HDR Photography
The overnight low was –16ºF, meaning that my robotic exploration of the skies has been put on pause for the moment. Back on those crisp fall days, though, there was nothing better than putting up the quadcopter and surveying St. Lawrence’s facilities. The riding stables and fields are one of the best places to spend a Friday afternoon, whether on the ground or in the air.
Literally on a lake near the top of a mountain, Mohonk Mountain House gave my childhood self the illusion of a flying castle. This particular image is an iconic one for me, but it’s also part of a family of “ubiquitous images” that come from photographing a landmark from one of the only available views: shots like the Yosemite tunnel view, or the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco, or the view of Manhattan over the Brooklyn Heights pilings. Any new image is just adding to the canon.
No stars visible on a cloudy day.
Happy thanksgiving to everyone!
This dam at Bays Mountain holds back what used to be Kinsport’s municipal water supply. There’s something strange about driving past the dam on the way into the park, something about being acutely aware of the water level just on the other side.
Nice day for a walk in the woods.
College campuses have long, tree-lined walks; those are great places to find this “yellow leaf tunnel” effect.
That was a nice day for a stroll in the woods.
Even the small local farms of the North Country can seem overwhelmingly huge, and viewing them from a quadcopter’s vantage point doesn’t mitigate the effect.
A central theme to my photography is visualizing the progressive gradient from dense urban areas to natural settings. Some of my favorite images are cases where that gradient is particularly abrupt or unexpected. Until I began flying quadcopters, I didn’t expect that I’d be able to find the same transitions in the North Country, with its much more homogeneous rural structure. Here in Canton, however, the juxtaposition of apartment towers, shops, and bridges with forests, islands, and farmland creates a similar effect. The North Country supports this cultural difference between folks who live “in the village” and those who live “out of the village”.
Not quite as dramatic as the upper falls. It’s hard to call them “falls” at all. There is a certain tranquility to them.
The rise of an almost-full moon, framed between branches. Autumn arrives early in the North Country.
The falls themselves aren’t the most impressive in the area but the cliffs surrounding them were really something.
Decaseconds 