Treman Gallery Footbridge II

Looking back after crossing the Gallery Footbridge we are rewarded with this view, providing a better understanding of the site. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Looking back after crossing the Gallery Footbridge we are rewarded with this view, providing a better understanding of the site.

This is the footbridge at east side of gorge gallery entrance, seen from the east where the trail descends.

It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Treman Gallery Footbridge I

Here we are on the Gorge Trail of Treman State Park. My readers have seen this marvelous stone bridge from a distance. Here it is on the west side, facing east/northeast and looking down into the gorge. It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York Copyright 2023 […]

Here we are on the Gorge Trail of Treman State Park. My readers have seen this marvelous stone bridge from a distance. Here it is on the west side, facing east/northeast and looking down into the gorge.

Spanning the eastern side of the gallery entrance of the gorge.

It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Devil’s Kitchen I

Near Lucifer Falls

Aptly named Devil’s Kitchen is where Enfield Creek passes over these 20 foot falls before the Lucifer Falls 115 foot rock face cascade. We are occasionally appalled by families and adventure seekers climbing over these falls, wading in the water downstream and other insanities happening next to a waterfall so dangerous it is named after the Prince of Darkness and this very location “his” kitchen.

I am not one to talk, though. One winter on this very spot when the Gorge Trail was closed for winter, black ice brought me down almost into the water. All for a winter scene (photograph) of this marvel. Thankfully, I am wiser for the experience.

It is 9:00 am on a Memorial Daty morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, Ithaca, New York,

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery V

Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. I climbed down into the stream bed.

At the gallery entrance a flat limestone flagstone emerges a few inches from the flowing water. It is here I placed the tripod, different than the previous day’s exposures in that the tripod is lowered, closer to the water and path on right is not visible. The photographs here represent three exposures and two approaches to developing the image.

After a eureka moment writing yesterday’s post I developed the image, below, from the “underexposed” raw file, opening it in Photoshop using the raw dialog to brighten up the image to bring out the left wall. Enhanced the water with “blue” saturation and discovered “Yellow” saturation bring out a reflection of the bright background in the water. The dialog settings are retained in the “xmp” file created by photoshop, appearing as default the next time the raw file is opened.

ISO 250, 0.8 second at F/22

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge.

It is 8:30 am on a Memorial Day morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York. From the Canon ES-1Ds Mark III mounted with a Canon 24 mm f/1.4L II USM lens, on a Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head. I chose to save results to a TIFF file as it is not possible to save settings to the raw format.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery IV

Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. I climbed down into the stream bed.

At the gallery entrance a flat limestone flagstone emerges a few inches from the flowing water. It is here I placed the tripod, different than the previous day’s exposures in that the tripod is lowered, closer to the water and path on right is not visible. The photographs here represent three exposures and two approaches to developing the image.

The first is a combination of two exposures. Both were f-stop 22 (the lens max) in Aperture Priority. One focused on the brighter portion of the stream, resulting in overexposure of the background; the second was on the bright background, resulting in underexposure of the interior of the gallery. In Photoshop the two were combined, using the exposure with the blown out background as the base. Elements of the stream were still too bright, so I stepped up blue saturation. The process took over an hour and the resulting TIFF file is 145 megabytes.

Two exposures combined in photoshop,

The next exposure sought to balance the bright background and darkness of the left side of gallery. In Photoshop I used the raw image dialog (presented on opening) to tone down the bright, bring out the dark and use blue saturation to tone down the bright water. This took 5 minutes. I was wrong in the previous post in that it IS possible to save these decisions….Photoshop writes an “xmp” extension file with the raw filename. If this xmp file is in the same directory as the raw file when opened by Photoshop, the previous raw dialog box settings are retained as defaults. Even better, the raw file is 24 megabytes compared to the 145 megabyte TIFF file.

ISO 250, 1.6 second at F/22

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge.

It is 8:30 am on a Memorial Day morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York. From the Canon ES-1Ds Mark III mounted with a Canon 24 mm f/1.4L II USM lens, on a Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head. I chose to save results to a TIFF file as it is not possible to save settings to the raw format.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery III

Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. I climbed down into the stream bed.

At the gallery entrance a flat limestone flagstone emerges a few inches from the flowing water. It is here I placed the tripod, different than the previous day’s exposures in that the tripod is lowered, closer to the water and path on right is not visible. Only the shutter speed is different between these two exposures.

In both, the left side is too dark, as seen in the first. The solution was to carefully copy and paste a better exposure, a technique made possible by the tripod and used for the second shot.

