from multiple thaw-freeze cycles
Captured outside our former Malloryville home on Fall Creek of the Finger Lakes Region of New York.
I used a Canon 100mm “macro” lens.
Cheers on this January morning.
Click this link to check out “Ice Bells” on my Fine Art Photography gallery.
A Friday Evening Stroll through a February Thaw
Pam and I were drawn outside the day after Valentine’s a bit of sun, an unreliable warm breeze, a promise of exercise. Our expectations were disappointed for all but the last at the foot of the Taughannock Falls gorge trail.
We had a reminder mid-February marks the start of avian mating behavior with this addition to the view from Taughannock Creek, the first large waterfall. For the cold, drizzly excursion I chose the IPhone, in a waterproof case, for the images. The fanicful birdhouse inscription reads “The Old Birds from Pa.”
The winding gorge takes a general east, southeasterly direction. Where the sun cannot reach the snow was reduced to a treacherous slushy ice mix more nasty than dangerous.
Of all the area hiking experiences, Taughannock Gorge Trail is the only one available year round. The gorge is wide with enough room for the footpath to avoid the cliff edge. Today, there were places were ice formations were throwing large ice chunks down the slope. The park ranges place tree trunks along the cliff base, with warning signs to stay away. Still, there are visitors who stray too close with fatal outcomes reported by local news.
Pam was fascinated by the appearance of snow and ice accumulated on the talus, here seen from the Taughannock Falls viewing bridge.
You can just pick out the viewing bridge in the Falls Overlook video.
Taughannock Falls bound by ice is a most dramatic sight. I need to post photographs from a 2005 visit during an especially frigid February. Here, the falls have thrown off the ice, leaving this house-size chunk.
The surrounding gorge walls are continually frost coated by the mist.
In more clement seasons the Gorge Trail ends much closer to the falls. Today, it was closed as, during winter and especially thaws, blocks of the sandstone cap break away to fall with great force across that part of the trail. This viewing area is visible in the Falls Overlook video.
two captures during a time of lengthening days to welcome March 2022
Here are two offerings from winters past.
Click this link for my Fine Art Gallery
Brevard County Park on Merrit Island
Ulumay is the name of the Native American settlement of the Ais people decimated by disease after the arrival of Europeans. The park is a natural lagoon and bird rookery linked with canals created for mosquito control and surrounded by a manmade dike. A trail on the dike provides access to the waterways for the fisherman, birdwatchers, and paddlers.
This informative placard, placed at the entrance. Note the 600 park acres is surrounded by residential properties.
I left Pam at the entrance, seen below at the words “Ulumay Wildlife”; she had a reasonable concern about alligators. It is quite possible to find a large specimen blocking the one and only trail. “What? Me Worry?” When pursued by an alligator, remember to zig-zag.
“Flora and Fauna”
Waterways, sightings
Second Stand
Third Stand
No sightings of alligators or manatees.
Yesterday afternoon was bright, sunny enough for me to break out of the winter exercise routine for a walk around Taughannock Falls, a New York State Park 7.5 miles from the front door through farmland and small villages with views of Cayuga Lake.
The route around the gorge, following the North and South Rim trails with a side trip to the edge of Cayuga Lake is 3 miles with a modest elevation change of about 500 feet.
My route began at the top with a cell phone, from the Falls Overlook, there is a gradual slope, until the end where flights of steep stone steps end at the gorge floor. The steps were free of ice and snow.
These photographs are from the cell phone. Here is the lake and a portion of the gorge. Yes, the lake is a dark blue on sunny days and is ice free this year. Another trail follows the gorge floor to below the falls, I opted out of the additional 1.5 miles today in the interest of finishing well before sunset.
Click any photograph to visit my Fine Art version of Taughannock Falls.
I have a few versions of these South Rim Trail stone steps taken at this perfect time of day, the low sun through the trees. Built in the 1930s by Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corp, the steps and the entire trail are a work of art.
The far view of Taughannock Falls always fascinated me. I’ve never done it justice. There are several view points from the South Rim, overlooking the gorge were it bends to the south with only the upper third of the falls visible. The flow today was photogenic. I used the cell phone zoom to catch the view between the trunks of two trees.
The top of the south rim was the only ice. It is there through April some years. Here is the closest, full view of Taughannock Falls from the North Rim. It is the same view you will find in my Fine Art version of the falls.
And a cell phone video of the falls for the full effect.
Enjoy!!
amazing resolution with the Canon 24 mm lens
The resolution of the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM makes this lens a favorite of mine for landscape work. Let me show you why.
The valley today’s posting lies behind the tree. It is a broad valley shaped by ancient glaciers.
Here is the Google Earth view, from an elevation of 9,400 feet, with the ship position marked. Northwest is a pushpin titled, “Hanging Valley and Waterfall.”
The waterfall marking the hanging valley is visible in the following photograph. All photographs in this posting are from a Canon EOS-1Ds MarkIII, 24 mm lens (see above for complete name), on a Manfrotto travel tripod. ISO 500, f5.6 or f6.3.
With a point of view about 50 feet above the water the valley bottom is hidden behind an 800 foot hill and the water fall is just above the hill. See it? …..I didn’t think so.
There is the island with the tree, to the left. The following image is the same photograph, with the central section enlarged.
The enlargement brings out the play of light, the low clouds, deep in the valley. To provide scale, know those are full sized pines on the hillside, foreground. The waterfall is just about visible. I will enlarge the image one more time.
There it is!! I stepped up contrast, as well.
