Editing of some photographs, and as I’m deleting dust, I realize they are birds…
I’ve been doing long exposure for too long…
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Category: Nature
I parked in nearly in the same spot as I did some ten days ago, when I was exploring the northern side of the boating launch on that foggy morning.
Today, there is more activity and the temperature is finally starting to reflect that it is late December…
While gathering my gear, I saw several people walking, some dogs running, and once I was ready, I headed toward south-east, along the shoreline.
As I walk in the sand, I know, just to my right, there is a very well-worn path that I have walked countless times before, but today, it is difficult to even recognize the “beach” where I have been many times before.
It was one of my easier walks to the end of the blunted point, that almost points due south, where I was once again greeted with more wood pilings (Woodhenge) sticking out of the lake’s bed.
From there, I started into the cove, and I knew from previous walks along the dirt path, off to might right, that I was entering a heavy vegetation area, but once again, walking the shoreline made it look so different, and I did not expect it to drop off so quickly.
Finally, I reached the end of the cove, or at least as I was far as I was willing to go.
I was not having to have another mud adventure!
Walking back, I took this final capture, knowing I had to get back to the real world, and do some holiday shopping.
Tech Notes
- Canon XTi ISO100 f16-f22 with a ND 3.0 filter
- HDR Capture with 3-4 captures between 15-120 seconds (raw)
- HDR Processing – Lightroom 4.3 > Photoshop CS5 > HDR Efex Pro 2 > Viveza 2
- B&W Processing – Photoshop CS5 > Lightroom 4.3
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I have never been to the Milford Road side of Marsh Creek before, so this is going to be very interesting.
As I entered the circle at the end of Milford Road, I saw a man standing at the trail-head dressed in orange and a gun on his shoulder.
I parked and as I got out the car, I asked the man if he had seen a lot of other people in the area, to which he said no, and then we started to chitchat.
After some time we introduced ourselves to one another, and as I read his card, I noticed that Joe Isaacs, was a drumming instructor, to which I said to him, that I had just posted earlier a video of some taiko drummers!
The two of us chatted for a little bit more than said our goodbyes, and I headed down the path to the rest of Milford Road.
Crossing over a pile of rocks, I started to walk along the new shoreline, which was sandy at first, then turned darker the closer I got to the water.
One could definitely see several levels at which the water had receded.
My tripod and camera were still hanging from my neck as I walked along the beach, and slowly moved into a slightly muddier area looking at a potential shot.
In fine tuning my position, I took a half a step back and was soon sinking in mud!
Within a fraction of a second, I was thigh deep in mud, and stuck.
This was not good.
I twisted myself so that I was facing where I had just come from, and I threw my tripod about 10 feet.
Somehow I had managed to keep my camera clean so far, as I tried to figure out a way to get back to safer ‘ground’.
Leaning forward, and on to my elbows, I started to slither back along my footsteps.
When I felt confident enough, I tried to stand up, which was easy enough to do, thankfully.
As I was standing there, re-assessing my situation, my cell phone began to ring.
I do not know why I answered the phone, but I did.
It was a customer wanting to schedule a meeting to drop off some photography that I had done for her.
I explained to her that I was not in front of my computer, but I could give her a call back at another time which she easily agreed to.
Wonder if my heavy breathing had something to do with her reaction.
Then it began to hit me.
The unique scent of fresh swamp mud…
Was I going to continue the day…
I was definitely having second thoughts, but decided to trudge along for as far as I could.
If there still were any bugs that were thinking of me as a snack, I definitely had the ultimate repellent for the day, and each time I tried to find some place to wash off, I still feared sinking in again.
After several hundred feet, I reached a series of more piling clumps and captured some images, and at one point snapping an image showing the boat rental facility where I had been a couple of days before.
I walked along the various shallow inlets, and as I got further along the western coast line, it became dramatically steeper, and eventually came to a place where a newly fallen tree prevented me from going any further, so I turned around and headed back.
Returning to where I had started, I decided to continue on, heading east an into the small cove.
As I approached this end of the lake, on the other side I could see more pillars sticking out of the mud, along with several big rocks that dotted the mud flats in front of me.
Finally in the corner of the cove, coming out of the woods, was a small stream of clear water, which I happily stepped in to trying to clean my legs and shoes, but there was just not enough.
