Decaseconds

Grasse River in Town

2016-Jun-102021-Apr-06 adohertyh1 Comment

The North Country has rough, glacier-hewn landscapes and a culture of independence. How this area is understood and depicted is often a matter of choice on the part of the photographer. Case in point: the path of the Grasse River, on its way to the the St. Lawrence Seaway. Look at all that beautiful early-spring nature!

But cropping can deceive: if I pan the camera to the right, you see a much different image. The Grasse River travels through downtown Canton, past parking lots and apartment complexes. I think I might prefer the more honest juxtaposition.

Dam in the Mist

2016-Jun-09 emceehammrLeave a comment

This was one of those moments of pure chance. I was just coming back from a long weekend and hit rain just outside of the Tri-Cities while on some winding mountain roads. Then all of a sudden the rain let up just as I was passing Watauga Lake just in time to see this incredible mist coming off the lake. Within 10 minutes of taking this shot the mist had completely dissipated.

Cliffs at La Jolla Shores

2016-Jun-08 adohertyhLeave a comment

La Jolla Shores is a righteous beach: good swimming, okay surfing (I’m told), and excellent Southern California sights. As mid-twentieth-century architecture has grown on me, I’ve even come to appreciate the homes and UC buildings overlooking the beach—but what must it have been like to visit here 100 years ago?

High Country Dunking

2016-Jun-07 emceehammrLeave a comment

I wouldn’t say the water was all that inviting (could have been the day) but I thought it was hilarious that the hiking guide I learned about this trek through suggested that if you were in the mood you could go for a “highland dunking.”

World Bridge North Country

2016-Jun-06 adohertyh1 Comment

This Adirondack-y bridge connects SUNY Canton’s campus to town across a branch of the Grasse River. The photograph is a metaphor for the college experience: being a little apart from the regular world, in a place that’s just a bit magical. On one side of the bridge are normal houses, normal roads, normal life; across the bridge is a gently lit path through the woods. Very Rivendell-esque?

My Favorite Bar Has Rapids

2016-Jun-03 adohertyhLeave a comment

The North Country, like many rural places in America, has rugged expanses of nature abutting everyday locations. Example: the Buccaneer Lounge has this marvelous array of rapids just past its charming array of picnic tables.

Watauga Dam, Front and Back

2016-Jun-022016-Oct-05 emceehammrLeave a comment

It’s hard to tell from looking at the lake, even with the plaque in front of you, just how massive the Watauga Dam is… until you turn around. It’s actually pretty disorienting to look at what looks like a normal lake, then turn around and see the valley that the lake used to be. And when you look down the slope at the valley floor below you really start to understand how deep the lake really is.

Ottawide 2014

2016-Jun-012016-Jun-01 adohertyhLeave a comment

Visiting nearby Canada means looking at a mirror-version of the United States, reflected across the border. Like looking in a mirror, everything is still recognizable. Up is still up. Down is still down. But the brands and the metric units and the nationalism is different. Does looking in the reflection of Ottawa in the Shaw Centre reverse the transformation?

An added bonus: this is technically a self-portrait, with my tiny self down in the foreground.

Laurel Run

2016-May-312016-Oct-05 emceehammr1 Comment

I remembered my tripod but forgot the quick release plate so I had to hand hold my shots. Still, pretty impressed without this shot of the falls turned out. Laurel Run park near Kingsport, TN is a real gem with some good, accessible hiking trails featuring some pretty scenery. Would hike again!

American Diner

2016-May-30 adohertyhLeave a comment

It’s a bar. It’s a diner. It’s a motel. Here’s a structural distillation of mid-twentieth century America; it’s the kind of place to drive you car, drink your beer, then lay down for a good night’s sleep.

Weekend Special: Lampson

2016-May-29 adohertyh2 Comments

Summer hit the North Country like a truck, ricocheting us from frosty mornings to hyperdense afternoons in the space of a single week. Out in nature, the volatile organic compounds are thick on the breeze. Even the sky is bluer. Above Lampson Falls, everything is placid.

Camping on the beach beneath the falls is grand—though less so when a thunderstorm is right around the corner. The beach shows evidence of the water readily rising.

Bow of Single Sky

2016-May-27 adohertyhLeave a comment

Alongside landscapes and seascapes, I’m presenting a skyscape. Alternative blue skies and marine layers presented little aerial grandeur in the Bay Area, but the East Coast offers expanses of badass clouds in excess.

Walk in the Woods I

2016-May-252023-Sep-29 adohertyhLeave a comment

Urban campuses are folded up and compact, an array of buildings and narrow pathways between them. Quads are a sacrifice on the order of placing Central Park in the middle of Manhattan. St. Lawrence’s campus is literally thousands of acres, much of which is still fields or forests. College is a different experience for students who can go for a hike or hop in a canoe for the afternoon without leaving campus.

Crevice

2016-May-24 emceehammrLeave a comment

Another shot of the Channels. I’ll definitely be going back to that spot.

After the Students Are Gone 2016

2016-May-23 adohertyhLeave a comment

Commencement was yesterday, and I’m proud to see my students move beyond college—but the quiet, empty campus starts to resemble a Zen garden more than a school.