Tag: Historic Places

Best Photo of the Week

South Branch section of the Raritan River, South Branch, Hillsborough Township, Somerset County, New Jersey

While on my way to photograph the South Branch School House yesterday, I noticed the ice floating on this section of River Road along the Raritan River in Hillsborough. I could see the river through the trees, which only caught my eye because the trees had no leaves. Even though I have driven along this section of the river in the past, I don't recall noticing before, perhaps because the trees were full of leaves. I made a mental note that, after photographing the schoolhouse, I would stop somewhere nearby and walk along the river.

I parked in the parking lot of the South Branch Bible Fellowship building on Orchard Road and walked back toward the river, making sure to cross River Road carefully. I walked along the south-west trail, noticing a large number of fallen trees. I walked closer to the edge of the river, which I noticed had a steep drop from what is perhaps erosion from water from when the Raritan River was flooded. I saw that many of the trees were hanging from the edges of the riverbank, barely staying upright.

This image is from the set I used for Frank Jansen's weekly photo challenge.

Best Photo of the Week is personal photography project where I post the best image captured that week. The image will be posted at the end of the week. That will be a Sunday. I can take one or 100 photos for the week but I will post only one, the best one.

I shot from a tripod and bracketed my shots. The Classic Chome Fujifilm Film Simulation preset was applied to each image and the images combined in Photomatix Pro. The Natural filter was applied in Photomatix Pro and the resulting image was imported back into Adobe Lightroom for further adjustment.

It's not all sunshine and roses

While on my way to photograph the South Branch School House yesterday, I noticed the ice floating on this section of River Road along the Raritan River in Hillsborough. I could the river through the trees, which only caught my eye because the trees had no leaves. Even though I have driven along this section of the river in the past, I don't recall noticing before, perhaps because the trees were full of leaves. I made a mental note that, after photographing the schoolhouse, I would stop somewhere nearby and walk along the river. I thought that perhaps I could capture something interesting for Frank's weekly photo challenge. The keyword was rose and perhaps I could find something rising up from the Raritan River.

South Branch or the Raritan River, South Branch, Hillsborough Township, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (16 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), Copyright 2019-02-02 Khürt L. Williams

I parked in the parking lot of the South Branch Bible Fellowship building on Orchard Road and walked back toward the river making sure to carefully cross River Road. I walked along the south-west trail noticing a large number of fallen trees, some of which blocked the path ahead entirely. I was forced to clamber over the large trunk of a fallen tree whose now-dead branches were twisted in many places. If a tree falls in the forest, does it make a noise? If trees could make noises this one would have howled out in pain.

South Branch or the Raritan River, South Branch, Hillsborough Township, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (16 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), Copyright 2019-02-02 Khürt L. Williams

I gingerly walked closer to the edge of the river bank. There was a sudden and steep drop off from what is perhaps erosion during heavy rains when the water rose up. In some spots along the bank, I saw small, steep and very gravely paths that led down to the water's edge. I decided against using the path. I was carrying a camera and a tripod. If lost footing I would have slid right into the frigid water.

I settled for photographing from the bank of the river. Definitely no sunshine and roses in that scenario!

Many of the trees were hanging from the edges of the river bank, barely staying upright. This last image was the one I chose for my best of the week project.

South Branch or the Raritan River, South Branch, Hillsborough Township, New Jersey — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR @ (16 mm, f/8.0, ISO200), Copyright 2019-02-02 Khürt L. Williams

All of the images were processed in Adobe Lightroom. I shot from a tripod and bracketed my shots. The Classic Chome Fujifilm Film Simulation preset was applied to each image and the images combined in Photomatix Pro. The Natural filter was applied in Photomatix Pro and the images imported back into Adobe Lightroom for further adjustment.

The Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography. This week's theme is rose.

Boathouse Row on the Schuylkill River

Boathouse Row, Schuylkill River, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania @princeton_photo

This image was captured in 2016 during a field trip to Philadelphia's Boathouse Row with the Princeton Photo Workshop and instructor Richard Sherman.

My sensor must have been dirty that day. I removed at least ten of them using content-aware fill in Photoshop. I also removed a number of hot pixels. I then applied the Reflector Efex filter using Color Efex Pro 4. I didn't do any tweaking beyond this and I like the result.

Sometimes it is worth it to go back to an image taken in the past, images that I didn't get around to processing, images that I may have processed previously but could benefit from new techniques that I have learned. I think photography is one of those art forms where the techniques can be easy to learn in the beginning but it takes time to become skilled at its use. But even then, being skilled is not enough. The photographer must continue to experiment to hopefully develop the wisdom to what to do and when to do it. I am still on that journey and personal wisdom, the sort that comes with age, tells me that I must focus on the destination while also enjoying the journey. Modern psychology agrees, "those who focused on the future were less likely to be depressed".

A balance between the past, present, and future is needed. And a balance between the self and others. Where you’ve been, where you are, and where you are going are all important. And who you’re with.

Doing this is especially important given my recent challenges with Graves' disease and how it has impacted my energy and my ability to get outside with the camera. And perhaps this will allow me to rejoin Frank's weekly photochallenge.