ku # 780 ~ missing the forest for the trees (scenic mountains, woods, and waters)

Going for a swim ~ Bog River / Low's Lake region - in the Adirondack PARK • click to embiggenThere is an Adirondack organization (that shall remain unnamed because I am not trying to denigrate it, per se) that conducts a number of photo workshops / seminars every year. For the most part (not exclusively but, in fact, primarily), it is very firmly ensconced in / dedicated to the Ain't-Nature-Grand School of "pure" landscape / nature picture making.

CAVEAT• As most here at The Landscapist know, the Ain't-Nature-Grand School of picture making is not one that I embrace or endorse. And, as I have oft stated regarding that school (and any other), "to each his own". However, that doesn't mean that I don't have an opinion on the subject, so ....

MY OPINION on the subject • As part of an aforementioned-organization's advert for one of its workshops, they state (in part):

...Participants will immerse themselves in photographing a wide variety of Adirondack landscapes chosen for their diverse possibilities - scenic mountains, woods, and waters that make the Adirondacks so distinctive...

Now, that sounds innocuous enough but, in fact, it is so far off the mark regarding what "make(s) the Adirondacks so distinctive" that it would be laughable if it weren't so totally wrong - when it comes to the geography, topography, flora and fauna bio-diversity (aka, scenic mountains, woods, and waters), the Adirondacks is NOT so distinctive relative to what is also found in a number of other neighboring regions in Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, southern-most Quebec, as well as farther away places such as the upper Michigan Peninsula and the Lake Superior / Minnesota Boundary Waters region.

That is not say that there are no distinctive differences between the Adirondacks and the aforementioned places places. But, in fact, those differences are much more minor than major and it would not be misleading to state that most, not all, pictures from one region are much like those pictures made in any other region.

That said, to argue the point about distinctive differences, scenic mountains, woods, and waters wise, from one aforementioned region to another really does miss the point about what genuinely and uniquely makes the Adirondacks ever so different from any of those other regions - the state lands within Adirondack PARK are protected as "forever wild" by an Amendment to the NYS Constitution. In addition to that protection, all of the lands within the Adirondack PARK are governed, land use wise, by the rules and regulations of Adirondack PARK Agency.

Consequently, in a PARK (the biggest state park in the lower 48 states) that encompasses 102 towns and villages with a year-round population of 130,000 residents, all spread out in a PARK of over 6,000,000 acres (Yellowstone, Yosemite, Grand Canyon and Glacier National Park would all fit into it with room to spare), the real distinctive characteristic of the Adirondack PARK is the unique-on-the-planet patch-quilt of the natural world and humankind that is organized around the idea of sustainability*.

Therefore, to my eye and sensibilities, pictures that attempt to illustrate "the Adirondacks (as) so distinctive" by picturing only "pure" landscapes - scenic mountains, woods, and waters without evidence of and/or the presence of humankind - are completely missing the mark regarding the real distinctive and unique nature of the Adirondack PARK.

*sustainability is the capacity to endure. In ecology the word describes how biological systems remain diverse and productive over time. For humans it is the potential for long-term maintenance of well being, which in turn depends on the well being of the natural world and the responsible use of natural resources.