rain # 1 / ku # 1155-57 ~ water, in one state or another

Evening downpour ~ Au Sable Forks, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenSplash # 1 ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Splash # 2 ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Splash # 3 ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Splash # 4 ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenI've been spending some time thinking about starting a new body of work. A number of possible picturing referents have come to mind but none have really lit my fire.Then, purely by happenstance, as Hugo was tossing rocks into the water during our recent wilderness canoe trek, thoughts of Harold E. "Doc" Edgerton and his milk drop pictures came to mind.

Next thing I know, I've got a camera in hand and Hugo's launching rocks for my picturing pleasure (3...2...1,throw). And, on one occasion, even wife got into the act.

Upon returning home and processing the splash pictures, it occurred to me that a picture series of splashes - like snowflakes, no two splashes are alike - all made in different bodies of water and different light conditions, would make a pretty darn interesting body of work. So, there, unbidden and unplanned, is a new picturing endeavor.

Then, last evening, during a torrential downpour, I stepped out on the porch and made a few pictures. Once again, it came to me that rain and the atmospheric light which comes with it would also make an interesting picture series. So, voila, there's another picturing endeavor to tackle.

Consequently, it would seem that there's a lot of water in my picturing future. Even though some might think I'm all wet, nevertheless, one might say, "when it rains it pours" (new bodies of work wise).

FYI, no multiple frame shooting technique was used in the making of the splash pictures and that's how I'll continue to make those pictures. I think that part of the picturing surprise / mystery of a splash is to capture them one frame / one splash at a time. So, while there will be a lot of water in my picturing future, I'll also be hauling around a lot of rocks.

civilized ku # 2250 / ku # 1152 • civilized ku # 2251 / ku # 1153 • civilized ku 2253 • ku # 1154 ~ roughing it

After the portage ~ Bog River Flow - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Canoes ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Our campsite ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenWhen many people think of wilderness camping, they think of "roughing it". However, except for a few hardcore purists, a multi-day trek into the wilderness isn't so roughing it anymore.

Modern lightweight back-country gear really takes the roughing it out the experience. Yes, you still sleep on the ground, but a lightweight inflatable sleeping pad and a feathery soft sleeping bag make it comfortable, well beyond the "tolerable". A compact lightweight tent keeps its occupant(s) sleeping snug and, during a downpour, dry. And very efficient cooking gear makes food prep a snap.

Canoe camping allows an additional layer of anti-roughing it stuff. For example, bringing a cooler full of fresh food (beats freeze dried, hands down) and a 2-burner stove to cook it on is no problem and a decent boxed wine fits right into the kit. We have also added a really neat set of collapsible wood / canvas sling chairs and a matching small collapsible low wood table - all made of some kind of lightweight Indonesian wood - to our gear set, and let me tell you, my 65 year old back and butt take great comfort (literally) in these pieces of gear.

Needless to state, hauling this stuff around in canoes is considerably easier on the body than is hauling a much lesser amount of gear around on your back. And, once again, modern lightweight kevlar canoes - our smallest (12ft) / lightest canoe weights in at 20lbs, our largest (16ft) / heaviest at 32lbs - makes portaging the boats much easier. Add to that fact, the incredible hull design / guide aspect of these canoes and wilderness canoeing takes on a whole new paddling pleasure.

Of course, there is a price to be paid, literally, for all of this anti-roughing it stuff. In addition to the $8,000USD worth of canoes pictured here, there is at least another couple grand tied up in the other gear. However, that said, factoring in the number of trips made in these canoes and with this gear, the cost per trip is low and getting lower with every use.

For me and mine, it's the only way to go.

ku # 1152 / people ~ pine with camera

Hugo and pine tree ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOur favorite primitive campsite in the Bog River Flow / Low's Lake wilderness area is a shoreline site in a grove of magnificent soaring pine trees. As a result of those trees, the forest floor is a thick soft bed of pine needles. The breeze whispers in through top of the pines, sunlight dapples the ground, and a pair of loons is in residence immediately adjacent to the site.

IMO, it just doesn't get any better than this.

BTW, Hugo, pictured here chimping, made some pictures during the trip.

ku # 1151 ~ I'm back

Reflection ~ Bog River Flow / Low's Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenWell, I'm sorta back inasmuch as I am no longer in the wilderness. Instead, I'm in a hotel room in Lake Placid accompanying the wife at a conference. In any event, I'm back from my wilderness excursion, very relaxed, a little bit older and a little bit wiser (don't address your wife by your ex-wife's name).

That said, during our canoe trip, I made many more pictures than I thought I would. Having been to the wilderness area we traveled many times before, I really thought I had exhausted most of the picturing possibilities to be found in that location. Boy, was I wrong.

Over the next week or so, I'll post many of the pictures made on this wilderness trip. Referent wise, some of those pictures surprise even me. As always, I'll be curious to read your opinions.

civilized ku # 2248-49 / ku # 1150 ~ lush summer green

Mt. Hope Cemetery ~ Rochester, NY • click to embiggen
Tree and grasses ~ Au Sable Forks, NY • click to embiggen
Tree and vines ~ Eastman House - Rochester, NY • click to embiggenThe wife, Hugo, and I are off in pursuit of more lush summer green on 5 day wilderness canoe trip, each of us in his/her own solo canoe.

