Tag: Carnegie Lake

Shea Rowing Center and Class of 1887 Boathouse at Magic Hour

Although I went to bed quite late last night, I woke up this morning around 6:30 AM. I lay in bed feeling guilty that I hadn't done anything with my camera for several weeks. The Skillman area is full of fall colour and I did not have a single image to show for it. So I decided that since it was still early that perhaps I could get some shots early morning landscape shot. But where?

Carnegie Lake came to mind. Should I stay north and shoot near the old Kingston Mill. Or travel south on Route 27 toward Princeton and shoot somewhere in the middle. I decided that would soon arrive and that I would still be in bed trying to decide so I got dressed, grab a food bar and my camera and headed out the door.

I drove through Kingston -- just in case -- continued down Route 27. On my way, I decided on the Shea Rowing Center and the Class of 1887 Boathouse.

For some reason I felt that I should use my 9 stop Neutral Density filter. And because I can't resist, I took posted one two Instagram using vividHDR.

Landscape photography is challenging. The best light is at the golden hour. That means getting up early. It means standing on the bridge on Washington Road in Princeton on a cold morning and shooting with a tripod for an hour. Tonight, I'm hoping to capture a sunset. But where?

Mapleton Road and Carnegie Lake

Before I left home this morning I packed my camera bag with my AF-S DX Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 VR. We had a lot of snow yesterday but the ploughs came late to my neighbourhood. Driving along slick snow-packed roads wasn't a good idea so I stayed home. But this morning, with the roads cleared, I wanted to capture a winter scene.

I took a different route this morning. Usually, I take Blue Spring Road west to 206 South. That's normally the fastest route. But [my navigation system] suggested I go east on Blue Spring toward River Road through Kingston. Perhaps this was faster since the schools had a delayed opening and the roads had no school buses at this time.

I pulled onto Blue Spring Road and I was hit by the beauty of that scene. The golden light of the early morning sun was reflecting off the snow on this tree-lined road and it was just wonderful. I stopped to snap a photo with my iPhone but before I could focus and compose my shot I had three cars waiting for me to move. So I moved on; disappointed. The scene on Blue Spring Road was better than what came later. I could have just let those cars wait.

My commute this morning took along the Plainsboro side of Carnegie Lake along Mapleton Road. There were no cars behind me so I was able to stop and take this shot from the car using vividHR on my iPhone. Not my Nikon D5100. My iPhone.

By the time I composed my shot I saw a few cars coming up the road behind me. The next photograph was taken on the corner of Mapleton Road just before it connects to Route 1 South. I had to pull over onto a side road near an apartment building.

Both photos were post-processed in Photogene. I have a scratch on my iPhone 5 lens that shows up as a purple dot on all my images. I used the healing tool in Photogene4 to remove it.