HDR Photography
When I wonder if I’ve grown as a photographer, I look at how I tackle processing a picture like this landscape from Stone Valley.
And here is how I processed the picture originally, 10 years ago:
The shift to a more naturalistic style—and once that better respects color temperature and saturation—feels like a positive one to me.
I’ll spoil the double meaning of this title: On the one hand, very literally the waterfall in Stone Valley is ending on the left side of the image and smoother water is in the river’s future. But in a photographic sense, this is an image that I couldn’t previously share because the mist from the waterfalls spotted the lens so badly that the image was hidden behind a layer of dark spots. The improved spot removal tools in present-day Adobe Camera Raw have finally allowed me to effectively get rid of those spots (and I’ve learned some other photographic tricks in the meantime), so this image is ready to face the light of day.
A couple of months ago, I published what I anticipate will be my final pictures of St. Lawrence University, and with this post, I believe I’m releasing my final pictures from St. Lawrence County more generally. They’re an interesting pair, because I feel they capture the dichotomy of the area.
The first image is a high, dramatic drone shot into the Adirondacks, taken near Colton. Nature! Topology! Wilderness! (Clicking through to Flickr, you can see this shot was even featured in their Explore page.) This was perhaps what I was expecting when I moved to the North Country. This was the last such picture I captured on a rare quiet weekend while preparing to move out.
The second picture is one I took on the last day of classes at St. Lawrence. A charming view of our small town, I suppose, but also a vast, flat landscape with a few too many parking lots and strip shopping centers to quite constitute rural life. This was perhaps a better depiction of everyday life in the North Country, and a strong contrast with the drone views that I get now.
The sight of a boat house on a remote body of water gets my eyeballs ready for an explosive speedboat entrance from a secret agent. I guess an Adirondack sunset is an acceptable runner-up prize.
A likely astonishing number of my childhood’s imaginary forts and escapes were on islands. Though I have no idea why, the present-day result is that my head snaps to the side with every Adirondack island I pass. What adventure could be happening there?
As we pass the shortest day of the year, I looked back to one of the longest: an endless evening, stretching out over Long Lake in the Adirondacks.
I know they both have their shape due to the same causes (i.e., physics, gravity, etc.), but it sure is convenient that the wings of this seaplane and the shore behind it so tidily align.
Trees frame the sunset at Long Lake.
Good landscape photography is all about finding the perfect vantage point and being patient. Sometimes, however, real life demands a bit more serendipity. While there are incredible views to be had in the Adirondacks, there are also long sections locked between walls of forest. When there’s a once-in-a-summer sky overhead, patience gives way to reaching a lake before the moment disappears.
Late spring brings some of the best sunset clouds to Saranac Lake, but the evening temperatures would never let you confuse it for summer.
On Earth Day, I really like the image of the next generation, growing up in nature under the shelter of elders.
With the evening sky reflected in the water, this island in Saranac Lake appears to float like a fuzzy green saucer.
St. Lawrence University’s Camp Canaras is a heterogeneous collection of cabins along the shore of Saranac Lake. Among them, this particular building’s stack of individually glazed windows and roofs at odd angles most reminds me of Howl’s Moving Castle.
I like the way this picture captures the inviting calm of sleepy boats and an open boathouse in the evening. Perhaps it reminds me of a castle with a moat, but I find an odd sense of safety in buildings built over water.
The “S.L.U.” on this life preserver is a good reminder that St. Lawrence University runs Camp Canaras. Still, I’m not sure it was too necessary on this chilly spring night—Lake Saranac was not overly populated.
