View 450: Green Lakes State Park in HDR

Posted on October 26, 2020 by Scott Thomas Photography

Last week I shared photos from Green Lakes State Park from a beautiful Autumn day. As I walked around the Green Lake Trail a few minutes after sunrise, I found some locations had a lot of shadowed areas and bright sunlit areas. While digital cameras can capture a wide range of light these locations went beyond what my Nikon D750 could handle.

Eastern Shore of Green Lake
Eastern shore on Green Lake in Autumn at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York on Sunday, October 18, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 24mm Focal Length, Tripod, HDR Image.

That is when I take a set of photos to cover the range which is called bracketing. The Nikon D750 has a bracketing button which sets the number of exposures and the range using Exposure Value (EV) settings. I often use -2EV to +2EV in 1 stop intervals.

Deadman's Reef on Green Lake
Deadman’s Point “reef” pokes up out of the water on Green Lake in Autumn at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York on Sunday, October 18, 2020. Nikon D750/16-35VR, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 16mm Focal Length, Tripod, HDR Image.

Those five photos allow me to capture details in the dark shadows and the bright highlights. Something our eyes do easily but takes a bit of digital wizardly on a computer.

White Cedar on the Shore of Green Lake
Gnarled White Cedar wood along the shore of Green Lake in Autumn at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York on Sunday, October 18, 2020. Nikon D750/16-35VR, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 16mm Focal Length, Tripod, HDR Image.

In my case, I use an Adobe Lightroom plug-in from Skylum called Aurora HDR app. HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. Aurora HDR brings in all five photos and merges them together. It has many pre-sets to choose from which I browse through until I get something close to what I envisioned the final image would look like. From there I finish off the image in Lightroom.

Bench on Green Lake
A bench overlooking Green Lake Fall colors at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York on Sunday, October 18, 2020. Nikon 16-35VR, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 19mm Focal Length, Tripod, HDR Image.

In the case of the image with the bench, it was really dark. To insure I got the whole range, I increased the EV range to -3EV to +3EV with 7 photos. I was really glad I did as the bench area came out very detailed while keeping the bright colorful trees in the background perfectly exposed.

Hope you enjoyed these photographs and, if you are a digital photographer, I hope I gave you some inspiration to try HDR processing.

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View 449: Green Lake Autumn Reflections

Posted on October 21, 2020 by Scott Thomas Photography

Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York has perhaps the most studied meromictic lake (one in which layers of water do not mix) in the world in Green Lake creating unusual blue-green color to the water. This time of year, the surrounding old growth forests add other colors to the lake.

Green Lake at Green Lakes State Park
Autumn trees reflect on Green Lake at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York on Sunday, October 18, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, 1/8s, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 38mm Focal Length, Tripod.

Like Beaver Lake Nature Center I visited the day before, the trees around Green Lake were at peak color last weekend. I circumnavigated around Green Lake on a popular trail I shared with joggers, runners, walkers and a few fellow photographers on a cool morning. The trail had many locations to view the beauty of the Autumn season.

Reflection in Green Lake
Autumn tree reflection in Green Lake at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York on Sunday, October 18, 2020. Nikon D750/16-35VR, 1/10s, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 16mm Focal Length, Circular Polarizing Filter, Tripod.

A slight breeze kept the water of Green Lake from becoming a mirrored surface, I still found places where the water reflected the trees and sky beautifully. The use of a Circular Polarizing Filter helped to cut out the glare.

Autumn at Green Lakes State Park
Autumn trees reflected on Green Lake at Green Lakes State Park near Syracuse, New York on Sunday, October 18, 2020. Nikon D750/16-35VR, 1/5s, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 16mm Focal Length, Circular Polarizing Filter, Tripod.

The Green Lake Trail is 1.9 miles long and flat which made for a nice easy walk and shoot through a spectacular Autumn day.

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View 448: Beaver Lake Nature Center Trails

Posted on October 19, 2020 by Scott Thomas Photography

It is peak Autumn color around Central New York right now. I grabbed my camera and favorite walk about lens and headed out early to walk the trails at Beaver Lake Nature Center near Baldwinsville, New York last weekend. The weather was near perfect for mid-October with a slight breeze, blue sky and temperatures rising from the mid-30s to the mid-50s (Fahrenheit) during my visit.

I first trekked out to my favorite, the Bog Trail. This is a short walk out and back with boardwalks through a northern bog. This time of year, the plants and trees turn all kinds of colors like these Flowering Dogwood leaves.

Autumn Dogwood Leaves
Flowering Dogwood leaves (Cornus florida) along the Bog Trail at Beaver Lake Nature Center near Baldwinsville, New York on Saturday, October 17, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, 1/125s, f/4, ISO 180, EV +0.3, 120mm Focal Length.

