Watkins Glen

Amy and I decided to take a drive to Watkins Glen on Sunday morning to walk the gorge and take some pictures with my new Nikon D750.  The weather promised to be gorgeous and it did not disappoint.  We left early in the morning in order to get to the park before too many people arrived.  This is important if you plan to visit Watkins Glen State Park with the intent of taking some pictures beyond the basic snapshot.  If you arrive much past 10:00 AM you will not be able to get a picture absent of people like those posted in this week's blog.  As mentioned in last week's blog, my lens choices for the new full frame camera at the wide range is limited to some older prime lenses that I've had for some time.  All shots this week were taken with my Nikkor AF 24 MM D lens.  This week's featured shot is of one of my favorite locations in the park.

Every time I look at pictures like the one above (I've shot this scene a few times before) I am reminded of scenes from the Lord of the Rings movies for some reason.  This image is an HDR composition of 5 frames taken at ISO 100 and f9.  Exposure times ranged from 1.3 seconds to 20 seconds (it is actually relatively dark in the gorge, even in bright morning sunshine).

It was a bit early in the season for much foliage in the finger lakes regions and as such there wasn't much drama or color to the pictures.  In the gorge, the foliage doesn't really play much of a role in the shots but when the paths and the many stairs (Amy read there are almost 1000 steps on the trail) are covered with fallen leaves it makes for more interesting photos.  Once we reached the northern end of the gorge we needed to ascend the majority of those ~1000 steps in order to reach the upper visitors center and rest rooms.

We decided to walk the Indian trail back for more variety and arrived at our vehicle by 10:45 AM.  My warning and concern about the crowds and getting there early proved to be true as there were several vehicles idling in the parking lot looking for departing visitors that would free up a spot for them.

We drove back along the western shore of Seneca Lake and stopped at the Glenora Wine Cellars and the Veraisons Restaurant for lunch.  We were relatively early for lunch and as such had the place to ourselves.  We sat had outdoor seating that overlooked their vineyard and Seneca Lake in the distance.  It was a wonderful ending to a wonderful morning in the finger lakes region.