Frances Slocum, PA

...Coming soon...thou probably not --Just a day spent with my beautiful daughter Celeste. Not much in the way of photos. Hers were probably better. For me it was more about enjoying Celeste's company than getting any photos.

Ricketts Glen, PA

When others have to drive an hour or two just to get to Ricketts, Dave and I can sleep in a little and still be chipper hosts when they arrive.  Alan Peslak and Lewis DeJoseph, co-members in the Northeast Photography Club, met Dave Cohen and I in the Route 118 parking lot at about 10:30.  We were going to do the 2-car hike down the Falls Trail, and Adams Falls is a great place to start.  That way the passengers in whichever carload gets there first have plenty to entertain them while they wait.  Alan & Lew weren't waiting long.  [I know, you figure as hosts we might have been there first, but...]

The first thing we could see was that the water was extremely low, which, with the recent weather, was no surprise.  Yet if the water was this low at Adams, which is fed from both forks above, what will it be like at the top of the split?  Lew and Alan were relatively new to the park, and I knew the park would take care of the presentation in its own special way.  

Whereas I may have used Dave's in the past, this was my first time with my own fisheye to pull out of the bag.  The first 5 shots in the gallery are from the Adams Falls area and none of them used the fisheye.  This shot from the top of the falls used it on the narrow side of 15mm, as did this one taken from the ledge at the back of Photographer's Rock showing my 3 companions in action.  You can see what we were up against with the speckled lighting.  Here's another with the fisheye taken from Photographer's Rock.  Adams Falls is a trickle on the left.  If you look to the bottom right, you should see one of my tripod legs in the shot (well, you shouldn't really, but there it is); the shadow of the camera shows in the blown out water encircling the Donatello Stone.  Look closer passed the tripod leg to find Lew in a spot normally impossible to setup a shot. 

As is always the case, we could’ve stayed right in the area of Adams Falls for several more hours, but the water was so low I didn’t even take them to the footstool area of the falls.  Instead we climbed in Dave’s car and headed to the Lake Rose parking area at the top.  It’s always exciting for me to bring people into Ricketts Glen for the first time, especially photographers who are hoping to capture some of the magical moments. 

This park is quite crowded in autumn when beauty worshipers and truth-seekers come to admire the changing colors that surround the many waterfalls.  On this day we were treated to some unusual color where there is normally white.  The low flow of water left a lot of the mossy creek bed exposed to our sensors, and we were able to get to places where hip boots would usually be required.  Lew was still looking for even more exotic shots.  For example, he was actually considering walking out on that “tree bridge” you can see in photo 24 just to get a little different shot of the 94-foot Ganoga Falls below.  It would have been different alright, and likely blurred due to camera shake from the fall.  He settled for a saner approach by climbing down to do some ledge work; you can find him in photo 29 safely seated with his shortened tripod.

When we got to where the waters meet a cheerful guy dripping wet in swimming trunks came up to me to ask if I’d take a shot of him under the water flow (it wasn’t a waterfall) for his collection.  His goal was to show himself swimming under each waterfall.  I cheerfully obliged him and stood in the trickle with his point-and-shoot while he attempted to pose.  When you have a tripod and the big cameras it almost never fails that someone will assume you’re the best qualified to use their camera to get a mantel piece of them posing in front of nature.  Chances are this swimmer has at least one shot in his collection with good focus on the water and rocks. 

This swimmer demonstrates an interesting point:  the human need to play with nature.  We’re all drawn to the beauty of many places, and once there desire some kind of communication.  I get it through the use of a camera; others are satisfied with a long stroll.  This guy had his way, too.

Ricketts Glen, PA

We were supposed to do this trip the previous Friday, but it rained.  Aaron Campbell seemed to be the only other participant willing to trek some of Ricketts Glen under a rain poncho, but we were convinced that waiting until this Wednesday would yield better waterfall shots because it was also supposed to rain on Monday.  Well, compared to the previous visit a week earlier, there was more water on this day, but the better waterfall shots are for another story.  It has been so dry that when we were there on the 11th there was hardly a trickle.  Even after a couple days of rain there was still not enough water to give the falls their thunderous voice.  So we photographed the whispers.

