Category Archives: Landscape
Winnemaug Sunset
Setting the Mood for the Weekend
To stay true to my post from last Friday, this will be a short post heading into the weekend.
Sunset over Lake Winnemaug – Watertown CT
I come over a hill as I near my house every night on my way home from work. As I do, I get a perfect view of the western hills. Well, not always so perfect on those blinding nights, but certain times of the year line up perfectly for seeing dramatic skies developing quickly with the setting sun.
On this particular November night, the sky was just about as red as I’ve ever seen. I immediately called my wife to let her know I’d be a few minutes late. I knew it wouldn’t be much longer because in November the sun sets quickly and a few clicks of the shutter is all I’d have before darkness sets in. 
Busy weekend, so will have a quick photo post tomorrow. Not sure what yet. Any photography or website questions? Contact me at afterthe9to5@gmail.com
Blueberry Lake Before Sunrise
Mad River Valley Vermont
I first started going to Vermont and the Mad River Valley about 13 years ago when my then-girlfriend and future wife invited me to her grandparents’ cabin in Warren.
It was at a time when I was still getting into photography and I was blown away at all the beauty everywhere we went. I would go out every day and explore all of the roads In the area, trying to make mental notes of the ones I liked the best. The next morning I would wake up early and head towards one of those places to photograph the early morning light.
We’ve gone back up to the cabin almost every year since. Some years we would take both a summer and a fall trip, getting two very different vacation and photo experiences. The summer trips meant 4 a.m. wake up calls to be out for the early light, but also being back at the cabin just as the family is waking up. I can sleep in till 5 in the fall, which may sound early, but that extra hour makes a big difference to me.
The location of the cabin is perfect! It is a quick drive to route 100 for easy access north towards Stowe or south towards Rochester. Most mornings, however; I prefer to take one of the most picturesque drives there is and the cabin sits right at the beginning. Just over a mile down the road is one of my favorite spots and I don’t pass it up often. On every trip to Vermont, I end up with more photos of Blueberry Lake than any other location. The cool mountain air usually makes for low flying clouds along with steam rising as the water warms. This means it really looks different every day, but almost always dramatic.
Blueberry Lake Before Sunrise
The problem with having such a beautiful spot so close to the cabin, is that I end up missing my intended locations quite often. I might get there, but it’s usually after the golden light is gone, so on our most recent trip this past summer, I made a point to get to my spots on time. As you can see in the “Mad River Morning” post, I was successful at least once. In fact, I took this photo that same morning.
Instead of waiting for sunrise like I normally would, I decided to stop while it was still dark out and use long exposures to grab what little light there was. This was my final shot before heading towards Moretown, but I was delayed again when I saw the fighting deer along route 100. It was quite the morning!
This morning had some amazing fog. Actually. too thick for most of the morning, but as it started to lift I was able to capture some nice, moody photos. I hope to have something to share later in the week.
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Fog Over “7 Hills”
Setting the mood for the weekend
Starting today, my Friday posts will be a very short write-up, if any, and a photo that I believe does well without many words.
Fog Over “7 Hills”
Almost every time I venture out on morning photo expeditions, I turn onto what’s known as “7 Hills.” It’s a road in Watertown that leads to the countryside. Its nickname comes from the seven steep rolling hills that grace the land (I never really counted, but it would be a silly name if it was a different number).
On one of those photo trips back in 2010, I came across this scene, 5 minutes after leaving the house. I stayed for about 20 minutes before continuing on to wherever I had planned. It was going to be a good day!
Have a great weekend everybody! Tomorrow, a photo of a sunrise that waited for me.
Moonlake
Starting with this post, I am going to be sharing some of my favorite photographers to follow. I’m not sure how often yet. Maybe once a week or some other scheduled duration or maybe just whenever I feel like it. Time will tell.
Who To Follow – Gavin Seim
I first started following Gavin Seim (http://seimstudios.com/) about two years ago during a phase I went through listening to any photography related podcast I could find. His Pro Photo Show podcast is the only one I still listen to regularly. Why this one? The energy and passion he brings. He is clearly someone who thinks about things from many angles and is willing to try new ideas. You may have to rewind a few times because he moves at a pace faster than the rest of us, but it’s worth a listen if you are looking to get good photography advice from a pro.
Moonlake
I came up with the idea to show this image when I was writing about HDR last night. This is not an HDR. In fact, it wouldn’t even be a digital image if it wasn’t for a scanner. This was taken on Black & White 35mm film and developed in a darkroom in my parents’ master bathroom. The reason this image came to mind, was that it followed the same concept as the image of the river. It began with a vision and finished with editing. It’s hard to tell, I know, but this is actually an ordinary lake. The black along the top is the result of severely underexposing the photo, and therefor, the evergreens on the other side. The sun setting just above them and out of the frame provided a perfect moon-like effect that I envisioned before snapping the shutter. The first time I made a print from the negative I was disappointed. The beach was way too dark. Today, that would easily be fixed in Adobe Lightroom© with a quick stroke or two of the adjustment brush. But in the darkroom it was handled by arcing a piece of cardboard along the water line for one length of time, then with the cardboard removed, exposed for another length of time under the enlarger. Getting those lengths of time correct took a lot of trial and error as well as enlarging paper, but using that technique allowed me to get the image I pictured in my mind when I took it. Just like the HDR technique I used helped me get the desired result in the Mad River image.
