An Acquired Habit

 

Every year for 125 years Saranac Lake has built an Ice Palace on the shore of Lake Flower for their winter carnival. The carnival was started as a way to get TB patients out into the frosty fresh air which was, at that time the only cure for TB. 

I have gotten into the habit of visiting the Ice Palace each winter and last year I photographed in with my IR camera. My usual habit is to photograph details such as the water weeds that are in the blocks and the patterns made by light coming through the blocks. This year there were fish in two of the blocks, not rapped there, but caught and inserted by the building crew which is all volunteers. The photo above of one of the fish is not IR. I converted it to B&W for a regular digital photo. 

The remaining photos below are IR photos that I made on the drive to SL then going to Norman Ridge and on my way home.

On Being Curious

 

I recently read a series of posts on The Online Photographer blog asserting that photographs should be based on “ideas” and that disparaged photography that was the result of just going out wandering and snapping “whatever catches the photographer’s eye”. The contention was that in order to have meaning, a photograph has to be based on an idea that the photographer has and then makes a photograph to represent. I take exception to that.

The majority of my work is not based on 'ideas'. I once did a series of cemetery angels*, but I tired of looking for a specific subject matter that fit the idea. I explore my environment like the old ditty about the bear that went over the mountain to see what he could see. I found that looking for specific subjects that fit a preconceived idea distracted me from being open to what was right in front of me.

I call myself a visual omnivore because I photograph a variety of things I am attracted to. I go out for a drive, a walk, or a hike and I take my camera, just in case I see something. What 'catches my eye' as the blogger says. It could be the way light falls on something, its color, reflections, and the way it is situated to make a well-composed image. Some aspect of my immediate environment that asks to be noticed and photographed.

Yesterday I was walking for exercise in the field house of a local college and at one point walking around the track I spotted a ball on the floor inside the netting that separated the track from the basketball courts in the center. The skin of the ball was torn and the netting was partly lifted in an inverted V that framed the ball. I didn't have a camera but did have my cell phone and made a photo with that. No 'idea', just looking... being present without preconceptions.

Ideas are a fine basis for commercial work but I feel curiosity is a better basis for meaningful images without an agenda. Many of the early ‘greats’ of photography worked intuitively, capturing moments as they encountered them. Gretchen Garner called it photography as witness in her book “Disappearing Witness” to chronicle the shift from discovery to conceptual photography.

I have a video of conversations with Jay Maisel** whose personal work approach is much the same. It is more about curiosity and wonder than 'an idea'. The world around us is full of things that are visually interesting if we make a habit of being open and noticing them. The photographs you make may give rise to ideas you hadn’t considered before making them. There are times I will make no photographs for days or weeks but it because I am distracted and not being curious. You don't need an idea or a prompt to make photographs. You just need to 'be curious', and have a camera handy even if it is just your phone.

*https://jimbullard.zenfolio.com/p311862634

**Jay Maisel was a commercial/stock photographer for many years. He authored two books on his approach to photography, “It’s Not About the F-Stop” and “Light, Gesture & Color”. I have both in paperback. Both are still available on Amazon. I recommend them.

An Impulse Adventure on Whiteface Mt.

 

Yesterday afternoon at 2:38 pm I decided to drive up the Memorial Highway on Whiteface Mountain. I had thought I would wait until today or tomorrow (Indigenous Peoples Day) but the forecast for both days in that area was for rain and the Highway closes for the season after tomorrow. The gate closes at 4:45 so I took the shortest route through Bloomindale and Franklin Falls. There was a line to go through the gate and I got to the gate at 4:40, one of the last allowed up. 

I was also one of the last to come back down because I stopped to photograph the sunset at the Lake Placid turn. The temperature at the summit was 36° F with a fairly stiff wind. I should have had a better coat and gloves but I didn't stay long enough to get chilled. The lines to ride the elevator were ridiculous so I hiked both ways from the parking lot to the summit.

I shot this phone photo on the way down. The rest were shot with my Olympus OM-D E-M5 III and 14-150mm lens, the same kit that I broke on my last trip up Whiteface. It survived unscathed this time (see the July 19 post).