The plan was to start at Adams Falls then hike up to where the waters meet and back, making it a fairly level walk that even with many long stops for photos would take us less than 4 hours.   Well, it was a little over that, but our number dwindled from the original date and only Ray Listanski, Aaron & I made it, no ponchos required.  We all traveled quite light, Aaron using a 10-22mm most of the day, I forget what Ray was using, and I had the 17mmTS, 16-35mm and 24-105mm --all available for sharing, but there were no takers.  Seemed we were all planning for a wide angle day. 

Like any other plan requiring the cooperation of Nature we had to be willing to change.  We met at 9am and met with some nasty looking spots of infiltrating sunlight that made the proper exposure a myth.  Even if we busted that myth with a well-blended exposure we still wouldn't have made a very good wall hanging.  The park usually dresses better than this for the camera.  Aaron and I both live close, but I felt bad for Ray who traveled over an hour to join us.  Actually for all I know those guys got some killer photos and I missed an opportunity to improve by studying them.  We'll see.  Aaron posts a lot of great stuff on Facebook and has a few other sites which you can find there.  Next time Ray comes to visit I'm going to set up a website for him because I don't get to see enough of his work.  You'll thank me for it later.

THE PHOTOS:  Of the 35 photos in the gallery, 6 were blended, 3 used HDR processing and 4 were cropped.  Sometimes I'll have a crop in mind at the time of shooting, or see one in the frame that is obviously suggested, but usually I go for what I can get. 

The first shot was a reaction to the light.  With camera in hand (actually on unopened tripod resting on my shoulder) there is no "I can't get anything good here" type attitudes.  Creativity compels you to find something, or it guides you.  Well, I was guided away from the light, grumbling "terrible light", and was guided to today's special, abstracts.  Climbing down the rock steps to Adams I could see the usual harsh light at the far end of The Shute, so I turned to get a look at the reflection patterns that form under the overpass of Route 118.  Both spots normally have something to say, but the light of the moment was silencing them.  I turned and looked down the top of the falls, photo 1. 

The second one is the first attempt to stay wide.  I had to blend in another exposure to dampen the bright rocks on the left.  Compare it to #13 where I had to use 5 exposure.  The main one is mostly the whole right side; the 2nd one is a small clump of leaves and stuff above the falls to the right; the 3rd layer darkens the area between the left of the falls and the dark shadow of the tree; number 4 darkens the bottom of the falls and the bright area left of the tree shadow (would you have cloned out that shadow?) as well as burning more in the rock area to its right --it also takes care of the bottom of the falls (this was obviously my darkest exposure); the last layer burns some spots in the upper area of the falls. 

The HDRs are 5, 12 and 30.  I like 30 alright, especially the face, but the other two are pretty crappy.  Numbers 6, 9, 11 & 26 are cropped (with the same ratio, which I label as cut in the name).  There was too much darkness on the right side to compensate for in #11, and it was similar problems for #26.  Number 6 was sort of intended to be cropped, only not as much.  Number 9 was a post-processing cut to highlight the excitement I was after in #8.  Aaron got a good shot of that area.  [Ray, we must make you a website where you can show more of your work.] 

Photos 16 and 17 were taken from a bridge where we finally saw some mutual agreement between the shadows and highlights.  I believe the last time Ray was here was with an outing of the Northeast Photography Club.  More than once he commented on how many more bridges were constructed since that time. 

Right after I put the 9-stop ND filter over the CP filter and shot #22 I heard Ray talking to another photog shooting away from the harsh light on Murray Reynolds Falls.  He just learned of these filters and was there trying it out.  I don't keep notes to when I use a filter and I'm glad the EXIF picks up when I use a flash, but I'm sure I used the ND also on 23, 24 & 25.  Ray left us soon after because he had to get some prints made for a show the club was having, and he had another appointment.  Aaron and I continued up to Erie Falls hoping to find running water that didn't have such bright spots.  Without success we headed back to our car.  The last photo was on our way home, and I wondered how long those cairns will be there.  Nothing lasts forever in the path of Kitchen Creek.