a few places in the area. This was taken with my 17-35 zoom at almost its widest view and I am backed up to a wall that goes around the springs from the steps on each side. This was taken on a night that was supposed to have bad storms and winds were maybe 20mph but it stayed dry while I shot. Thankfully the leaves surrounding the water were sheltered by the wall but out past the wall they were being blown all over the place. The green in the water was algae on rocks and I was surprised how well it showed up.

Nights like this are great for having the place all to yourself but I did have a crazy situation arise that  was a little sketchy. At one point across the park I could hear some teen girl swearing and it was about two or three minutes later I notice two black males around 17 to 20 years old sprinting from one end of the park to the other? It was getting much darker than my photo appears and I was taking all this activity in from the shadows wondering what was up?  All of a sudden they see me standing in this area and come running full speed till they are literally three feet in front of me. The one guy immediately starts demanding to know if I just slapped his baby girl?  I told them how long I had been there photographing and they said “some white dude just walked up and slapped his baby girl across the face” and the one was itching to whoop somebody and his most memorable comment to me was ” I believe I am about to get out of my character if I catch this dude”  They kept asking me if I saw anybody run my direction, and I said no, but the funny thing is, I did have one shot in my series that actually had a guy in it that looked similar to what they described.

Lobster Buoy Collection

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rockport-fishing-buoys

This home in Rockport Massachusetts beckoned me to capture its unique seacoast charm after I noticed the many old lobster buoys adorning the entrance. As I was speaking to the owners wife,she told me her husband had collected these authentic buoys along the shoreline years ago and this quaint scene had been featured in magazines more than once.

Motif Number One

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rockport-harbor-boats

Rockport Massachusetts was one stop on my brief new england photo trip and shooting this classic scene was among my goals. I learned something new about this spot after hearing a term mentioned by three separate people in about an hours time. This place is referred to as motif number one,and is located on Bradley Wharf in the harbor town of Rockport, Massachusetts.It is a fishing shack well-known to students of art and art history as “the most often-painted building in America.”  It is even listed on my atlas as motif one,which surprised me. It s very interesting to watch the fisherman stand in these little boats in the foreground to paddle out to their fishing boats in the morning. Super storm  Sandy undermined one wall at the harbor but they escaped with much less damage than most. Our motel owner said the water came up to the ice machine there and the motel sits about 40 feet or more above the ocean and they stayed for the whole storm.

A Star is Born

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This snow scene was shot only a few hours later than my gazebo shot from yesterday. I literally went to bed just before midnight,tossed and turned as I thought about scenes to capture and climbed out of bed before 4am to head out looking. Again the full moon had the landscape lit up as evidenced by this shot taken around four thirty in the morning.A farm with silos glows in the distance as a bright star on top reflects in this peaceful stream.If you look closely,you can see stars in the night sky.

 

 

Roadway Reflection

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reflecting-snowscene

This early winter scene was made possible by a large puddle on the road,allowing for a reflection of sorts.This was hand-held and had to be shot rather quickly because of cars zipping along the road.I did not feel like having either myself or my camera take a bath,so I got as close to the water as possible and snapped. Nothing spectacular,but not bad considering. Warm temperatures helped to put a little fog in the air as skies cleared.

A Flash of Light

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This is another example of adding light to a scene for a different look.The bottom photo is the original and the top is after adding multiple flash pops. I had to anchor the tripod in the creek solidly and then move around with hip waders on while I lit all the areas with a small flash unit on a pole. It’s not perfect but it was raining so I had to rush a bit.I used a wireless remote to fire the camera and use radio popper wireless flash transmitters to fire the flash. I enjoy trying to create something from scratch and encourage others to try new effects.

 

Lake Placid Park

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This Lake Placid park was full of color, but with twenty-mile per hour wind and driving rain,I was wondering why I left my warm motel room an hour and a half before sunrise in search of images. All the light in this image is coming from lamp posts throughout the park and my exposure for this image was thirty seconds at f11. Several early morning joggers gave me funny looks as they wondered what on earth I was doing.This image was taken shortly after I finished my streets of gold image from yesterdays post.

The Adirondacks

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This peaceful little scene was at our motel in Lake Placid and was worthy of a shot. We stayed at the motel three days and it was only on the last day that I walked out back and saw this view.Sometimes the shot is right under your nose,but you need to look. The cabin runs around 500 bucks for two nights but being able to look out your bedroom window at this scene might be worth every penny.There was only one Adirondack chair out front,so I shot one frame with it on the right side and then moved it to the left for a second shot.I then layered the two images together to end up with the final image,which was possible thanks to the tripod.

The Flume Falls

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This falls called the flume is located along a scenic stretch of road about ten miles outside of Lake Placid. As I get older I seem to be getting a little less brave or perhaps wiser,but on this morning I decided to navigate my way onto a hard to reach rock outcropping to get this shot. To get this shot,I left my camera bag in the woods,carried only my camera and tripod and clung to several trees as I descended a hill.Next I crawled on hands and knees along a two foot wide rock ledge that included low hanging roots brushing my back.I took my sweet time getting there because any mistake would put me into the raging water,which included more nasty falls just downstream. Getting there right after sunrise insured I would hopefully be there alone,which I was.The water was flowing pretty strongly,so extreme caution was in order.Fall color on the mountain provided a nice backdrop.

Dawn on Lake Placid

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This is the view from our motel backyard on our Lake Placid trip. I only knew it was there on our last day,so I set the chairs up, tied the canoes fast and set the oars in position the night before. I came out at dawn in the dark,set up my laptop,tripod and camera and started lighting the scene in the dark,and then recorded the lake and sky as the sun rose. I could easily get used to sitting in those chairs and the home out on the lake with the light on is a dream location to live.

