Landscape Photography in Central New York is… Gorges

For today's adventure in B&H Photo's Adventure Week, we felt like getting away from the hustle and bustle of New York City to go camping and experience the forests and waterfalls of Central New York. While there, we obviously wanted to capture some beautiful landscapes and waterways, use some long exposures, and create a few time-lapse images.

The Gear

Sony a7R III, Zeiss Loxia Lenses, Manfrotto Befree GT Carbon Tripod, Lee Filters Seven5 Filter Set, Rhino EVO Carbon Slider

How You Can Do It

Take a bus or rent a car from the city to nearly any state park in Central or Upstate New York. Most have very affordable camping arrangements and will surround you with serene and gorgeous landscapes. Cost: $

What better place to camp, hike, and take photos than gorges Ithaca, NY?

See what I did there with "gorges" instead of "gorgeous?" I'll see myself out now… but not before telling you about our next adventure! The area we visited near Ithaca, in Central NY, is quite beautiful, with numerous waterfalls, plenty of wooded areas, a few gorges, and plenty of parks to camp in and hike around. We settled on Robert H. Treman State Park for its camping options, specifically its cabins, and its proximity to a long hiking trail loaded with waterfalls. We didn't quite rough it, but if you were hauling a ton of photo equipment, you would agree with our decision.

I guess it is time to explain exactly what we were doing so far north of the city. Well, that's the easy part. We know plenty of adventurous photographers have a chosen calling for landscapes, and since this is Adventure Week at B&H, there was no way we could leave them out. Adding to our mission of capturing landscapes were slight diversions into long exposures and time-lapse, two complementary skills for the budding landscape photographer.

First things first: the photo gear. My go-to camera these days is the Sony a7R III. It features a high-resolution sensor, excellent low-light performance, and a lightweight design that is well suited to hiking. My main two lenses for this trip are from Zeiss's all-manual E-mount line: the Loxia 21mm f/2.8 and Loxia 50mm f/2. Why these lenses? That's easy. The manual operation lets me slow down and think about my shots before capture. Also, for long exposures and time lapses, as well as delicately composed landscapes, having everything manually set ensures that the camera doesn't accidentally change things if I forget to change a setting. They are Zeiss quality, as well, meaning sharpness and contrast phenomenal, they are built to last but still lightweight, and sport the famous T* coatings to prevent flare and ghosting. There was another lens in my bag, but I'll get to that specialty option later. Supporting the camera was the Manfrotto Befree GT Carbon, a travel tripod designed for pros with a 22-lb load capacity and super lightweight build.

Tossing everything into a Peak Design Everyday Backpack, Brett and I set off on the trail to see what we could find. In Treman is Lucifer Falls, a 115-foot waterfall, located about two miles away from the start of the gorge trail. Figuring it was a nice day and we could shoot on the way there and back, we began the journey. Following the creek, we were able to capture plenty of shots of the smaller falls we passed. There are about a dozen in the park, meaning plenty of variety to be had. There is also a lot of vegetation and details that are nice to capture, which brings me to my specialty lens: the Sony FE 100mm f/2.8 STF GM OSS. An apodization element promises the smoothest bokeh, while 1:2 maximum magnification means I can get great close-up shots.

As we approached Lucifer Falls, you could hear the din of cascading water get louder and louder, making our feet move quicker and quicker. Waterfalls this tall are an impressive sight to see, especially when you consider that this isn't all that far from home and that there are more just a few miles away from here. We walked up and down the stairs, admiring it from all angles before finally deciding it was time to set up and start shooting.

Now it's time to get into the tips and tricks of landscape photography and, even so, we are going to stick to some bare-bones stuff. Our target here was obviously the waterfall and other running water, and the best way to capture water is to drag the shutter a bit and get some beautiful blurring effects. Easier said than done in the bright mid-day sun. Fortunately I threw a Lee Filters Seven5 Filter Set into my bag. You may be familiar with filters, but for the best control and versatility for landscape work, you will want to upgrade to square filters. These systems are designed to be stacked and rotated, and also use adapter rings so one filter set can cover all your lenses. It makes it a lot easier to use graduated filters, which are useful for darkening a sky or background without affecting the foreground and vice versa. I grabbed an ND filter, a quite dark one today, and did a quick comparison between the shots, which you can see below.

Even beginner photographers should be able to recognize the difference right away. The shot with the ND filter obviously has a smoother water effect and is a better example of a waterfall shot. You will notice that practically every shot with water in this article has the same look. It is a very simple and effective way to photograph water. One other quick landscape tip is to make sure you have an interesting foreground. One fault that every shooter has fallen for is to find an amazing subject, but then the image falls flat because the entire composition isn't that interesting.

After checking out the falls and the surrounding area, it was time to hike back out and find somewhere else to shoot for the afternoon and night. My thought was to check out First Dam and the Wildflower Preserve. We arrived just before the golden hour and felt this was the place to try some time-lapse shooting. Many cameras these days have built-in intervalometers, but for advanced systems, a dedicated controller or motion-control system is your best bet for professional jobs. I used a Rhino EVO Carbon Slider with the Motion Control Unit that let me program side-to-side moves and trigger the camera at set intervals. Now, I could spend a lot of time talking about time-lapse shooting and how to best pull it off, but I would like to direct you to my Time-Lapse Tips and Tools article to cover all that. Below, you will find a couple of stills pulled from the sequences and, if you want to see the time-lapses in action, make sure to watch the video above.

We captured a few sequences and then took a break to wait for the sun to set. Being in New York City, we don't get to see many stars in the sky, so being out here was a prime opportunity to experience darkness. It was a combination of checking out how the environment changes as the sun starts to set and things cool down, as well as a moment to appreciate the actual night sky without tons of light pollution. I didn't take many star shots, but I did go for one, and one piece of advice is to follow the 500 rule. This explains that to avoid stars trailing in your images, you will want to set your shutter speed based on dividing 500 by your focal length. With the Loxia 50mm this meant I was safe at any speed of ~10 seconds or faster. This should let in enough light and keep everything quite sharp.

Eventually, we did have to head back to camp. Here we were able to kick back with a cold drink and a fire and simply enjoy nature. I'm sure many of you are familiar with camping, and if you are in the city or close enough to the Finger Lakes region of Central NY, I would say it is well worth the trek up.

Do you love camping and landscape photography? What are some of your favorite spots to check out? Make sure to share in the Comments section, below!