ISO 250, 1 second, F22

ISO 250, 2 second, F22

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge.

It is 8:30 am on a Memorial Day morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York. From the Canon ES-1Ds Mark III mounted with a Canon 24 mm f/1.4L II USM lens, on a Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head. I chose to save results to a TIFF file as it is not possible to save settings to the raw format.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery II

Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. I climbed down into the stream bed.

At the gallery entrance a flat limestone flagstone emerges a few inches from the flowing water. It is here I placed the tripod, different than the yesterday’s exposure in that the field only shows the stream, not the flagstone, the camera seems to float over water. ISO set to a fairly slow 250, in deference to the background bright in the risen sun. F-stop F22, the lens maximum, and the shutter speed set automatically, aperture mode, to 3.2 second from a focus point on a darker part of creek.

Opening the raw file in Photoshop, the underexposed left side was brightened using Shadows and Blacks. The slower exposure caused to background to blow out, Highlights and Whites ineffective. The solution was to carefully copy and paste a better exposure, a technique made possible by the tripod.

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge.

It is 8:30 am on a Memorial Day morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York. From the Canon ES-1Ds Mark III mounted with a Canon 24 mm f/1.4L II USM lens, on a Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head. I chose to save results to a TIFF file as it is not possible to save settings to the raw format.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery I

First of Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. I climbed down into the stream bed for this shot, this first exposure of this series. All are from the Canon ES-1Ds Mark III mounted with a Canon 24 mm f/1.4L II USM lens, on a Manfrotto studio tripod and hydrostatic ball head.

At the gallery entrance a flat limestone flagstone emerges a few inches from the flowing water. It is here I placed the tripod. ISO set to a fairly slow 250, in deference to the background bright in the risen sun. F-stop F22, the lens maximum, and the shutter speed set automatically, aperture mode, to 1.3 second from a focus point on the creek surface.

Opening the raw file in Photoshop, the underexposed left side was brightened using Shadows and Blacks. Highlights and Whites toned down the background. I chose to save results to a TIFF file as it is not possible to save settings to the raw format.

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge.

It is 8:30 am on a Memorial Day morning Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

A Change of Orientation

Portrait orientation expands the view

Portrait orientation of the waterfall beneath the dam reveals the length the water takes across a cliff face. A shattered Hemlock destroyed over previous winter is in foreground.

A high dynamic range rendering from several exposures from a Kodak DSC Pro SLR/c with a Canon EF 50 mm f/1.4 USM all mounted on a very stable Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head.

Fillmore Glen State Park Moravia, Cayuga County, New York.

The high waterfall flowing from the outlet from the dam of Dry Creek on a spring morning just after the solstice. A shattered Hemlock destroyed over previous winter is in foregound. Fillmore Glen State Park, Moravia, Cayuga County, New York

Click for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Fine Art Photography Gallery.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

A Turkey Tail?

Bracket Fungus

Trametes versicolor – also known as Coriolus versicolor and Polyporus versicolor – is a common polypore mushroom found throughout the world.

Meaning ‘of several colors’, versicolor reliably describes this fungus that displays a variety of colors. For example, because its shape and multiple colors are similar to those of a wild turkey, T. versicolor is commonly called turkey tail.

Found on a rotting Hemlock stump, Fillmore Glen State Park Moravia, Cayuga County, New York.

Kodak DSC Pro SLR/c with a Canon EF 100 mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Polypores are a group of fungi that form large fruiting bodies with pores or tubes on the underside (see Delimitation for exceptions). They are a morphological group of basidiomycetes-like gilled mushrooms and hydnoid fungi, and not all polypores are closely related to each other.

Kodak DSC Pro SLR/c with a Canon EF 100 mm f/2.8 Macro USM lens stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Polypores are also called bracket fungi or shelf fungi, and they characteristically produce woody, shelf- or bracket-shaped or occasionally circular fruiting bodies that are called conks.

Sony alpha 700, Sony Lens DT 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Most polypores inhabit tree trunks or branches consuming the wood, but some soil-inhabiting species form mycorrhiza with trees. Polypores and the related corticioid fungi are the most important agents of wood decay, playing a very significant role in nutrient cycling and aiding carbon dioxide absorption by forest ecosystems.

Sony DSC F828 stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Sony DSC F828 stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head

Sony DSC F828 stabilized on a Manfrotto 468MG tripod with Hydrostatic Ball Head
Reference: “Trametes versicolor” on Wikipedia

Click for my “Finger Lakes Memories” Fine Art Photography Gallery.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills