Tamron USA State Park Series: Letchworth State ParkKen Hubbard photographs the "Grand Canyon of the East." |
Article by Jenn Gidman Images by Ken Hubbard |
Millions of years of geological turbulence has paid off for Letchworth State Park. Known as the "Grand Canyon of the East," this scenic expanse along New York's Genesee River receives thousands of visitors each year who come to view its stately rock formations, cliffs that ascend as high as 600 feet, and three major waterfalls. |
Photographer Ken Hubbard visited the park during peak fall foliage time in the Adirondacks. "It's an easy-to-navigate park with plenty of great pullouts for picture-taking opportunities," he says. "It's in a slightly remote area of New York State, but it's really accessible - you can pull in and be on the edge of the canyon in seconds. The waterfalls are also near the parking lot, so you don't have to hike for hours to get there, though they do have more strenuous trails for the adventurous." |
For a trip to Letchworth, Ken recommends bringing a wide range of Tamron lenses and supplemental gear. "A tripod is a definite, as are shutter release cables and a reflector/diffuser kit," he says. "It's such a diverse park where you can photograph anything, so you'll want a wide angle like the Tamron SP 10-24mm lens; a couple of midrange lenses like the SP 17-50mm VC and SP 24-70mm; a telephoto like the SP 70-300mm or 70-200mm; and maybe even a macro lens like the SP 90mm VC." |
Seeking out the right light and using the correct Tamron lens can help guide your composition and create depth. "It was overcast while I was at Letchworth, which means I had to wait for the clouds to break at some point," Ken explains. "The whole canyon was overcast and flat. I wanted some highlight in my images, since the viewer's eye usually migrates to the brightest point of the photo. I finally saw a shot of the canyon where one of the back ridges was lighting up - I positioned myself where I had that front ridge a little darker. It forces the viewer's eye to go from the foreground rocks and trees to the background." |
Ken opted for the Tamron 70-300mm lens in this case. "Because it wasn't the greatest day, I didn't want any sky in the shot," he says. "By shooting at 300mm, I was able to crop it tight and get the telephoto's compression effect so that the background and foreground look much closer to each other, like they're on the same plane (they're really about half a mile apart). If I had used a wide angle, which I used for many of my other shots in the park, I would've had a hard time excluding the sky, and the viewer's eye would have been all over the place. It also creates depth that way." |
Positioning yourself in a pullout and finding the right angle is key to capturing the Letchworth landscape, especially its fantastic waterfalls. "When you're shooting waterfalls, it's often preferable to shoot them straight on, depending on the other elements in the image," says Ken. "For example, by shooting the waterfalls with the railroad bridge behind them, I was able to lend a human element to the shot and add some scale - it makes the waterfalls look small, like an optical illusion." |
Other times, you'll want to try various angles to incorporate natural lines and elements. "In one of my shots at the Middle Falls, I looked at it a little differently," Ken explains. "Instead of shooting the face of the falls, I used the main edge and the little step down into the falls as my line to lead right into the colorful trees in the background. I also wanted to show the mist and fog that was there in the upper left corner without the viewer being visually distracted by the waterfalls." |
Foggy mornings at Letchworth and the accompanying mist from the waterfalls can lend a unique ambience to your park images. "Every time I see fog, I want to get out and shoot it because of the mood it creates," Ken says. "Exposing for fog can be tricky, though: The lighter that fog gets, the tougher it is to capture, because it tends to blow out, so you'll just get a white blotch in your image. You want to meter it and make sure you keep the details in that fog, even if some areas get a little bit darker. That's still OK, as long as you keep some tone in the fog." |
While photographers are often irresistibly drawn to Letchworth's sweeping scenery and massive geological wonders, spending a day in the park can also offer the opportunity to capture natural beauty on a smaller scale. "Because everything's so grand in Letchworth, you tend to get a lot of people just taking pictures of the falls, because they're so magnificent," Ken says. "But if you see something that catches your interest, no matter how small it seems compared to everything else, take a picture." |
Ken found this opportunity in a leaf that had drifted down onto one of the guardrails circling the waterfalls. "Even though it had rained that day, everything had pretty much dried up by the time we got there," he says. "However, the mist from the falls created a dew-like effect on the leaves. What I liked about this image was the contrast of the leaf's texture with the veins and water drops against the texture of the rail with the lichen. It's a nice combination." |
Converting images to black-and-white or sepia can help bring out that contrast. "The colors of the fall foliage are gorgeous at a park like this, but sometimes you can get blinded by the sheer amount of color," Ken says. "When you have a black-and-white image, people want to investigate it more - they see the different layers and tones and details that they might not notice if it were in color. That leaf was a pretty, pale yellow, but its gray tone against the darker gray tone of the rock when I converted it really drew out the contrasting textures." |
You can also play around with the tones to draw attention to a particular element in your image or lend a certain feel. "For the shot of the railroad bridge, I thought adding a little sepia tone made it a much more interesting image," Ken says. "To me, those old-time railroad tracks going behind the waterfalls called for a classic, retro look, which I was able to do with the sepia. You get to see the man-made juxtaposed with Mother Nature." |
To see more of Ken Hubbard's images, go to http://www.kenhubbardphotography.com. Check out the Tamron USA website for more information on Tamron's State Park Series, including the Letchworth State Park workshop scheduled for October 5, 2013. |