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The hammering of woodpeckers can often be heard in my back yard. A few years ago I captured a photo of one.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
I finally got around to editing the videos from our September 2015 trip to Upstate New York. This movie features visits to the beautiful state parks of Letchworth and Watkins Glen, as well as a day trip to Niagara Falls.
The movie is accompanied by Neptune, the Mystic, the sublime 7th movement of Holst’s The Planets. You can view it in 1080p via the video quality settings.
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A sunny day at Watkins Glen State Park in New York is the perfect opportunity to practice HDR photography because the high contrast of the dark areas of the gorge versus the areas that catch rays of sun can make it difficult to properly expose a scene with a single shot. Here are a few of the HDR photos I took during my hike in September, 2015. They were all done handheld, three exposures each. You can click on any image for a larger view.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Also, don’t forget that the eBook version of my novel, The Eyes of Mictlan, is available for free during the entire month of November, and, if you download it through Story Cartel and write a review, you will be entered into their monthly drawing to win prizes such as Kindle eReaders, Amazon and Barnes & Noble gift cards, and bestselling print books.
There are three ways in which you can obtain a free copy:
There are no strings attached and the book is yours to keep, but I would be most grateful if you could take a few minutes to leave a review on your favorite book site (such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads). And as always, I thank you for your support!
Here’s a shot that wasn’t included in my previous post of Letchworth panoramas because it wasn’t originally intended as a panorama. I like to refer to photos like this as “accidental panoramas” because they are products of separate shots that I decided would look better stitched together.
This was taken on the way to the stone footbridge, which is the only crossing of the Genesee River in the entire park.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Also, don’t forget that the eBook version of my novel, The Eyes of Mictlan, is available for free during the entire month of November, and, if you download it through Story Cartel and write a review, you will be entered into their monthly drawing to win prizes such as Kindle eReaders, Amazon and Barnes & Noble gift cards, and bestselling print books.
There are three ways in which you can obtain a free copy:
There are no strings attached and the book is yours to keep, but I would be most grateful if you could take a few minutes to leave a review on your favorite book site (such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads). And as always, I thank you for your support!
A hike through Watkins Glen State Park is like a visit to another world, where scenes like this await around every corner. It’s hard to believe that this oasis of pristine beauty is tucked inside a small town in Upstate New York.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Also, don’t forget that the eBook version of my novel, The Eyes of Mictlan, is available for free during the entire month of November, and, if you download it through Story Cartel and write a review, you will be entered into their monthly drawing to win prizes such as Kindle eReaders, Amazon and Barnes & Noble gift cards, and bestselling print books.
There are three ways in which you can obtain a free copy:
There are no strings attached and the book is yours to keep, but I would be most grateful if you could take a few minutes to leave a review on your favorite book site (such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or Goodreads). And as always, I thank you for your support!
This shot is from our hike along the gorge trail in Watkins Glen State Park last month. A walk through this park has been compared to a stroll through Tolkien’s Rivendell, and it’s easy to see why.
The park is located in the middle of the town of Watkins Glen, which sits on Seneca Lake in New York. Watkins Glen is more famous for its car racing, and the Finger Lakes area is more known for its wineries, but this beautiful park is clearly the jewel of the town and you’d think they do a better job of advertising it (you could easily drive right past it and I didn’t see any references to it around the town or in the “attractions” flyers in the hotel).
For this photo I attempted one of those long exposure shots commonly used when photographing waterfalls. However, I do not have the filter that photographers normally use for these shots to prevent overexposure, so I stopped my aperture all the way down to f/22, put my camera on a mini tripod, and took a two-second exposure. The small aperture resulted in a lack of sharpness but I still think the pic turned out pretty well considering.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Here are a few panoramas taken during my visit to Letchworth State Park in New York last month. Click on any photo for a larger view.
This shot of the Big Bend in the Genesee River gives you a sense of why Letchworth is often referred to as the “Grand Canyon of the East.”
This one features the Middle Falls dropping down into the gorge.
This final one was taken at ground level down in the gorge, at the site of the lost town of St. Helena.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
This photo, taken along the Footbridge Trail in New York’s Letchworth State Park, offers a view of the Lower Falls in the distance while looking back toward the steps we had just descended on our way to the stone footbridge. The footbridge is the only place you can cross the Genesee River in the entirety of the 17-mile long park.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Here’s a long-exposure shot of the Middle Falls, taken at night during my visit to Letchworth State Park earlier this month.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
We visited Letchworth State Park in Upstate New York earlier this month, often referred to as the “Grand Canyon of the East” because of the massive gorge that runs through the park. I highly recommend a visit; it’s easy to see why it was voted the #1 State Park in the country. It’s full of scenic beauty and not as touristy as some other parks. And if you go off season as we did, you practically have the park to yourself. We only stayed for two days but you could easily spend a week there hiking its 66 miles of trails.
This is a side view of the Middle Falls, one of the park’s main attractions.
You can view more featured photos at my Photo of the Day Collection.
Michael Rappa 