The weather forecast calls for absolutely perfect canoeing days, high in the mid 70s and perfect sleeping nights in the low 50s / mid 40s. It should be a perfect trip, to include my birthday - 64 on departure, 65 on return.

See you post again when we get back.

civilized ku # 2236-37 / ku # 1148 ~ date night

Reading the menu ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenEncrusted grilled tuna steak, seaweed, wasabi mustard tarter sauce on wonton chips ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenClouds over Mirror Lake ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenFriday night was date night with the wife.

It couldn't have gone better - nice weather, great food (the wanton thing was insanely good), and, to accompany the dining, a reasonably dramatic cloud and light show. I'm fairly certain that, if the wife had been an impressionable young babe, I definitely would have scored big time.

FYI, the Reading the menu pano picture is a 4 frame stitch with a ton of hand work. All pictures were made with my new E-P2 body + (not new) M.Zuiko 17mm f2.8 lens. Modeling is by the wife, who is forever young and not easily impressed by my very alluring savoir faire and bonhomie-ness (she knows me too well).

civilized ku # 2230-31 / ku # 1145-47 ~ a relaxing afternoon and evening

Pool on Mirror Lake ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Clouds / Mirror Lake ~ Lake Placid, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Mailbox & Whiteface Mt. ~ The Flats - Wilmington, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Barn & sky ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Field & sky/cloud ~ Jay, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenYesterday, the temperature reached 95˚F. And, since I never do anything stupid or ill-advised, I decided that a 3PM round of golf was just the thing to do - walking the course, of course.

As luck would have it, that decision was not so bad after all. Yes, it was hot and humid but there was a very strong and steady breeze - about 1-and-a-half clubs worth, gusting to 2 - 2-and-and-a-half clubs - which kept things, body temperature wise, from getting out of hand. That and about 3 quarts of water.

In any event, when I finished my 3h 20m round of golf (and after taking a parking lot based bird bath with the water left in my water containers), I decided that a nice tall/cool drink was in order, so I adjourned to a local (Lake Placid) bar / restaurant for a gin and tonic (it's, get ready Jimmi Nuffin, the Limey in me). The place was air-conditioned so I decided to eat as well as drink.

Long story, short, I was out on the street about an hour-and-half later. The temperature had dropped a bit (into the reasonably comfortable zone), so I took a stroll about the place and, in the process, made some pictures. I was relaxed - enough to inhibit my inhibitions, re: making pictures which could be mistaken for pretty pictures - and the late day light was nice.

A short time later, I got in the car and headed out of town for home. Along the way, I was seduced by the light several more times. Hence this series of pictures which, FYI, are just like the last series of driving and making late day pictures - presented in chronological order.

BTW, did I ever mention that living in a park really doesn't suck?

civilized ku # 2217-20 ~ how sweet it is

Sunset / Lake Ontario ~ Webster / Rochester, NY • click to embiggen
Dock and boats ~ Raquette Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Plastic chairs ~ Blue Mt. Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggen
Utility poles / wire ~ Long Lake, NY - in the Adirondack Park • click to embiggenOur recent trip to Rochester began and ended with a couple pretty nice sunsets.

We encountered the first sunset on the evening of our arrival in Rochester. The sun set while we were having dinner with my brother and his wife-to-be on a restaurant deck on Lake Ontario. I was not the only one making pictures.

Sunsets 2-4 occurred during the evening of our drive home. While we never actually saw the sun set, the light emanating from it was warm and pleasant. As we drove from lake to lake - all the waters were still and calm - on the road through the park, SE > NE, I made the 3 pictures, presented above in chronological order (1-r).

One of the many things I enjoy about living in the Adirondack PARK was typified during the drive through the park - during the 3 hours (approx. 150 miles) it takes to get to our house after entering the SE edge of the park, we encountered as many cars as one could count on all of digits of my hands and feet. I wasn't actually counting but it's very possible I could have lost a hand or foot and still had enough digits to make the count. And, even though we passed through 10-12 villages and towns on the drive, there are only 4 traffic lights along the road.

Along the way, we stopped for dinner at the Seventh Lake House, where we dined on the canopied deck and enjoyed the great food and fresh air. I started with crab cakes and lobster bisque and followed that with the Triple Meatloaf -- veal, beef, and pork baked with herbs and spices wrapped in pastry and served with an onion sherry sauce. The wife shared the crab cakes, had her own lobster bisque, and a beef dish (the name of which I can't remember, sirlon tips over something with some kind of sauce). After a relaxing dinner, we continued on with our drive, during which we experienced the sunset scenario(s) as well as a number of other vistas and views.

And here's the thing, the 3 hour drive seems like a really pleasant 3 hour stroll through a park - a mini vacation of sorts. Not only are the landscape and the villages in the park easy on the eye, but the pace of everything is nothing like that experienced in the real world. It truly is home sweet home.