All these photos were made at the Lake Placid turn, the next-to-last hairpin turn going up. The ones above and below were made on the way up.

This is one of only 3 shots on the summit. The cold was bitter and there were mobs of people so I abandoned the summit after a few minutes.

On the way back down I pulled over before the LP turn because there were already several cars parked along the turn and people watching the sunset. Across from where I parked the light from the setting sun highlighted the grass in contrast with the rock.

Lake Plaid in shadow as the sun sets (below).

I shot this with some trepidation. I thought that shooting straight into the sun might create massive flares but the camera handled it and even defined the sun's disk. I did have to do quite a bit of post-shoot editing in Lightroom. I shoot everything in RAW so I had enough dynamic range to pull out the level of detail I wanted.

This one also required post-shoot editing to create the separation of the receding mountains and to cut the digital noise in the foreground.

The last photo (above) required the most editing using both Lightroom and Photoshop. It is my favorite from this mini-adventure. I think I need to get out early or late more. Between getting older and Covid I have been photographing mostly in mid-day for several years now. 

I hope you enjoy the photos of my adventure. I do sell prints (hint, hint). If you are interested contact me. I encourage sharing of the URL to my blog and also of my Zenfolio site, jimbullard.zenfolio.com, but ask that you respect my copyright and do not repost any of my work without permission.

Infrared on the 'in town' Rail Trail - Saranac Lake

 

I wanted to get one last cone at Donnelly's before they closed for the year and decided as long as I was going there I would walk the section of the rail trail between the Rt. 86 parking area on the south side of town and the RR station. You see the world differently at 2 mph than 10-15 mph. For one thing, I noted that there was an unimproved footpath that paralleled the paved rail trail, a remnant of when the train was running, and still used by some for walking dogs (pavement gets too hot for paws) or just for shade.

I had my infrared-converted camera with me and although I took photos with my regular camera which I posted on FaceBook, I ended up shooting mostly IR. The photo below is a 2 frame, stitched image. I liked the light coming through the woods an highlighting the lilypads. 

This is another stitched image that is a 'fail'. I include it as a reminder to those of us who like doing stitched panoramas to pay attention to changes in the light between frames. The passing cloud shadows were more than the stitching software could even out,

On one of my prior trips, another trail user commented that this is the "most serene" cemetery they had ever seen. It is a nice one.

Another stitched photo below, 2 frames one above the other. The surprisingly non-smelly porta-potties just out of the photo on the right and background clutter on the left made the composition a bit difficult but this image is my favorite from the outing.

I liked the reflections on the glass, the curtains, and the window beyond.

For this one, I pressed the lens against the glass which limited the composition options but it still worked out nicely IMO.

I tried the same with another window that had curtains with swirly embroidery but this window had a storm sash on it. The gap between the storm sash and the inner glass resulted in a reflection of my shadow and the trees behind me. Mysterious!

This A-frame wooden bridge fascinates me. On some future outing, I have to explore it further.

I saw two deer on that outing, one on the college campus and the other on a lawn near one of the street crossings. On my ride back from Floodwood (prior post) I saw a pine martin run across the trail. 

Enjoy and share by sharing the link to this page. The photos are copyrighted.

Riding the New Section of Rail Trail from Saranac Lake to Floodwood Road.

 On Sunday, August 25, I rode the new section of the Rail Trail from the Saranac Lake RR Station to FLoodwoood Rd. It was not officially open until the following day but lots of walkers and bikers were already using it, especially the SL end. There were far fewer on the Floodwood end. I like this section better than the SL to LP section (see my prior post) partly because there were fewer people but mainly because it is so much wilder and more scenic. My bike's odometer measured the distance from the RR Station to Floodwood at 16.3 miles making this a 32.6 mile round trip. I spent over 2½ hours doing the round trip but I stopped a lot for photos.

The causeway across Lake Colby. There are rest spots 'bumped out' along the sides for sitting, fishing or whatever.

This entire section has a hard-packed fine crushed stone surface.

There are numerous pull-offs where you can rest without blocking the trail or even have a picnic.