In past years, in the fall, I’ve gone away in the fall to take pictures of the fall foliage.  This year, because I was working as a contract employee in my main job (and did not have any paid time off), I could not take the time off to spend a day or two shooting upstate as I like to do.  However, that does not mean that I didn’t shoot — I just had to change a few things.  Instead, I ended up shooting in two different places on Sunday mornings and afternoons – Hacklebarney State Park in New Jersey and Wave Hill in the Bronx.

Hacklebarney State Park is a beautiful park in North-Central New Jersey.  There are lots of great hiking trails and great scenic beauty.  There were also lots of waterfalls, which, for me is always a treat as I’m a big sucker for waterfall shots.  However, after reviewing the shots I took, I found that I wasn’t truly impressed with any of them.  They were okay, I suppose, but they lacked that special… spark that I like to find in my shots.  Perhaps I’ll go back and revisit them in a month or so and see if my feelings have changed.  But let me be up front in saying that the park is a beautiful place — the fact that I didn’t come away with any great shots is not the fault of the park.  That lies with me.

In any event, that’s also not to say that every shot I took was bad.  There were a few that I took that I thought were decent.  Here are some of them.

The other place I went to for fall foliage shots was Wave Hill, in the Bronx.   Wave Hill is a public botanic garden with a great view of the Hudson River and the Palisades.   I had heard about the park before and had wanted to go there, but every time I planned it, something interfered with those plans.  Finally, I managed to get there – and I was not disappointed.

Wave Hill is a small park – you can easily cover it in half a day – but packed in that small area is an incredible amount of scenic beauty.  The fact that I was there at the height of the fall foliage season only  made it even better.  I took a lot of shots that day and here are some of my favorites.

Autumn Color at Wave Hill, Bronx NY

The sun over a tree at Wave Hill in Bronx, NY

The Reading Bench

I love this last shot.  I saw this little bench sitting under this big ancient tree, with the fall color and the Hudson and Palisades in the background and could not resist taking this shot.  This is just the type of shot where a person could easily while away the afternoon with a good book and cool drink on that bench.  I think that I’ll eventually blow that one up and hang it on a wall somewhere in my home.

That’s all for the nature portion of the update.  Afterwards, I’ll catch you up with the shots I’ve taken around New York City in the last few months.  There are some really nice ones in that bunch, so please check back.

I never really noticed how late in October the fall foliage season lasts here in New York City, and I was kind of surprised by how much color there was to shoot.  I decided to try to do my best to have the color “explode” off the page in a lot of the shots, and I think I managed to succeed.

I’ve been displaying these shots on Facebook over the last few days and have, so far, received quite a bit of positive feedback on them.  Some of the shots were released on Facebook while others are being shown here for the first time.  Feel free to scroll through the images…

I had such a great time taking these pictures that I think I’m going to take my birthday off of work every year and do this…

As always, comments are welcome, encouraged and appreciated.  Please feel free to let me know what you think of them.  Which are your favorites?

Zev

I simply love how the water flows over the rocks and through the channels in the above shot.

This one was far more peaceful.  Here the water gently flowed downstream, creating this picturesque scene.

Which do you prefer?  The strong, roaring current or the serene, quiet stream?

Zev

The San Remo is home to a number of celebrities.  It is said to have amazing views of Central Park from its uppper stories.  A two-bedroom condo in the San Remo could be had today for a mere $5.9 million. 

I captured this shot of the San Remo at sunset.  The setting sun reflected off the side of the building, creating an almost unreal lighting on the north tower.  I quickly snapped off a few shots, hoping to capture the lighting as best as I could before it disappeared completely.  I’ve learned from experience that lighting in these situations can change *very* quickly and, sure enough, within a few minutes, the light was gone.

As always, feel free to comment.  In addition, please feel free to LIKE my Facebook page The Graceful Image.

Zev

One of my favorite parts of the park is The Lake.  The Lake is located (mostly) on the west side of the park from 72nd to 77th street.  One of the most-photographed places in Central Park is Bethesda Fountain, which is right by The Lake.

There is a path that goes around The Lake, which includes many of the iconic spots of the park, including the Bow Bridge and the Boathouse.   After spending some time around the fountain, we walked the path around The Lake.  This shot was taken from that path.

As always, feel free to comment on the picture.  In addition, please feel free to like my Facebook page and share my pictures.

Truth to tell, however, I almost can’t help it.  As I’ve mentioned before, I love waterfalls and if you love waterfalls and go to a place like Ricketts Glen, that’s like dropping off a kid in a place like Toys R Us, except that all the toys are unwrapped and the kid can play with whatever s/he wants. 

This shot is of the B Reynolds Falls, a 40 foot cascade.  As with all these shots, there are far more beautiful in person than any picture that I can take. 

B Reynolds Falls at Ricketts Glen State Park.

Next up — pictures from Central Park, New York.

Zev

Unfortunately, however, it seems that I lost most of my trip to Macedonia Brook State Park.  This is particularly frustrating because I have an automatic online backup solution, but it seems that it didn’t quite finish backing up those shots.  It also didn’t finish backing up my Ricketts Glen and Central Park photo shoots, but, fortunately, I hadn’t yet deleted those shots off my card, so I was able to recover them (I did lose some of the editing work I had done on those, but I can recover them and, truth to tell, I wasn’t all that happy with the first edits anyway).

At some point in the near future, I’ll write up a post about my computer-crash and data recovery experience and the lessons I’ve learned.  However, for now, I’m here to give you two more pics from Ricketts Glen.

Feel free to enjoy these shots and to share this post.  If you have any questions about these shots, please feel free to ask in the comments.

Zev

I plan to have the rest of my Ricketts Glen shots up this week.  If you love waterfalls and you love beautiful places, I highly recommend spending a day there.  Just remember to bring good hiking boots!

Zev

Zev

As I’ve said before, I’m a sucker for waterfall pictures.  I just love how the water tumbles over the rocks in this shot.  I hope to put up a complete album soon, but, for now, I just wanted to share this one.

As always, comments, critiques and criticisms are welcome, encouraged and appreciated.

Zev