Here is another version of the original view. That patch of sky had opened up seconds after the first shot and, as a result, the 3,000 door mountain and waterfalls, on right, are better lit. Notice the bare rock face on the mountain slope, marking a landslide.
Click this image for a high resolution version, in your browser.
A different landslide Scar is featured in two previous blogs,
A Far Country VI: View of Tempanos Fjord
The Regatta’s course brought us closer for the two following shots.
The lovely sky is still visible…..
….one minute later the clouds gather and relative darkness returns.
amazing resolution with the Canon 24 mm lens
The resolution of the Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L II USM makes this lens a favorite of mine for landscape work. Let me show you why.
The valley today’s posting lies behind the tree. It is a broad valley shaped by ancient glaciers.
Here is the Google Earth view, from an elevation of 9,400 feet, with the ship position marked. Northwest is a pushpin titled, “Hanging Valley and Waterfall.”
The waterfall marking the hanging valley is visible in the following photograph. All photographs in this posting are from a Canon EOS-1Ds MarkIII, 24 mm lens (see above for complete name), on a Manfrotto travel tripod. ISO 500, f5.6 or f6.3.
With a point of view about 50 feet above the water the valley bottom is hidden behind an 800 foot hill and the water fall is just above the hill. See it? …..I didn’t think so.
There is the island with the tree, to the left. The following image is the same photograph, with the central section enlarged.
The enlargement brings out the play of light, the low clouds, deep in the valley. To provide scale, know those are full sized pines on the hillside, foreground. The waterfall is just about visible. I will enlarge the image one more time.
There it is!! I stepped up contrast, as well.
Here is another version of the original view. That patch of sky had opened up seconds after the first shot and, as a result, the 3,000 door mountain and waterfalls, on right, are better lit. Notice the bare rock face on the mountain slope, marking a landslide.
Click this image for a high resolution version, in your browser.
The Regatta’s course brought us closer for the two following shots.
The lovely sky is still visible…..
….one minute later the clouds gather and relative darkness returns.
Compelling Plant Shapes
Here is a Google Earth view of Tempanos Fjord from 9,400 feet, looking north, northwest over a point on the fjord 6.5 miles from Iceberg Glacier, at 4 pm local time on February 17, 2016. This view is interesting for the insignificant island, .75 mile long, and broad mountain valley to the north fringed with waterfalls.
Marked is the location of a tree, “bonsai”, a feature of the fjord cliffs, “Landslide Scar” and a neighboring Fjord, “Farquhar Fjord.”
This blog features the tree.
The Farquhar Fjord entrance opens onto the entrance of Tempanos Fjord and is the last photograph.
A photograph from our port side stateroom deck includes both the island and broad valley. The misshapen tree, the “bonsai”, is on an islet to the right and in front of the island. It is the small stump backlit by water reflection. The stump is more interesting than can be seen in this image from a handheld camera, at 24 mm. I used the variable lens for a closer look.
From this 133 mm, f8.0, 1/250 sec and ISO 800, still handheld, interesting details come into view. The islet is a rock on which clings a bed of moss. Several ferns, a sapling (on the far side) and a stump, on the right, are surviving. The stump presumably supported a small tree of which a “bonsai-like” twig remains.
Bonsai are fascinating, created through the art and skill of emulating pleasing natural forms. Here the moss encrusted twists and miniature tree crown were formed from a difficult environment. Bonsai of Japan originated from an ancient Chinese tradition of penjing (“tray plant”). The inspiration for this are, at origin and now, must be, in part, from admiration of the tenacity and beauty of these plants.
At the 200 mm maximum my Sony Alpha 770 (1/400, f9, ISO 800) image is a little fuzzy, still with great details.
From my interest in bonsai I am on the lookout for shapes such as this. Travelling the challenging environment of the Chilean Fjords I found examples here and there.
A mountain and waterfall ringed bowl.
(Click any photograph to visit my online gallery)
4:00 pm local time the Oceania was approximately 5 miles from the Iceberg Glacier, moving forward at a slow rate of speed, 4.6 knots. Here are more views of the mountain-ringed bowl behind a 1,000 foot cliff.
Both photographs are handheld using my Sony Alpha700, ISO 800, variable lens set to 45mm, 1/250 f13. At the same time I shot from a tripod mounted Cannon, 24 mm wide angle fixed focus lens.
The following capture from Google Earth is the view from 12,200 feet. Regatta’s position is the “5 miles from Iceberg Glacier” pushpin. The formation is almost due north. We were surprised to see a ranger station in this uninhabited area, not yet in view. The white line, lower right, is the border between the Aisen (north) and Magellanic (south) Chilean regions.
Fjord View
By 3:20 pm local time the Oceania was approximately 1.75 miles from the Iceberg Glacier and the captain positioned the ship for a starboard side glacier view. From our port side stateroom terrace Pam and I had this sweeping view of the way we had come.
Tempanos Fjord is a mile across here and we have a clear view of the landslide scar feature in my last blog. It is 7.75 miles distant, a small white patch on the fjord wall. The landscape scar marks where the fjord bends, changing north, northeast course to an east, southeast direction. Before the bend, the Iceberg glacier is not visible. Turn the bend and the glacier is plainly visible in the distance if the viewer is looking over the ship bow.
The following capture from Google Earth is the view from 14,000 feet. Marked are the locations of the landslide scar and the ship position were I first photographed the scar on our way into Tempanos Fjord. The red lined ship’s course may be followed out of the fjord back to the Messier Channel. The fjord follows a course among mountain peaks and deep valleys. A great pleasure of sailing Tempanos Fjord is the many vistas opening one to another.
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 