(embiggenabe) • early CANON Powershot camera
(embiggenabe) • early CANON Powershot camera
(embiggenabe) • early CANON Powershot camera
(embiggenabe) • early CANON Powershot camera
(embiggenabe) • early CANON Powershot camera
ONCE UPON A TIME, 20 YEARS AGO, AFTER MOVING TO THE ADIRONDACKS, I began to make pictures of the place. For a number of years, most of those pictures where of the natural world, aka: ku. And, until I felt it to be time-when digital cameras reached a point of at least somewhat maturity-to step up to a "serious" digital camera (circa 2008), I was using one CANON Powershot G series camera or another (I kept upgrading from one generation to the next). They were all quite capable cameras.
The pictures in this entry are from very early in my post-2000 Adirondack picture making and they are very representative of my-to this day-intimate landscape approach to picturing the Adirondacks. That approach is, to my eye and sensibilities, ideally suited to the place itself.
That is, the Adirondack "Park" is actually not designated as NYS park. It is, and always has been, the Adirondack Forest Preserve. And, as you might assume, most of the Adirondacks is a dense, northeastern US forest. Which is to write that, unless one hikes to above tree-line on a mountain top in the HIGH PEAKS region or visits one of the larger lakes, there are precious few grand, sweeping landscapes.
Based upon my 65 years of experience walking / hiking in the Adirondacks, I can write that, of the 2,300 miles of wilderness hiking trails, 95% of those miles are in the forest. Consequently, what one sees / encounters on a typical Adirondack hike are trees, undergrowth and bracken and more trees. Which is why I make a lot of pictures of trees, undergrowth and bracken.
That written, and to be accurate, on a typical Adirondack hike one will definitely encounter one or more of the 2,800 lakes and ponds and or stretches on some of the 1,500 rivers fed by 30,000 miles (estimated) of brooks and streams. And, waterfalls, bogs and marshes abound. So, yes, I have pictures of that stuff too.
However, my Adirondacks is defined by the seemingly endless intimate landscape tableaux to be found in the forest. And, if I may be so bold as to suggest, my inimate landscape pictures are kissing cousins to my other work, especially my kitchen sink and kitchen life pictures.