Boats

One more from the Lake George, NY weekend in May...

Sony RX100M3, 29mm, 1/25s @ f/5.6, iso 80

Soothing sight

Few steps from the shore, where the previous picture was taken and there is another sight. The lake is still there, so are the Adirondacks hills, but now we find ourselves in the green...

I really liked the park just on the other side of the Beach Road. And the bush on the first plan looked like it just bloomed to greet the visitors coming for the Memorial Day weekend.

Sony RX100M3, 44mm, 1/100s @ f/5.6, iso 80

Boat ride

Another little trip and again not that many pictures taken. And not much time to explore golden or twilight hours. But having the little Sony RX100M3 on most of the walks I was able to catch some nice sights.

This one is from the first afternoon on the Lake George, little town on the southern shore of the lake with the same name, upstate New York. We have arrived there on Thursday, just before the start of the season, which is inaugurated on the Memorial Day weekend. Almost empty on Thursday and Friday, suddenly it filled with people on Saturday and Sunday. The picture below accurately reflects the Thursday emptiness :)

This is not HDR even though - after the post-processing in Color Efex it looks a bit like that. I bumped details quite a bit, because I wanted to show how clear the lake waters are.

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1/160s @ f/5.6, iso 80

Spring panorama

It was a nice weekend hike to Mt. Sourire (~450 m), where we were greeted with this view. Notice the snow still lying on the hills where ski trails are supported by snow guns.

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 1/160s @ f/5.6, iso 80

Spot the difference

When visiting Lake Placid on Easter weekend, I barely could recognize the lake I saw 2 years ago in the summer. However, even in its frozen state, you can still take a trip around the Mirror Lake!

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/3200s @ f/5.6, iso 100 (April 2015)

Samsung S2, auto (July 2013)

The perfect moment

This is the last photo of the series. I mean, I still have a few that would be a good material, but it is time to move on to another location. Mind you, all the pictures posted this week are from the same day in Adirondacks Park: a morning spent on the lakes and the afternoon/evening at hiking.

The capture below is actually the first of that day - when the sun was still below the horizon, just preparing to set. It was taken just 50 minutes before that one. 

I do not remember whether I used any ND filters to achieve 10s exposure - probably did not have to. The result is a very smooth, silky surface. However, what I like the most are the colours, similar to this and this, but somehow even more deeper and astounding.

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 10s @ f/16, iso 100

Morning sun salutation

It looks like I wanted to go back to fetch just one picture and it quickly became an Adirondacks series :) Well, as a non-professional photographer I cannot afford to do my photography all the time (or even as much time as I'd like), so sometimes, after a great shooting day, the photos lie unedited for a very long time... On the other hand, when the weather outside is not good for shooting, I tend to spend more time processing the old files. Life...

This week I found so many good shots from just one summer weekend in Adirondacks Park, I kind of want to go back there and see how it looks in the winter. Maybe next Saturday...

Sony RX100M3, 24mm, 0.8s @ f/11, iso 80

Golden hour

This is another one from the last summer in Adirondacks: a breathtaking view from the Cascade Mountain near Lake Placid, one of 44 High Peaks. Almost nobody stays at the top until the sun set. Those who do, get this sight to admire.

Sony RX100M3, 70mm, 1/6s @ f/11, iso 80

Ethereal sailboat

I wanted to go back to Laos (in virtual sense), but then this picture came up. At first it didn't seem much, but the more I looked at it, the more I saw a sailing ship formed by the fog, reflection and the trees acting as masts. Maybe the photo would have been even better if the sky was more dramatic?

Nikon 7100, 105mm, 1/100s @ f/4.5, iso 1400

Feeling blue

And the picture I was looking for yesterday was this one. It is actually a sibling of that photo, but shot wider, with a different camera (Sony here, Nikon there).

Sony RX100M3, 31mm, 0.6s @ f/11, iso 80

Abstract art by Nature herself

Browsing my collections for something entirely else, I found this shot. Depending on the day I classified it as very bad or very good, but couldn't really make anything of it. Now I gave it a try. 

Given that it was taken at the longer zoom end of a telephoto lens, it wasn't particularly sharp. It isn't even now. But I like the reflecting tiny branches in the fog.

Nikon 7100, 450mm, 1/200s @ f/5.6, iso 100

Guardian spirit

Nikon 7100, 105mm, 1/400s @ f/4.5, iso 100

Nikon 7100, 135mm, 1/640s @ f/4.5, iso 100

Back to Adirondacks from this weekend. As the morning fog got thicker and thicker, the landscape features and colours faded, it was the best to look for good black&white candidates. This was one of them.

Even though the shutter was pretty fast, I managed to catch a moment of stillness. Then, the waters were touched by the wind and the picture changed...

Urquhart Castle

Nikon 5100, 82mm, 1/50s @ f/5.6, iso 140

Re-edit of the picture taken this winter at the Loch Ness. More summer-like version.

Twilight silk

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 25s @ f/16, iso 100 (original picture)

As above with delicate Lightroom postprocessing 

As above but with Nik Color Efex postprocessing

Choices, choices... The off-camera picture was looking so good on the screen that I applied just few correction (vibrance and just a bit of sharpening). Then I tried to enhance the picture with Color Efex and it's still looking great, but tells a whole different story...

Morning

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/6s @ f/16, iso 100

A shot a the newly released Capture NX-D software by Nikon. Compared to LR5 it is an ergonomic hell and takes a lot of time to get used to. Also, the beloved U-points are missing. But one has to admit that the RAW processing controls it offers may be worth trying it once a while...

Gold and silver

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/200s @ f/16, iso 100

Nikon 7100, 75mm, 1/30s @ f/16, iso 100

Finally got my hands on a mirror camera. Despite what people are saying about DSLRs being dead, there is still a gap on what you can achieve with a big full frame sensor and a set of good lenses. I'm not saying that cameras like Fujifilm X-T1 or Sony A7s are not capable. It's just the big DSLR body allows for a lot more buttons/options at your fingertips.

Anyway, I got up at 3:30am just to get this kind of views and was almost too late. And as always I got few takes with different white balance and had a hard time to choose. In the evening after work, I like the silver version more. In the morning - gold is the king.

Hallelujah!

Fujifilm X100s, 1/150s @ f/16, iso 800

And back to Mont-Tremblant... Just when it stopped to be all sunny, it started to be interesting. This shot was taken from the top of the peak and shows a trail down, which - in winter conditions - is designated as one of the most difficult there. In the background - Lac Tremblant.

Uro woman with reed boats

Nikon D5100, 35mm, 1/4000s @ f/2.8, iso 100

Just. Look. At. The. Colors.

Follow that boat!

Nikon D5100, 35mm, 1/200s @ f/6.3, iso 100

This time it's the nature, not people, that is the main subject of the picture. 

Even though the vignetting draws an eye to the small motorboat in the centre, if you follow its path you'll reach hills of Taquile Island on the horizon. And you may be surprised that the bright white cloud on the horizon is indeed Cordillera Real, part of Bolivian Andes with peaks above 6,000 m.

And the girl who played

Nikon D5100, 35mm, 1/2000s @ f/2.0, iso 100

Unlike the photo of the wet-eyed girl from the previous post I did not have any reservations about this picture. In fact, I totally adore it. Check out more faces in my album called "People of Titicaca".