Looking at my watch, it is time to head back home and greet the kids, as they got off the bus and start the rest of the afternoon activities, including some good cleaning!
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It has been 10 days since I’ve been out shooting any of the new shorelines along Marsh Creek Lake, so in my planning I wanted to explore an area that I kind of already knew.
Being a Google Maps junkie, I pulled up Marsh Creek State Park from my Favorites, and then the “The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE)” application to check the lighting, to help me to decide where to go on this day.
Within minutes, I had decided on taking a look at the point where the main facilities for Marsh Creek are located on Park Road. I had walked some of these trails earlier in the summer with both kids, and remembered seeing some viewpoints that I wanted to revisit.
When one first enters the park and looks out over the lake, one cannot be but astonished by all the missing water and new shorelines.
The parking lot that extends out the point, was blocked off, and I was forced to park in the main lot, which is self, was halfway closed.
No matter, I was expecting to do some walking today anyways, so I packed up my gear and headed into the parking lot towards the eastern trails.
When I got to the end of what appeared to be the Park, I noticed a trail heading down the hill, and I decided to follow it.
After a few feet, it became apparent that during hurricane Sandy, this trail had become a rushing stream.
At the bottom of the hill, I continued along some animal trails, and eventually made it to the shoreline.
I walked along the northern shore heading West, and as I walked, I was greeted with many items of visual interest.
The shoreline itself was a darker mixture of sentiment, and depending how far in you went toward the water, it became easier to sink. the shoreline around the dam consisted more of real sand, then this thick molasses of lake mud.
While walking and looking, I made the observation that there seemed to be more human trash, than what I had seen in my walks around the dam. I saw a lot of plastic bottles of various sizes, along with a couple of shoes, a folding chair, and even a deteriorated orange safety cone base.
As I continued, the clouds began to coalesce into a show of formations that I had never seen before, and I had a hard time capturing the magnificent shapes within the evolving jet stream.
At one point, there was this thin series of streams, that cut through the rest of the formation, and looks like a gigantic series of cloth folds, stretching from one horizon to the other. It was definitely one of those times when I wish I had a smaller wide-angle lens.
The shoreline steepen as I headed West, and I had to scamper up to the existing trail to the tip of the point. Eventually, I emerged to see a very rocky new shoreline, which I explored for trinkets and a shot or two.
I returned to the trail, and headed north searching for a new place to start another shoreline exploration.
The shoreline in this area was much wider than areas I have been in before, and is easily accessible because of the sand rock mixture. I also noticed many more tree stumps, which made for some interesting compositions.
it is very difficult to relay to anyone that has never been to these places, what a major change has occurred with this eight-foot drawdown.
Once familiar places, now looks so surreal and primitive.
As I stood on the deck of the restaurant, I took a series of panoramic shots, that I still need to process, in hopes to further illustrate this tremendous change.
Looking at my watch, I started back up the hill towards the parking lot and my car.
At the maintenance gate for the pool complex, I stopped to capture the final image of the day.
Winter has come…
Questions
- Are there any local efforts to clean up the trash and debris while so much of it is easily accessible?
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Earlier in the morning, after getting the kids off to school, and checking in with the digital world, I looked out the window to see if I should make the trip back to the dam at Marsh Creek Lake.
I was not too convinced that it be a good day, but I did eventually made it up to the dam, where I had only been two days before, but this time with my tripod.
My goal was to start at the spillway gate, and head north along the shoreline as far as I could go, and maybe even get onto the concrete of the main emergency spillway.
Walking across the rugged rocks, I wondered to myself several times, if I should not head straight up the hill to the vehicle road, but decided against it, and was greeted with this view when I looked back at the spillway gate.
Continuing down the shoreline, I was heading towards the pilings that I had seen from the opposite shore two days before, and was one of my real quests for today.
When I got there, surprised to see that what looked like a dock or morning from a distance, seem to be pilings randomly placed poles into the shoreline.
I walked around the point, and onto a dry area which would have normally been covered in several feet of water, and continued looking for a way, to further explore down in the spillway.
It was difficult walking in the dried swamp grass and cat o’nine tails, but I could see animal tracks heading the direction I wanted to go.
Tt was very apparent that the creatures knew how to maneuver the terrain better than I could.
Eventually time was getting the best of me, and I had to head back to my car before my kids got home from school.
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