We took the kids up to Lake George to give them a little fun before school starts. This is another place that I had been to as a kid over 30 years ago. Some things I remembered seeing back then are still there like the House of Frankenstein Wax Museum. Storytown USA is now a Six Flags park, but parts of the original park are still there… I took a picture of my kids in front of the Little Old Ladies Shoe where I had been posed by my parents. My only regret is that the foliage was still green… the views in the fall must be spectacular. The shot above was taken fairly early in the morning while everyone else was still sleeping. I took it with the D800 and 85mm 1.8G. I wish I had brought a tripod and an ND Filter… but I like the way this came out after some Lightroom Graduated filters and some B&W tweaking. I might have to go back by myself in October… with a tripod and ND filter!
This photo has been sitting in my collection since 2003. I could never quite get the photo to look as I remembered the scene that morning. I was browsing through my collection with Lightroom today, and I decided to give it another shot. I was much happier with the results this time around. A key to making it work was using the Lightroom “clarity” slider… in the negative direction. Turning down the clarity brought out some of the calm and quiet that was missing from my previous attempts.
Somewhere on the road between Volterra and Cecina, my friends and I came across this sunflower farm. Our timing was perfect with the flowers being in full bloom. Our goal was to reach the beach at Cecina, but honestly, the Italian countryside was much more impressive than the coastal town. They say that getting there is half the fun, in this case it was more like 95% of the fun.
