Photography and Outdoor Activities

No nature photography this time.   My friend Larry and I took a drive to Corning, New York to visit the Corning Museum of Glass (CMOG), a museum that I have visited many times over the years.  The museum had been closed for an extended period of time to allow for complete remodeling of the exhibition space, the demonstration areas, and to create a new Hall of Innovation. I had not been there since the remodel, and we were in for a treat!  Larry and I had two reasons for taking this trip: for our own edification and to do some photography, and to get information about the possibilities of a visit for the students at our therapeutic school where Larry and I teach at risk teens.

Some of the changes to the museum include a complete remodel of all the exhibition space and a HUGE new gift shop area.  Of interest to Larry and myself, however, was the current display of modern art.  There were some very interesting pieces in the collection that were displayed in a very nice open space.  The first object that caught our interest is pictured below.

Refraction 1

As we looked at the object from all different angles, we saw, to our amazement that every angle of view provided an amazingly different look to the object with rainbows of colors due to the refraction of the illuminating spotlight.

Refraction 2

We also enjoyed our time in the Hall of Innovation - although I have no pictures from this area of the museum.  This is the area I would intend to spend the most time with when I bring my chemistry and Larry’s physics students from The Family Foundation School, our school for angry teens.  The school has college science classes (these are actual college classes - our science students are enrolled in these classes through two local colleges) which would really benefit from seeing some real world physics and chemistry applications.  Interesting exhibits here included the formation of glass-ceramic by introduction of microcrystals in the glass, and also the displays on optical fibers and glass tempering.  All of these applications of physics and chemistry would be very valuable for the teens at therapeutic boarding schools, such as ours.  Science experience outside the classroom is sometimes not so easy to come by when a school is located in a rural an area, and students do need some time off campus as well.

Part of the new display space is set up like a living area with fuzzy carpets and benches.  In this area there were some more interesting objects of glass.  The object in the image below intrigued me, not just because of the clarity of the glass from which it is constructed, but also it’s form.

3 D Arrow

The last thing we did on our trip to CMOG was to visit the Hot Glass show.  This show is a demonstration of how glass objects are made.  Here are two images taken at the show.  Both images were taken with my Nikon D300 and 18-200 mm VR lens.  The images at the hot glass show were taken at ISO 3200.

Hot Glass Show 1

The second image shows formation of the pour spout of the pitcher, and clipping off the excess glass.  Note the falling away of the excess glass.  The motion blur is due to a very slow shutter speed.

Hot Glass Show 2

The bottom line is that Larry and I definitely need to make this trip happen for our students.  CMOG is definitely worth the two hour plus trip from our high school for troubled teens!

{ 1 comment }

On our trip recent trip to Watkins Glen we wandered along the Gorge Path marveling at the beautiful water cascades, the dramatic scenery, and the interesting geological formations that have been carved by water over millenia.  At a point in the trail where the water flows were especially beautiful and the gorge especially deep, we peered over the trail wall down into the gorge.

We were in for a shock.

Deep in the gorge there was a pool of water that contained the bodies of two dead deer.  These two hapless animals had apparently fallen to their deaths from high above the bottom of the gorge.  We considered whether the deer had been washed downstream, or fallen from above, but did not come to a definite conclusion.  There was a sheer wall above the area were the carcasses had come to rest, an area with trees and probably grass from where the animals may have fallen from.  It is most probable that is what occurred - the animals would have probably come to rest in the gorge farther upstream if they had come to their demise by drowning in high water farther up the creek.

Casualties in The Glen

{ 0 comments }

My wife and I had been planning a trip to Watkins Glen for several weeks now, especially because I know that the Glen (as well as the Gorges in Ithaca which is also nearby) close in fall for the rest of the winter season.  This last Sunday we finally got a chance to go, on a beautiful fall day with 65 degree weather.  I was fairly certain that the park would still be open, and indeed we found that it was on arrival.  What I had not expected, however, was that we would get this lucky.  The park closed for the season this Monday, November 9th.  We got in on the last chance!  Entering the Glen is strictly forbidden in the winter time due to often dangerous conditions when snow and ice are present.

