Spring Equinox
Thank You for exploring with me the South Rim trail of Taughannock Falls State Park on this first day of Spring 2023.
Out of Season Dandelion
A willow, nurtured by Cayuga Inlet waters, with a bench.
All photographs are from the Apple IPhone 14 ProMax, raw format and perfected on the phone.
Click Me for more photographic art from my OnLine Gallery, “Finger Lakes Memories.”
Stenciled on asphalt pavement along the Cayuga Lake Inlet, the white paint delimits dandelion flower stalk and seedhead, mostly denuded, with floating seeds held aloft by the pappus.
A circular bench that has seen better days, a hollowed out tree trunk repurposed as a children’s playgound house, picnic benches and, in background, a portion of the Farmer’s Market pavilion, to the right is Johnson Boatyard, Cayuga Inlet and lake. This is the Steamboat Landing, historically the southern port on Cayuga Lake. The entire area is long overdue for a facelift.
Painted on the side of restroom building, various shades of blue, black outlines, something or other holding a trident surrounded by fanciful fish.
On the trail to Lighthouse Point, this tree is in fine winter form on this early spring afternoon in March. Newman Municipal Golf Course
Cayuga Lake Views from Lighthouse Point
Trunks Entwined
Pam created this tableau in our den to celebrate our 14th wedding anniversary.
My card to Pam is on left, Her’s to the right. Pam presented these ceramic elephants to Michael on their 14th Wedding Anniversary, Monday, March 20, 2023. Ivory is the traditional gift for the 14th.
Pam’s card is a illustration of solid and variegated tulips, a spring flower.
On Michael’s card is a Spine-cheeked ClownFish. This fish species lives among the tentacles of the Bubble-tip sea anemone, also in photograph. “Both organisms form a symbiotic relationship: the clownfish will rarely stray more than a few yards from its stinging tent of protection. The anemone benefits from the darting antics of the clownfish, which protect the anemone from its predators.” Quote from the Sierra club. Photograph on card by Mike Bacon.
Fourteenth
I created this floral arrangement for Pam on Monday, March 20, 2023 for our 14th Wedding Anniversary.
All photographs are from the Apple IPhone 14 ProMax, raw format and perfected on the phone.
Click Me for more photographic art from my OnLine Gallery, “Finger Lakes Memories.”
The arrangement is composed of Pussy Willow, “Lollipop” chrysanthemums, Blue Larkspur (Delphinium) and an unidentified pink flower the grows from a spike, like the Larkspur.
On the card is a Spine-cheeked ClownFish. This fish species lives among the tentacles of the Bubble-tip sea anemone, also in photograph. “Both organisms form a symbiotic relationship: the clownfish will rarely stray more than a few yards from its stinging tent of protection. The anemone benefits from the darting antics of the clownfish, which protect the anemone from its predators.” Quote from the Sierra club. Photograph on card by Mike Bacon.
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.
It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York
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.
It is evening on a mid-September evening, Robert H. Treman Park, Ithaca, Tompkins County, New York
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Michael Stephen Wills Photography 
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