This photograph was taken last fall during a weekend trip to Seneca Lake. Bhavna and I hiked the Buttermilk Falls trail.
We stopped along the way to rest, but we ere exhausted when we got to the top. We are both in our 50’s, slightly overweight, and do not exercise as much as we want. In my case, the fear of hypoglycaemia limits the activities that I am willing to do. Bhavna is limited by the amount of pain her feet can bare.
I brought my Fuji X-T2, Manfrotto tripod and Hoya neutral density filter. When we stopped to catch a breather, I took some photos. Capturing images proved challenging. The falls are a popular tourist destination, even in the fall. I jammed by tripod up against the stone barricades, doing my best to keep the legs off the path, to avoid tripping other hikers. Hikers would sometimes stop their ascent or descent from asking questions about what I was doing or about my gear.
Welcome to week 165 of the Tuesday Photo Challenge!
You certainly hit the Road with a passion! Not only were your posts creative, but there were a lot of them! This week, as I’m on the road for work, I went through some of images from Ireland and found a nice next step along our journey: Trail! Wh…
Bhavna has had problems with a heel spur in her right foot. She’s been in pain for several weeks, but she wanted to get out of the house. I wanted to capture trail images for Frank’s weekly challenge. I remembered that Stonebridge Trails were mostly flat terrain that could be easy on her foot. She was hesitant but agreed to come with me. Neither one of us has walked the trail.
The trail wraps around the Stonebridge at Montgomery senior living community. We parked in the lot next to the Montgomery 1860’s house. We did not find the trailhead, which we later discovered was near the entrance to the 1860’s property but found a way onto the trail from behind the red barn.
We took a wrong turn at the fork in the trail, and I think ended up going south-east toward the D&R Canal toward Rocky Hill. The trail was muddy. We turned around and returned to the fork to go the other direction.
Some of the trails are part of a paved loop walkway which I think was built for Stonebridge. It’s early summer, and most of the spring wildflowers have since disappeared. However, I did find small islands of colour among the ocean of green.
Bhavna’s pain threshold was breached 30 minutes into the walk, so we took the abbreviate trail and headed back to the car.
My initial plan was to photograph the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel, using a long exposure to create exciting light trails of the vehicles entering and exiting the tunnel. The heavily congested area with a spectacular nighttime view of the New York City cityscape is called “The Lincoln Tunnel Helix”.
I wanted to capture something visually exciting for this weeks challenge. But the logistics of that plan overwhelmed me. Light trails are the best capture after dark, and we are in early summer in New Jersey, which means the sun goes down much later in the day. A late night trip to that part of Weehawken would be challenging given that street parking is minimal and the entrance to the “Helix” can only be seen from one corner at the end of the block on one street in this residential neighbourhood. I set the Lincoln Tunnel project aside for another time.
My backup plan was to find and shoot a scene along one of the historic roads in the area. But as I drove around this morning working through my mental list of interesting roads, I realised that this wasn’t going to work either. All of the roads in this area are narrow one-lane county roads with ditches on either side and no shoulder to pull over, and this being New Jersey, the most densely populated state in the USA, even at 7 AM on a Saturday there is traffic on these narrow small town country roads.
I sat at the computer, feeling disappointed, and looking through my Adobe Lightroom Catalogue, hoping to spark more ideas. None came. I consoled myself with pulling a few images from the catalogue.
This capture of the tree-lined Blue Spring Road was taken in the fall of 2018 a few weeks after the leaves of the trees were starting to change colour. I was out for a walk and noticed the light coming over the hill was hitting the tops of the trees. The trees looked like they were on fire. The only camera I had on me was my iPhone.
The second image below was captured a year later, almost to the day, on my Fujifilm X-T2.
Blue Spring Road—FujiFilm X-T2 + XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR
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