The specific reason for my interest in going to Watkins Glen was a photograph that I had taken several years ago.  The image was captured hand held with a 6 MP Nikon D100 DSLR camera.  While excellent for its time, my current equipment should yield a better large format print.  Also, since I had not used a tripod for the original image I had introduced some camera shake into my image.  The camera shake had proven to be the biggest problem with my previous picture, and the picture was only printable up to 8″x10″ withe reasonable quality.  Since I am rather picky about my print quality I figured it would be fun to reproduce a better version of the earlier image.  I took my Sigma 12-24 lens and my Nikon 18-200 VR into the Glen, along with my Nikon D300.

Here is an image from our hike up the Glen, one of many beautiful series of cascades in the park.

Watkins Glen Cascades

A bit further up the stream, we arrived at one of several waterfalls.

Watkins Glen Waterfall

And then, we finally arrived at the spot where I intended to re-make my previous image.  The shot below is a single exposure image of a bracketed exposure series.  The image was processed in Nikon Capture NX 1.4 and sized in Adobe Photoshop CS.  A fairly large amount of lightening has been done to the shadow areas of the image.  In it’s current form I suspect that the image would not print much larger than 12″x18″ due to graininess caused by shadow noise.   An HDR overlay of the bracketed images might improve the result.

Watkins Glen Veil of Water on the Trail

On the way back we returned most of the way on the Indian Trail, then crossed over to the South Rim Trail and then back into the Gorge.  All in all, a great outing on a perfect fall day!  This was exact same outing that one of our Houses at The Family Foundation School did with some young people just a few weeks ago.

{ 7 comments }

My recent post from Chimney Bluffs State Park showed the shore of Lake Ontario with the Chimney Bluffs in the distance.  This image was taken from the western access to the Chimney Bluffs trail system.  Approaching the bluffs from the west affords a better view than approaching from the east, as I had on my last visit many years ago.  Here are two more images from the bluffs showing the features from much closer up.  The first image is looking down a fin toward the ocean.  Image was captured with my Nikon D300 and my ever present walk around lens, the Nikon 18-200 VR.

Down a fin

The second image is a black and white conversion of the profile of the bluffs against Lake Ontario.  Again, the image was captured with the Nikon D300 the 18-200 VR.  Enjoy!

Chimney Bluffs Profile

{ 0 comments }

Sunday November 1st, I found myself taking a bit of a drive with my wife.  Since we had no obligations at work (The Family Foundation School, a school for at risk teens), and we had already enjoyed our Halloween Dance with the school on Friday night, we allowed ourselves a day of driving with a little bit our hiking.  Our trip on this day took us to Chimney Bluffs State Park on the shores of Lake Ontario.

Chimney Bluffs are a series of sandy bluffs that have eroded away over time making interesting “fins” and chimney like formations.  Here is a view of Lake Ontario and a view of the Bluffs from the shore of the lake.

The Bluffs are near Sodus Bay on Lake Ontario and are less than an hour from Rochester New York and Oswego New York (about half way in between).  This image was taken with my Nikon D300 and 18-200 VR walk around lens.

{ 1 comment }

To get a long weekend away from our full time work at The Family Foundation School, a school for at risk teens, we took a quick trip to Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park to do a bit of hiking and site seeing.  My wife and I like a number  of outdoor activities, including hiking, bicycling and kayaking. As it turns out, Shenandoah National Park, the Adirondacks of New York, the Green Mountains of Vermont, and the White Mountains of New Hampshire are all about 5 to 6 hours from where we live.  Our area is GREAT for kayaking and cycling, but for hiking we need to travel a bit.  For day trips we sometimes go to the Catskill Park (about 2 hours driving to most locations), but for weekends we usually go North.  This was our first try at a long weekend going South.  It was well worth it!  Lots of mostly easy hiking is available in Shenandoah, and as it turns out, most trails allowed us to bring our dogs.

