(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
(embiggenable) • iPhone
I live in a forest preserve, most commonly called the Adirondack Park. It is larger than the state of Vermont and bigger than Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Glacier and Great Smokies National Parks combined.
Within the Blue Line-the original boundaries of the park were drawn in blue ink-there are approximately 130,000 residents residing in 102 villages and hamlets (15 residents per sq. mile). 50% of the park is privately owned. The rest is state owned and is protected as "Forever Wild" by Article XIV in the NYS Constitution.
When I moved to the Adirondacks-20 years ago-I was quite excited by the possibilities, picture making wise, afforded to me that came with full-time residency. That written, I arrived with the determination to avoid slipping into the cliched practice of making variation-on-the-"standard" and ubiquitous Adirondack landscape picture. That is, Hudson River School Painting like romanticized pictures dominated by dramatic vistas and light.
In fact, avoiding that practice required no real effort on my part inasmuch as that which pricks my eye and sensibilities, aka: my Vision, is very different from such referents.
If one were to look only at pictures of the Adirondacks featured on calenders, posters, note cards, picture books and tourism marketing, one might be lead to believe that the Park topography is comprised of people-less high peaks and large lakes. When, in fact, the high peak region of the Park makes up only about 5-10% of the area of the Park. One might also think that every morning and evening is a saturation-to-the-max color spectacular. And, don't even get me started on the Velvia-esque saturation-to-the-max fall folliage picture extravagancias
As has been said, looks can be deceiving....
....especially the people-less part. With 7-10 million visitors a year, people are not in short supply and the high peaks region is high on those visitor's must-see list. That is why I have never hiked any of the 46 high peaks-3,500>5,300 ft. elevation-during the spring, summer or fall. I have only hiked them in the winter, preferably in 5F or below temperatures.
All of that written, picture making wise, I prefer to make pictures of leaves on an erratic and leave the sensationalism to others.
(embiggenable) • iPhone