Watkins Glen

[iancl]

Good day all,

After the nice responses I got to my last post, I thought I'd share a few images from my visit to Watkins Glen state park at the beginning of September.

Feel free to visit my online portfolio at Photo.net here: Ian Cox-Leigh. There are a few more images from Watkins Glen along with a variety of other subjects.

All comments welcome. Thanks for your time.

[Tim Gray]

After visiting Ricketts Glenn 2 years ago, I've put a return visit and a visit to Watkins Glenn on my list.  #2 is my favorite.

[Geoff Wittig]

I concur with Tim; the middle photo is very nice indeed, and works great as a black & white image. The other two are a little drab, at least at screen resolution.

Watkins Glen is one of many state parks in the Finger Lakes region, and most of them share its post-glacial topography, with deep shale/limestone glens and waterfalls. I live about 10 miles from Stony Brook State Park; attached is a stitched pano from it.

Most all of these parks photography best in overcast light, especially after a good rain when the rocks are wet and the falls flowing full. In sunshine the contrast range is lethal.

An excellent resource is Matthew Conheady's website, http://www.nyfalls.com/ which has lots of photos and links to maps etc.; it includes directions to many of the lesser known parks and falls.

[wolfnowl]

I think #2 is well done, but I would like to see it in colour, especially if there are any autumn leaves in the image (it's hard to tell in B&W).  The contrast with the darkness of the falls area would be interesting.

Mike.

[iancl]

Thanks you for the comments so far.

I stopped by Watkins Glen on the way to Philadelphia and was there for only a couple of hours. I had planned to spend longer and arrive earlier but was delayed at the border and had decided not to even stop. But, then I figured I'd make it a 'scouting trip' and plan a return if it was promising since I live in Toronto and I could go over a weekend easily.

I arrived at 6 pm and given that it was the very end of August it was already starting to get dark and the whole interior of the gorge was in its own shadow. All things considered that was probably very fortunate as I can certainly see how direct sunlight would create unmanageable contrast. I had to use grads for many of my exposures anyways (including number 2 above which has a 3-stop (2-stop?) soft to hold back the sky).

I didn't make it all the way up the escarpment and didn't even see the largest of the falls before it was dark and I was the last to leave the parking lot at 8:15.

I plan a return in spring when there might be some more water too.

I really don't think #2 works in colour as I find the sky too distracting and the colour adds little. But, for the curious I have attached it.

This exposure and many of the others were made by suspending the camera locked down and pre-focused on my tripod and held out over the edge of the railings in order to get better angles and exclude the foot paths.

[Chris_T]

[attachment=5120:attachment][attachment=5121:attachment]

I really don't think #2 works in colour as I find the sky too distracting and the colour adds little. But, for the curious I have attached it.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=173654\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

For me, the color version actually has better tonal range than the b/w. The former has no blown out highlight or shadow, but the latter does. I think that a better b/w convsersion with some burning/dodging can enhance the details at both ends of the range.

Not sure if you had tried different compositions during capture. Attached are a couple of cropped variations.

[iancl]

[attachment=5120:attachment][attachment=5121:attachment]

For me, the color version actually has better tonal range than the b/w. The former has no blown out highlight or shadow, but the latter does. I think that a better b/w convsersion with some burning/dodging can enhance the details at both ends of the range.

Not sure if you had tried different compositions during capture. Attached are a couple of cropped variations.
[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=174582\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

Chris, I hate to tell you this, but you're simply wrong on the tonal issue. I didn't have a colour version of this still in my files (I had parted with my worked up colour copy) so I simply went into Lightroom and clicked on my B&W and switched it back to colour. There are absolutely no tonal changes between the two files. I didn't even adjust the colour channels in creating the B&W.

Moreover, I like some true black and true white in almost all my B&W images. I don't feel there is an absence of shadow details here (or highlight detail).

As for the crops, I can see the merit of loosing a little off the top. However, I think if I re-cropped the top I wouldn't take as much as you have as I feel your crops are beginning to lose the swirling nature of the rock layers in that area.

Thanks for the feedback it is quite constructive.

[Bradley Proctor]

Ian,

#2 is fantastic.  I think it looks great the way you had it in the original post.