Here is a view from Chimney Rock on the Rip Rap trail in Shenandoah.  This trail is accessed from the Rip Rap parking lot at mile post 90 in the park.  The total round trip hike is 3.4 miles.  This image was taken with the Nikon D300 and 18-200 mm AF-S VR lens.

View From Chimney Rock, Shenandoah National Park

The other interesting thing about Shenandoah is that the wildlife is very abundant.  Although my wife and I are used to having deer running around like squirrels in a park, we are not so accustomed to seeing as many black bear.  We DO have black bear in the Delaware Valley (and have photographed on in our own back yard), but they are a bit more scarce than in Shenandoah.  We saw three black bears in two days while in the park.  The image below was photographed at twilight, Nikon D300, 18-200 mm AF-S VR lens and ISO 3200.  Not that the exposure of the fur of the black bear in twilight is exceptionally difficult, the reason the image quality here is not very good.

The weather during our two days in the Park was quite good with beautiful evening skies on both days.  The second day we were there, we were still on Skyline Drive at sunset.  The sky looked as if it were on fire.  Although I find sunsets to be for the most part pretty much a cliche’, it’s still fun to capture them.   Again, this image was captured with my usual camera / lens combination (Nikon D300 / 18-200 VR).

Sky on Fire, Shenandoah Skyline Drive

{ 2 comments }

The trip to Acadia was a bit surprising in some ways.  Of interest is that the climate in Maine was no colder than at the Pennsylvania border area of New York, where I live.  The fall leaves were even a bit less advanced, and the temperatures were about the same.   Acadia is great in terms of the variety of outdoor activities.  Lots of hiking, lots of biking, and lots of water sports are possible!  Here’s an image from the carriage roads in Acadia National Park.

We spent some time on two occasions cycling the carriage roads on this trip.  Here’s an image of Annie, the principal of The Family Foundation School, a school for at risk teens enjoying the view from Acadia’s Carriage roads.  The location is from “around” Sargent Mountain.

One other really enjoyable aspect of Acadia is the opportunity to enjoy sunrise and sunset over oceans and bays.  Here is an image of the sun setting over Seal Cove in Acadia National Park.  Both images in this post were taken with my Nikon D300 and 18-200 mm AF-S VR lens.

{ 0 comments }

Acadia is probably my favorite National Park on the east coast.   The widely varied scenery and widely varied outdoor activities possible here are  a strong draw.  We are currently spending a week here and I hope to post more images soon.  For now, just a teaser - a view of The Bubbles from Jordan Pond.  The warm evening light gives the scene a wonderful glow that can only be experienced in fall.

The Bubbles from Jordan Pond

This image was captured with a Nikon D300 with an 18-200 VR lens mounted.  Capture parameters were focal length of 18mm, f/16 and 1/50th sec.

{ 1 comment }

My wife and I had the opportunity to take a long (4 day) weekend in the White Mountains two weeks ago.  I am only now getting the opportunity to post an image from our short trip.  This was our first chance this summer to get away and go camping.  Students at our school for troubled teens have been keeping us very busy!

Annie and I drove up to Twin Mountain, NH on a Thursday morning and stayed at the Living Water Campground.  We had stayed at Living Water before some years ago and had found it to be very nice.  This campground features nice clean, flat sites, with some directly on the Ammonoosuc River.  Another nice feature is that no radios or alcoholic beverages are allowed, and there is a 10PM to 7AM quiet hour for those of us that need to catch up on our sleep!

We spent some time exploring in our vehicle, barbecued some chickens at our campsite (yum!), and actually did get a hike in.  Here’s Annie on top of Mt. Jackson, one of the peaks in New Hampshire’s Presidential range.  The peak visible in the background is Mt. Washington, the highest mountain in the north east.

Annie on Mt. Jackson, NH

We did get a chance to try our new tent as well and light it up using a Xantrex XPower 1500.  This cool gadget combines a 1500 watt power inverter with a 60 amp battery pack and can be charged with line voltage, cigarette lighter outlet in a car, or with alternative energy (e.g. a solar panel).  This gadget worked well enough I’ll need to talk about it in another post!

{ 0 comments }