Fillmore Glen State Park - Cayuga County

[spec]

Great shots!! I got there earlier this summer but the lack of water made for crap pictures. I didn't think that the trek from the trail's end to those falls was too bad. There were a few spots where going in the creek was not gonna happen because of downed trees etc, but otherwise it seemed a decent creekwalk. The thing that got me that day was the heat, and being little water in the glen, there wasn't much relief.

Did you go up these last falls at all? If you go up on the right hand side to the first "ledge" in the falls, there's a really really cool little notch in the rocks to the right that offers a nice secluded "cove" where you can sit and chill for a bit. I definitely want to get back here in the spring.

[bremer]

Agreed! Definitely my favorite area of the park and you can always have it to yourself. If you arent up for the 4/5 mile hike the upper parking lot is right above these falls. The dam just upstream also creates a pretty interesting looking fall with water flowing in opposite directions.







By comparison there were 5 tripods (including myself) set up at the lower falls the last time I visited...



but at the same time the guy down below gave me a shooting location I'd never thought before to try later once everyone cleared out...

[champy1013]

nice shots...I'll have to process some HDR of the upper falls as it was so dark, and the falls were flowing pretty good so I def. got some 'blow-outs' on the water. I did the hike from below to the top, but I didn't have time to get above the falls as it was getting dark. I'll try the upper parking lot next time, although the fall foliage is just about done...

Are you using Photomatix for your HDR? and do you process from a single RAW or do you change aperture when you bracket?

[hobkyl]

Wow! Had no idea there was more beyond that trail closed sign...figured it petered out.

Definately will have to head back there next year.

Love your second shot bremer!

[HaloGirl]

Great photos!

[bremer]

Are you using Photomatix for your HDR? and do you process from a single RAW or do you change aperture when you bracket?

Thanks! All of these were done in photomatrix. I've also been trying a trial of Nik HDR Effex Pro. It seems to be superior in most ways. The number of controls is really just incredible - it seems like they've thought of everything, including a halo reduction gradient. There are also 30 presets that you can compare side by side. My big problem with that program is that it crashes more than half of the time I try to process a photo and sometimes I just give up on a particular set of exposures. I have an up to date desktop with plenty of ram - really not sure what the problem is (the system requirements they list are really nothing out of the ordinary).

I usually do multiple exposure - it kind of depends on how motivated I am to setup the tripod for every shot, but my favorite hdr's always come from multiple shots. My only problem is that I have a cheap dslr without very good bracketing control, so I have to spin a dial on the camera between shots - sometimes I end up moving the camera slightly bc my old $10 tripod doesn't exactly lock the way it should anymore.

[jroz]

I got photos of the Upper Falls this summer. Walked up the creek to get there. Probably the most downed trees I have ever seen on a creek walk before.
Would have liked to get photos of it when I was there in October, but the water flow was too great to try it and I'm not someone who would risk traversing a slippery hillside.







Links to 2 videos:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jroz/47142 ... 208588794/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/jroz/47150 ... 208588794/

[jroz]

For good measure, some of the fall photos I shot there last month: