Winter View, Hudson Valley
Canon 1DS Mk III, 19mm, 1/8 sec, f/14, ISO 200
Winter has been rather mild this year with little of no snow fall until now – finally! With 4-6″ on the ground, I headed out for a long and very cold hike yesterday up to this spot overlooking Cold Spring, with West Point Military Academy further south along the Hudson. I managed to capture just this single image after struggling to find an interesting foreground and eliminating trees and branches that would have been distractions in the composition. I used a single 2 stop graduated filter to darken the sky and let the highlights in the foreground snow really help lead the eye into the composition.
With ambient temperatures around 4°, it’s tough to manage the controls on the camera and keep my fingers warm, so I use Manzella convertible gloves which make it easy to use my fingers when I need to, but also keep them warm. I have a very difficult time with cold fingers, so I always keep chemical hand warmers in my pockets for that extra burst of heat.
I love visiting this spot during in different seasons and conditions, you never know what you’re going to get, and it challenges me to find new ways to photograph the same view. Thanks for reading!
Morning Trees
“The secret of happiness, you see, is not found in seeking more, but in developing the capacity to enjoy less.” – Socrates
Soft Light, Dennings Point, NY
On a recent visit to one of my favorite locations in the Hudson Valley, I was fortunate to find some very unique weather conditions. Recent sub-zero temperatures and lots of snowfall created some really strong foreground elements, and I was able to “walk” out on to the frozen Hudson to try and capture some interesting perspectives. My goal here was to emphasize as best as I could the relationships between the foreground and the mountains in the distance. This included lines and shapes, highlights and shadows, as well as the color variations as you move from the cool foreground to the warm and bright light in the distance.
More than anything else, I wanted to capture how I felt, which was mostly excitement, incredibly alive breathing the crisp air @ 5°, but also warm from knowing I was doing exactly what I wanted to do.
These are all part of the “ingredients” that I talk about in workshops that help contribute to an image that is visually interesting, and hopefully conveys the feeling and mood of the scene. Of course, capturing the image is only part of the process – interpreting the RAW file to achieve your ultimate vision is just as important to the overall workflow. The creative decisions made in the processing stage is the focus of this video, the “why” of moving a slider in Lightroom. I hope you enjoy this podcast episode – I have several more coming in the near future. As always, please leave any questions or feedback in the comments section below – I always enjoy hearing from you.