The Lakeview Trail is a short loop which leads out to Beaver Lake Nature Center’s own Inspiration Point. Here I had wonderful side lighting on the beautiful colors of the maple and oak trees found along the shore of the lake.

Inspiration Point at Beaver Lake Nature Center
View from Inspiration Point on the Lakeview Trail at Beaver Lake Nature Center near Baldwinsville, New York on Saturday, October 17, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, 1/10s, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 50mm Focal Length.

The Deep Woods Trail is a 1.4 mile (2.3 kms) walk which goes just off the lake before looping back through an old growth forest. Along the way I looked for images which said “Autumn” to me. I found it on a moss covered log on the ground as these two maple leaves had fallen on. Here nature is slowly breaking down the log to become future fertilizer for new growth. The leaves indicate a quicker seasonal change from Autumn towards Winter.

Mossy Log
Leaves on a mossy log along the Deep Woods Trail at Beaver Lake Nature Center near Baldwinsville, New York on Saturday, October 17, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, ISO 6300, EV 0, 120mm Focal Length.

The last trail I walked was a short 1/2 mile loop called the Pine Meadow Trail. It skirts a meadow surrounded by an old Red Pine plantation. I choose this High Dynamic Range image to show you the trail going between the rows of the pine trees. This trail filled the air with the smells of pine.

Pine Meadow Trail
Pine Meadow Trail at Beaver Lake Nature Center near Baldwinsville, New York on Saturday, October 17, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, f/16, ISO 3200, EV 0, 24mm Focal Length, HDR Image.

With all the shadows mixed in with bright sunlight and sky, I knew I would need a set of photos to cover the range from -2EV to +2EV. Skylum’s Aurora 2019 HDR software merged those photos to create this image.

Autumn in Central New York gave me a bountiful treat of warm sunny days to enjoy and a rainbow of colors to photograph.

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View 447: Taughannock Falls: Then and Now

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Scott Thomas Photography

What a difference a year makes. About a year ago I visited Taughannock Falls State Park near Ithaca, New York. It was a warm Autumn day a few days after some rain. The Great Fall in the Woods had a good water flow surrounded by Fall colors.

Taughannock Falls 2019
Taughannock Falls with good flow at Taughannock Falls State Park near Ithaca, New York on Saturday, October 14, 2019. Nikon D750/24-120VR, f/16, ISO 100, EV 0, 50mm Focal Length, Tripod, HDR Image.

Fast forward to last weekend and Taughannock Falls water flow is extremely low. Probably does not help it has been one of the hottest and driest years on record. Whatever rain we do get, soaks into the ground before running off into the waterways.

Taughannock Falls 2020
Taughannock Falls with little flow at Taughannock Falls State Park near Ithaca, New York on Saturday, October 10, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, f/16, ISO 800, EV 0, 24mm Focal Length, HDR Image.

While yearly weather does vary, seems each year has become hotter and dryer. Statistics back it up as the Earth has experienced five of the hottest years on record since 2015.

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View 446: Adirondack Autumn

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Scott Thomas Photography

Autumn in the Adirondack Park is both colorful and quick. This year seems to have been accelerated and is about a week ahead of past years. This past weekend, I took a drive up through Boonville through Old Forge and ended up at Arrowhead Park in Inlet.

First stop was at the Hawkinsville Dam near Boonville, New York. Being on the south edge of the Adirondacks, the colors were about 60% changed.

Hawkinsville Dam
Autumn colors surround the Hawkinsville Dam on the Black River near Boonville, New York on Sunday, October 4, 2020. Nikon D750/16-35VR, 1/4s, f/16, ISO 64, EV 0, 35mm Focal Length, 3-stop ND Filter, Tripod, Cropped.

Even with using a 3-stop Neutral Density filter, I set my ISO below the Nikon D750’s native 100 to an ISO of 64. This allowed me to get a 1/4 second shutter speed to blur the water flowing over the dam.

The trees became less vibrant and full the farther north and east I traveled. At the planned lunch stop at Arrowhead Park in Inlet, New York, I waited patiently for the Sun to break through the cloud cover to light up the colors seen around Fourth Lake.

Arrowhead Park in Inlet
View of Autumn color from Arrowhead Park on Fourth Lake in Inlet, New York on Sunday, October 4, 2020. Nikon D750/24-120VR, 1/125s, f/16, ISO 160, EV +0.3, 24mm Focal Length.

The colors popped with the sunlight and the October blue sky added to the beautiful scene.

Hope this finds you well and safe. Being able to travel around and enjoy the outdoors while photographing has kept me from going crazy.

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