A Place to Relax

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This peaceful scene was one of a few shots I captured while visiting Lake Placid last week. It was located a few miles outside town and looked like a great place to spend time enjoying nature. A canoe ride,a hike, or just an evening around the camp fire munching on smores are all possibilities in a place like this.I took this photo from my truck roof because the extra elevation allowed for a better view of the lake and woods.

Calm Waters

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This is a photo I took after putting on the hip waders and going out to about mid stream. The creek is a little lower than normal right now,so I was not worried about getting knocked over by the current,and it provided a nice vantage point during a slightly foggy day. Depth was anywhere from 8 inches to about 2 feet,which allowed me to navigate anywhere on the stream I needed. I carried only one camera with lens on my tripod and brought a polarizer,which helped with the reflection.

Infrared tree reflection

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This was taken recently at a local park. I Shot the top image using a Nikon D70 with an infrared filter supplied from lifepixel. The camera can only shoot infrared,but it does a good job with infrared.The bottom image was taken with a Nikon D200 and a color infrared filter from the same company. It is called false color infrared and to be honest I am not sure why the color reproduces as it does.

Meet Croaker

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This is the resident frog at my mother in laws house who has laid claim to her tiny backyard pond. He has been affectionately  named croaker for obvious reasons and my mother in law has almost perfected the mating call that emanates from croaker on a normal night. I used to have a backyard pond as well, and was always amazed how frogs found their way to these small sources of water. For this hand-held shot, I had to all but fall in the pond to get the low angle, but croaker gladly posed as I was about a foot away, and never even flinched.

Cape Porpoise Nightmare

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My mother recently joked about an experience I had in maine a few years back, so I figured I would share the memory here. My wife and I were on a new england vacation, and had stopped in Cape Porpoise in Kennebunkport Maine to look around at several shops and I also wanted to do some photography. While there my wife got the brilliant idea to do a whale watch, but the idea of going 25 miles out to sea in a small boat was not my idea of fun,but since it was clear blue skies and totally calm seas, I said sure. We headed out and kept going and going and going, and about halfway out it gets cloudy, and I thought no big deal. When we are nearing the whale area, the captain comes on the loud-speaker to say conditions look like they are going to deteriorate and we wont be staying long. Well things did deteriorate rapidly and just as my wife tries to shoot a whale coming out of the water, I grab her to tell her how horrible I am feeling,and she basically says go get sick somewhere else so I can enjoy the whales. Anyway, the waves were rolling now at 6-8ft and the whole way back in, the captain literally was riding the waves with his boat till we crashed into waves ahead of us. I was certain we were going to be lost in this storm, and because I was sick, we sat on the outside of the boat as everyone huddled inside with life preservers on. The two parts of this trip that are the most indelibly etched in my mind are when I went inside to use the bathroom, everyone was watching me head to the door, and as I open the door, this poor woman is standing there with her clothes around her ankles and the whole crowd looking at her. I thought who lets a door unlocked in that state?  The second memory is of these two teenage girls who stood on the very top of the boat in the front and screamed with utter joy as we crashed into each wave. I thought we were dead and they were having the time of their lives, so I guess it’s all in your perspective. Needless to say whale watches are no longer high on my to do list. I remember getting to shore and hearing a crew member say, the captain told them it was the worst conditions he had ever navigated, but I am not sure what that meant since he was only about 25 years old. This photo was taken that day, but its nothing earth shattering.

Goat Island Rescue

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We had a decent amount of rain over the last two days,so my mind started thinking about all the heavy storms we had in the last year, and this image came back to my memory. What appears to be a lake, is actually a field for this herd of goats, and over near the green grass there was a tiny stream that severely overflowed its banks. As the goats were down to their last few feet of pasture, the owners came out with the tractor and cart. They loaded the young ones in the wire cages, and persuaded the nervous parents to follow them to higher ground. It was comical to watch, but the waters were still rising,so they got out at just the right time.

The Bloated Sea lion

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Since we are now into the weekend, I thought maybe its time to share another one of my misadventures near water. That blurred man in the lower photo is me standing on a beach in washington state alongside one of several dozen huge tees washed ashore. My morning started out with my wife and I taking in the beauty along the washington coast, and as you can see, sunny blue skies were in abundance. I said, lets walk all the way down to that island, which you can see in the background of my image, and I calculated it to be only a half hours walk. Well, we walked and walked, rested and walked, and as we get within a hundred yards of the island, you could see a fog bank quickly coming in off the ocean. I thought oh that’s neat, but that was only up until the fog got so thick that you could only see 10 to 20 yards in front of you.

Now in most situations fog would not bother me, but guess what?  As soon as that fog hit us, you could literally see the tide starting to come in, and on a normal beach one would just move up on the boardwalk or something similar, but considering the entire length of this beach was strewn with trees that had trunks 10 feet around, it was quite clear,we were not getting over them, and had to get back to the parking lot quickly. I was like a marine corps drill sergeant, telling my wife to keep moving as fast as she could, and carrying all my gear was really wearing me out. We went on and on, and waves were washing ever closer the entire time, and the final straw was realizing the little sign marking the parking area was nowhere to be found in the fog. we had no idea if we passed the lot a half mile ago, or had a half mile to go, UNTIL we saw the lovely bloated dead sea-lion that was washed up right at the path. luckily we noticed this poor creature at the beginning, and I can truly say I was never so glad to see a blob of blubber as I was that day. My heart was just pounding as adrenaline and survival instincts were on high alert.

The calming feather on rounded stones image was taken the same morning, up the road a bit after our little nature hike. The whole ordeal was magnified in my mind as it was happening, because we had read many signs warning about getting trapped in coves etc along the beach at high tide. Just another great memory around the peaceful waters.