Stonearch Bridge Park

Stonearch Bridge Park is rather conveniently located on NY Rt. 52 beteen Callicoon and Jeffersonville.  It’s not a very large park, but it is nicely landscaped, has a picnic area, a children’s playground and a shortish walking path.  I have photographed the park in every season, looked the bridge from varying angles, and still keep coming back.  I come both alone as well as bring my photography classes from the Family Foundation School so that they can enjoy the park and take some interesting images.

The bridge is a historical landmark in Sullivan County.  It used to be part of the main thoroughfare between Port Jervis and the more northern regions of the county.  Additionally, there is a story of a hex murder that occured on the bridge - not sure exactly what a hex murder is, but the sign at the bridge tells you about it.  Hmmm…

Here are some images of the Bridge.  First image taken with Nikon D100 and 24-85 AF-S G Nikkor lens.

Stonearch view from Rt 52 Side

The next image was taken in winter from the other side of Callicoon Creek.  This image was taken with a Nikon D200 and a 24-85 mm AF-S G Nikkor lens.

Stonearch Bridge taken from under the small dam in the park

The third and fourth images were taken in fall with the Nikon D300 and an 18-200 AF-S VR Nikkor lens. These images were taken during an outing with students from the Family Foundation School.

The first of these two images was taken from inside one of the bridges stone arches facing West.

Stonearch Bridge facing west on Callicoon Creek

The next image is also from under the arch of the bridge, but faces East down Callicoon Creek.  This images was taken with the same camera / lens combination as the last.  This image was taken using a “high dynamic range” (HDR) imaging technique.  It consists of several images that were taken in rapid succession at different exposures.  The images were assembled and blended using a program called Photomatix Pro.  This is an early effort, and not entirely successful.  It is possible to do this with hand held images, but there can be problems with aligning the images for the final image.  This image will probably not print much larger than 8x 12 inches due to aligment errors and differences in the quality of the water between individual frames.

Stonearch Bridge facing East down Callicoon Creek