A “micro meeting” at Taughannock Falls

by Paul Schmitt

With apologies to those members unable to just pick up on a weekday and traipse off for some photography, I’m reporting on what Mike Goldstein has labled a CNP “micro meeting”. Four of us who were without work obligations ran up to Taughannock Falls this Wednesday for some cold weather photography. It was such fun that we are hoping to offer such “micro meetings” on weekends in January.

So, the gang of four were Mike Goldstein, David Dunneau, Ray Hunt and myself. We met at 8:30 am at the parking area at the foot of the gorge and immediately headed for the falls while the wind was calm and the light promising.

One of the cool discoveries was a nice reflection on the open water just above the bridge. I got this photo.

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Working with light glove liners, one loses some of the tactile feel of the camera and becomes measured. It is also wise to watch where you exhale so you don’t get the camera or especially the viewfinder fogged.We had resolved to explore the lesser drops in the stream as we returned to the car. Mike shared one of those waterfall images with me.

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There are few things that are very helpful for this sort of photography. As noted, warm gloves/mitts, hat and boots. A tripod is needed to make long exposures. We often found ourselves putting on a polarizer or neutral density filter to slow the shutter to 1/15 second or slower. The creamy texture on the moving water looks so nice. Even though it was cloudy, there was a lot of light that required some reduction in the light coming thru the lens. It is advised to either use mirror lockup or a shutter delay if you camera allows, and of course the lowest ISO available.

No one complained of being cold and that was largely because of good head cover, glove mitts over liners and warm boots. The lack of wind certainly helped too.

Once back to the cars, we drove up to the overlook where the guys lined up along the rail to photograph.

Mike shot this iconic image.

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We realized it was almost noon and all were hungry, so we retreated to the Falls Café in Trumansburg for lunch. We all want to repeat this in January and hope more members will join us.

I will be watching the weather to pick a good day with moderate to low wind and a forecast of partly sunny sky. That makes for good reflections and nice light if you wait for those moments when the clouds block the sun for some brief period. The announcement will likely be only a few days before since we’ll need to be sure of the conditions. Hope to see a number of members join us. There will surely be some experienced members there to guide anyone wanting some coaching.

Hope that you can join us for a “micro meeting”.