Photogaboutit

...Did I mention waterfalls? As I continue on my race to visit, photograph, map and write about one hundred waterfalls across New England, I'm continually challenged to think of creative ways to capture these simple wonders of nature in unique ways...and to do so quickly, because there are always more waterfalls to visit. Emerson falls, just below a dam in Saint Johnsbury, VT shows you don't need to be out in the wilderness to capture the beautiful movement of water. The shutter speed of 1/5 of a second blurs the water enough to create smooth lines, yet is of short enough duration to maintain the feeling of movement with little lines of spray clearly distinguishable. As I'm visiting most of these waterfalls alone, I look for any opportunity to capture people in my waterfall photos. Usually that involves a quick shutter speed. Luckily here I was able to do a long exposure on the tripod, and the fisherman remained still enough to remain sharp. Wadsworth Big Falls, Mi...

Although there is a long fence precluding nice views to what appears to be a dramatic gorge deep within a forest, the views you can get make it worth the trip if you're nearby. We were in a bit of rush, but you can get to the stream at the bottom of the fence and walk back up the stream bed in low water. That is where the second photo was shot...just before I slipped on my already sprained ankle, dunked my body (and phone, luckily no damage) and saved the camera from going in. All in a day's work. Although getting down to the gorge is difficult due to a safety fence, you can still get some nice shots through the foliage from a safe vantage point. Above the gorge, there is no fence and you can climb on the rocks if the water is low. Below the gorge the path beyond the fence meets the stream. I was able to climb up the stream a bit to get this shot. The main part of the gorge is much steeper, and I wasn't feeling very confident after having just dunked after re-...

So I'm busily spending every last minute working on a book for Falcon Guides about waterfalls in New England. I need to visit, map, write about and photograph 100 waterfalls throughout New England. Today I visited four more, one of which is Beaver Brook Falls in Keene, NH. It's just three quarters of a mile up an old closed road, paved but experiencing the effects of nature's quick work. Anyways, the falls, although nice, are really nothing to write home about. However, I noticed these incredible spots of light on the water shining through the canopy, leaving a cool top and lighting up the red-brown tannin-rich water. On top of that, the large white bubbles emanated from the base of the falls. Ten to twenty second exposures revealed a bubble outline with streaks as they slowly migrated downstream. It actually seems as if these are creatures swimming upstream. I used a three stop neutral density filter to enable especially long exposures. Anyways, I went there...

I've only seen the aurora a few times, but I'm pretty obsessed with it. I get alerts on my phone when activity is high and I check multiple websites to get up-to-date information. Even when the aurora is active and visible as far south as Vermont, there are still many factors that determine if we'll see it. Is it cloudy? Is there a moon or other ambient light? How much moisture is in the air? Do I have an unobstructed view to the north? Will it be dark enough? One of the more traditional photos, this is a long exposure with the sony A99 at ISO 6400! You read that right. I actually pulled back the exposure three stops in post processing to get these amazing colors and detail with almost no noise. Goes to show that exposing correctly (ETTR) works better than underexposing at lower a lower iso and increasing the exposure in post-production. This is probably my favorite capture of the night. The trees provide a story, and the green below the stars provides a different l...

Dave skis down the Mt. Ascutney auto road. This 30 second exposure is too long to capture Dave, but the headlamps pointing down track his path. If you look closely, you can also see his tracks underneath the light. For a night owl like me, a 1:00 am ski is just the ticket. This view is from the little shelter half way up the road. After I took this 30 second exposure at iso 800, I then pulled the exposure down a couple of stops. The original photograph looked like the middle of the day. Over the past four or five days, our region has been blessed with abundant snow. At my house here in Windsor, Vermont we got about 10" the other day and another 5" or so last night. Many of the mountains picked up over twice that. The moon was so bright, it cast shadows on the snow. Yesterday morning at 1:00am, which was actually still a continuation of Friday for us, Dave and I decided to climb and ski the Mt. Ascutney Auto Road by moonlight. We went VERY leisurely wi...

It's okay to crop. I know some people would look at this image and immediately notice that it is cropped. He messed up and felt the only way to save the image was to crop it. This is a long exposure shot from a causeway on Pleasure Bay in Boston of a plane taking off from Logan.  Nikon D300, f/11, 30 seconds, ISO 200. Well, the answer to this is both yes and no. Did I get home and bang my head in frustration that I'm just an idiot and think why did I compose the shot that way? No. I liked the original image, but I like this crop better. That's all there is to it. Each time you self-impose limitations, you are limiting your possibilities that much more. Sometimes when I compose a shot, I know that I'm going to crop it. Whether it's because I have a shorter lens than I need and the resolution allows me to use crop as a faux telephoto lens, or I see an amazing panoramic but only have my typical 3:2 aspect ratio sensor, I think cropping should be used as...