This years fall shoot was very productive. Aside from three days of pre-foliage shooting in Acadia National Park in late September, in October I was able to spend seven days in the White Mountain National Forest (it rained six of them), two days shooting the waterfalls at Ricketts Glen State Park, and a total of six daytrips at the Delaware Water Gap. Despite having visited these areas several times before, most of what I shot was new. No repeat locations in the White Mountains, at least not from previous fall shoots. After about six trips to the WM in the past 12 months my knowledge of the region has tripled and my love of this area keeps growing. As for Ricketts Glen, the falls were not new but the season was so in many places my compositions were able to include a fresh carpet of warm colored leaves to set the mood. Lastly, the Delaware Water Gap, a frequent nearby stomping ground for me, also lots of new stuff. Some of the new stuff included views of the ‘gap’ at in the Delaware River from my hikes, total of four, to the top of Mt Tammany and Mt Minsi. I also found a pool of water next to a small waterfall, which had fallen leaves that were slowly swirling. I was able to do some long, 60 second exposures, to capture some artistic swirls.In addition to my regular post processing methods I also played around more with exposure blending (Article coming soon) for some contrasty areas, like the Water Gap, or the Flume, instead of doing HDR’s. I find this method give me more control and allows for a more natural look. However, some of my waterfalls in Ricketts Glen are HDR’s, like Adams Falls, since that method worked out best. It is not a question of one method being better than another. It is that one method may work better for a specific type of capture, and vision, than another method.
What I enjoyed playing with most in my post work for some of the WM and DWG captures was creating a look that is part photo and part painting. For decades I have been a student and admirer of the Impressionist style. Now I use my camera and find interesting compositions that lend itself to this style and use Topaz’s Simplicity plugin to apply that painterly look. Much of what I did uses a preset I wrote that simplifies shapes to broaden features then add detail back thus broadening the brush stroke so to speak to approach an ‘impression’ of the photo. I do this on a layer and then lower the opacity, typically between 20% and 70% until I get a look I like, often a hydrid photo/painting - like the waterfall above. For some captures this method turned good photos into great pictures. I have been dabbling in the area of digital artistry for over a year and it is really fun stuff. It is getting easier and easier to see something that may not make a great photo but I know would make for something special with a little digital darkroom magic. I plan on doing much more digital art over the winter, especially after I upgrade to a faster computer.
