morning – Michael Stephen Wills Photography

19th Century Enfield Falls

A Bit of History

February 11, 2023December 14, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

“Enfield Falls, like many other towns, grew around its grist and sawmills. Farmers coming to this mill about the middle of the 19th century could do errands while waiting for their grain to be ground. In Enfield Falls at that time, there were two sawmills, a shingle mill, cooperage, tannery, carding factory, store and hotel. By the late 19th century there was also a post office.”

“As farmers turned asway from growing wheat, Enfield Falls evolved from a busy milling center to a place appreciated for scenery and a quality hotel. Robert and Henrietta Wickham build and ran the hotel for many years during the middle of the 19th century. The hotel hosted popular dances in its ballroom. Guests could also dine and rest at the hotel.”

This placard from the Mill Museum at Treman Park is the source of much of today’s information. I used italics and quotes to attribute this source.

The sign in the heading of this post “hung near the hotel at least as early as 1883. In that year, D. Morris Kurtz mentioned it in his “Ithaca and Its Resources”: “At the foot of the hill is the Enfield Falls Hotel, but you look around in vain for the falls or even any sign of them. Upon the side of the stable into which our horses are driven is nailed a small board, on which is painted ‘Admission to the Falls, 10 cents.’ In reply to our inquiry the bright little urchin that takes charge of the team says, ‘Down there they are,’ pointing to the rocky wall which apparently forms the eastern and an unsurmountable boundary to the valley. And to ‘down there’ we proceed……“

Treman Gorge Trail from the Old Mill enters a narrow gallery looking here southeast along Enfield Creek, passing over a stone footbridge. This was the control point in the 19th century for collecting the ten cent admission fee. Here are some photographs of the entrance as it exists today. The retaining wall, footpath and stone bridge were constructed in the 1930’s by the Civilian Conservation Corps. The site was far rougher for those earlier visitors.

The Gorge Trail next to Enfield Creek on a midsummer morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Photograph captured on a midsummer morning. Robert H. Treman State Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery V

Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

February 6, 2023December 11, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

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.

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

February 5, 2023December 11, 2022 MichaelStephenWills4 Comments

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.

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.

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.

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

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery III

Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

February 4, 2023December 10, 2022 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

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.

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

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery II

Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

February 3, 2023December 10, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

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.

Copyright 2023 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Enfield Gallery I

First of Series Exploring the Photographic Challanges of this spot

February 2, 2023December 10, 2022 MichaelStephenWills2 Comments

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

Herbaceous Peony 50 mm

Tree Peony

June 22, 2022June 12, 2022 MichaelStephenWills13 Comments

Peony species (scientific name Paeonia lactiflora) with plants that die back in cold weather to regrow each spring from a tuberous root are called “herbaceous,” from the latin word for grassy. The stems and branches remain soft and pliable, some stiff enough to hold the large, showy flowers. The first varieties introduced to Europe and named 1753 were white, “lactiflora” mean milk-white flower.

Reviewing my photography in preparation for this post I discovered not a single one for herbaceous peony, such was my interest in the woody varieties my in-laws planted around the property. Fortunately, they did not neglect the herbaceous varieties featured here.

These photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr and the Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM lens with a “BeFree” Manfrotto tripod with ball head. f-stop was tamped down to the maximum, f16 for this lens. Exposures were taken when the intermittent morning breeze abated.

Click any photograph for a larger view to open in new browser tab.

Paeonia lactiflora, in the family Paeoniaceae, contains around 30 species in Europe, across Asia and in western North America growing wild in scrub and woods, often in rocky places or on cliffs. Most species in Eastern Europe, others in the Caucasus, central Asia, the Himalayas, and Japan, mainly on limestone, and a species in dry parts of California.

Peonies have long been cultivated for their spectactular flowers as well as for their medicinal preoperties, particularily in China

Reference: “The Botanical Garden” by Phillips and Rix, Volume I (2002, Firefly Books, Buffalo, New York and Willowdale, Ontario

Copyright 2022 All Rights Reserved Michael Stephen Wills

Woody Peony 50 mm handheld

Tree Peony

May 27, 2022May 22, 2022 MichaelStephenWills

See my previous May Woody Peony postings for background on this peony variety.

These photographs were taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark IV dslr and the Canon EF 50mm f/1,2L USM lens. I opted for handheld exposures; the morning was absolutely still.

Feeding Frenzy

Nine videos taken the same morning, February 5, 2022

May 9, 2022May 8, 2022 MichaelStephenWills3 Comments

A multi-day hatch of small fry around the time of a new moon triggered this Black Skimmers (scientific name: Rynchops niger) feeding behavior surf off Cocoa Beach, Brevard County on Florida’s Atlantic Coast.

Katrina Sunrise, August 28, 2005

The effects of the category 5 hurricane Katrina

August 12, 2021August 11, 2021 MichaelStephenWills17 Comments

Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast and New Orleans as the sun rose on the West End of Jones Beach on Long Island, August 28, 2005. This amazing sunrise was an element of the unusual atmospheric effects that are evidence of the power of this storm.

The featured image (heading this blog) is my print, “Katrina Sunrise”. This work is enjoyed by hundreds of my clients. Use the link, below, to acquire your own. Custom framing is available.

Click this link for Katrina Sunrise from my Memory Dreams Reflections Online gallery
The following images are the rough drafts taken in the early morning hours. The beach was literally deserted as I mounted the camera and framed the view for this series. Many image captions include the file time stamp, for example 6:07:13 is 6 am and 7 minutes 13 seconds.