Come back tomorrow for one from Cape Cod!
Mad River Morning
A Quick Word About HDR Images
I will be doing a series on HDR imaging next month, but for today I want to just quickly mention my feelings on whether or not it is photography. I have read some heated debates over the subject, and foolishly chimed in on a few. I say foolishly because it doesn’t matter. Let me repeat that in case I wasn’t clear. It does not matter. None of us take a photograph thinking about what someone will call it. I hope not anyway. And anyone admiring it doesn’t care whether or not some forum jockey living in his mother’s basement says it’s not a photograph.
I take the high road most of the time and call my final output an image. It doesn’t matter whether I processed it using HDR or made a slight color change in Lightroom. It’s hard for anyone to fight the word image and it avoids having to deal with something that just doesn’t matter. My end goal when I go out with my camera is to be able to come home and create an image I can call a work of art.
Mad River Morning
A few minutes after I snapped the photos of the deer fighting, I found this little pull-off on Rt. 100B in Moretown, VT. This was a clear HDR image for me as the bright clouds from the rising sun would have forced me to choose between blown out (so bright there is no detail) highlights or very dark shadows. This “image” is the wallpaper for one of my monitors at work. I never wonder what to call it.
Tomorrow I go old school with one from the darkroom days.
Newtown the Beautiful. Part 1 of 4
When I decided I was going to do these posts, I wasn’t sure how it would go. I was very emotional as I exited I-84 for Newtown/Sandy Hook. From what I have read over the last few weeks, I know I am not alone in the pain felt over the thoughtless act that occurred on December 14th.
It didn’t start that way for me though. You see, I had my work holiday party that day and was driving there when I heard over the radio that police were responding to a shooting at a school in Newtown. That is just 30 minutes west of where my daughter was in school and where soon, she would be in a school-wide lock down until they knew it was safe. The sad thing is that it didn’t even phase me to hear about the shooting and I assumed it was either one student against another or against a teacher. And I also assumed it was a high school or middle school. Like that would have been OK. It is a very sad truth, but we have become accustom to hearing these news reports in our society.
So I just continued on my way to the party and a few hours later, when a coworker told me that 20 children were killed, I knew for the first time that something on a larger scale had happened. I still went to the post party happy hour that happens every year, but being a big tough thirty-something (OK…in my mind I am tough) at a bar full of happy people, while inwardly weeping, was not a good place for me to be. I put on a good act for a while, but when I saw a friend outwardly emotional about what had happened, I didn’t know how to react. I wanted everyone to continue having a good time at the bar, but I was emotional about it too. So what choice did I make? I told her she should leave because she was bringing everyone down. Yes, I know I am an ass and told her so the next day. I left the bar early and immediately got a bad stomach bug that kept me up all night…served me right. Anyway, during the week that followed; I saw so many heartwarming stories and acts of kindness that I knew I had to do something too. A town was weeping and as I read on and on, I realized that it wasn’t a town, but a state; a nation; and a world that was weeping. And as we scoured the web in search of answers, we saw countless images of beautiful memorials in town; of the beautiful faces that were taken from the planet way too early; of the grieving that so many were going through; but I had been to Newtown many times in my life and that was not how I knew it, nor how I wanted to remember it, so I decided I would go as many days as I could on my holiday vacation and photograph the scenery of Newtown.
Day 1 – Pond Brook
As I entered Newtown before sunrise on Saturday, December 22, I couldn’t help but notice the local diner right off the exit. I would have stopped and photographed it right away, but I had been up a few hours already that morning and had planned out my trip so that I could be in a certain area by a certain time in case the clouds opened up. So I made a mental note to go back there another day and continued to my preset destination. When I do these trips I often open up Google maps and zoom into a wide area around my location. From there, you can see rivers and ponds, state parks, etc… And that is exactly what I did to end up here at Pond Brook. It was actually snowing out a little when I arrived, so my hopes for good light coming from the sun were pretty much over. That was until I was packing up the car to leave after taking about 15 or so mediocre shots. I noticed just a hint of the sun on the far trees.
I pulled everything back out, mounted my camera back onto my tripod and began snapping away. I only took 75 photos that morning, which is low for me on something like this, but I knew I had some good images and was satisfied. As I left I decided I would drive over near the school to see the memorial. I didn’t get out of my car, but I gave a nod and a wave to the policemen guarding the entrance to the school road. It was a very emotional first day.
Tomorrow I will share the Image of that diner I mentioned and bring a little color to this blog.
