It’s been a very busy month with several art shows including Garrison, New Paltz, and Glastonbury, CT. But as I mentioned in a recent post, I did manage to get away to the western Adirondacks with my family for some canoe camping and photography. Here are some of my better images from the trip, and I’ll be printing some of these soon for upcoming shows. I’ll be heading up to this area again in a few weeks for the wonderful colors that make Autumn my favorite time of year.

I’m very happy to see that two of my images have been used in a full page ad placed by Con Edison in todays New York Daily News (page 43). I’ve seen and read this paper since early childhood having grown up in NYC, and I never imagined seeing my photographs in print. The color ad promotes the natural beauty of the Hudson Valley, as well as the work Scenic Hudson does to preserve and protect much of this area. It looks great, and I hope it gets the message out about how important preservation is for us and future generations.

It’s ironic that Scenic Hudson was founded to fight against plans by utility Con Edison to cut away part of Storm King Mountain near the river and build a pump storage power generator back in 1965. But at least all ended well and we can all agree on a common cause. I am humbled once again in being able to make a very small contribution, but equally motivated to continue to capture the landscapes around me in ways that bring appreciation to others.

Capturing light at its magic moment is something I discuss frequently at my workshops and is one of the most important “ingredients” in landscape photography. These two images, both from the same morning, were a revelation for me in terms of how light can transform and create an atmosphere that is both rare and unique.

More images from my recent trip to the Adirondacks soon…I’m off to the New Paltz Art and Crafts Fair for the long Labor Day weekend. Enjoy yours!

I’m off to the Adirondacks for a 5 day canoe camping trip with my family where I hope to capture some late summer images, catch up on some reading, and enjoy some of New Yorks nicest lakes.

I’m a big reader, and in the past, reading at camp has literally been a burden for me, since I have a habit of bringing more books than I can possible read (and carry). But thanks to my new Amazon Kindle, an electronic book reader weighing less than a pound, I can bring more books than I ever imagined. Able to hold several hundred e-books in its memory, I think I should be covered no matter what mood I’m in. Yes it’s expensive, but worth every penny just in terms of giving me more access to the best resource for knowledge I know of, books. Just have to make sure I stop reading before the best light disappears behind the horizon.

When I return, I’ll be starting a new series on the blog titled “Finding a Landscape Photograph”, which will cover how I go about finding an image- from selecting locations, scouting, and the actual process and techniques I use when I’m on an actual shoot. I’m sure it will be a leaning experience both for myself and for those reading. Any suggestions, please let me know…

This month’s question comes from a potential workshop student who asks:

Basically I have never taken a photographic workshop before - other than the freebie one you gave for Scenic Hudson - and I am not at all certain if I have creative potential or a photographic eye. Nonetheless, believing that one can teach old dogs new tricks - I self-consciously would love to try. At this point I have a Canon 30D, a few decent lenses - as well as an old, seldom used Minolta 201 - SLR. I’ve been interested in photography since high school - and I’m now 61, but never had the time or money to get much involved in it until recently. I enjoy landscape photography and certainly want to improve in my skills.

If you believe the course would be helpful or useful for me - great. And if you think it will be way over my head, please just say so.

Great question and one I’m sure all serious photographers including myself have struggled with at one time or another. As for creative potential, if you’ve read this blog long enough, and know me personally, you will realize this is something I work at continuously, and believe everyone has a unique vision, it’s just a matter of finding and developing it.

We all have our own personal and distinct view of the world and how it affects us visually and emotionally. The challenge is to try and express that through the language of photography. The language is what we all must continue to learn, and that only happens through practice, learning new skills, and expanding out visual vocabulary. If you have the desire and motivation, then yes there is much to learn to help you along your photographic goals in one of my workshops.

Hudson River

I often tell others talent is a product of dedication, perseverance, and hard work, and firmly believe this to be true. What many fail to realize is that there is a talent for dedication and hard work, and that it will accelerate you towards your photographic goals as much as your skills and equipment. Staying focused is easier said than done, and often we lose focus when results don’t meet our expectations. But this is the most critical time to remain focused, and soon mistakes become triggers to new ways of seeing, and ultimately more personal images.

A workshop is one of the best ways to remain focused and accelerate your photographic vocabulary. Thanks to everyone for their questions, and don’t forget to send yours in for next month.

The Print of the Month for August is “Millbrook Mtn Sunrise”, from one of my favorite places, the Mohonk Preserve in New York.

This is an older image I made over two years ago, but for some reason I had never paid it much attention until now. On a recent visit to the same trail, the light just was not very favorable, but I enjoyed the hike and wild blueberries just the same. The scenery there has always inspired me, so when I got back home and reviewed the days images, I decided to look back through my archives and remembered a previous visit when the light had been very nice indeed. Reviewing the images later that evening, I selected a few to develop that I felt had potential, but this was not one of them. I didn’t have the trusted gut reaction that I have to images I feel are successful, and filed it away for future reference. This is a completely personal and subjective process, but in my opinion so important for an artist.

Looking at it two years later however, combined with having hiked there several times over the last few months, gave me a new perspective and better understanding of what I want to convey about this place. And that is the ultimate goal for me, to bring across to the viewer a sense of what it feels like to be there. This is not just standing at a particular spot waiting for beautiful light. Often I arrive before dawn when it is dark, and have to find my way with the help of a head lamp. With shadows all around, and just the faint glow of blue light on the eastern horizon, my anticipation grows for the eventual appearance of the sun and its warm, energizing rays of light.

Once I’ve climbed up several hundred feet to get up on the edge of the ridge, the famous “Shawangunk Ridge”, I’m sweating and breathing hard, but the light is now turning towards deep red and I’ve forgotten the time and effort it took to get there, starting with the dreaded alarm clock at 3:30AM. Now the real work begins with my camera, searching for a composition that will translate both the scene before me and how I feel about it together in a flat 2-dimensional print. I get so focused that time and place disappear, and I just concentrate on responding to what is happening at that moment, regardless of what I think about it.

I often refer to this process afterwards as a recipe for frustration as I rarely succeed at what I see in my mind. But it is the process and experience I so enjoy that keeps me trying over and over again. As Eckhart Tolle so well says in his book A New Earth, “…not what you do, but how you do what you do determines whether you are fulfilling your destiny.” The outcome becomes secondary, and I focus on the moment, reacting visually to the environment. Many of my better images have come from this process, and I didn’t realize I had captured something worthwhile until much later.

The trail up onto the “Ridge”

Whether this is the case with “Millbrook Mtn Sunrise” I’m not sure, but for me it conveys what it felt like to be there that morning two years ago. Each viewer responds to images differently however, and so it may not have the same connotation for someone else. That’s not so important for me, what is important is that there is some reaction, similar to the reaction I had when I press the shutter,

Spent a weekend at Buck Pond campsite recently, located in the northern section of the Adirondacks, about 12 miles north of Saranac Lake. Here is the first of several images I captured during a beautiful morning sunrise, more to come soon…