Jim Salge Photography Blog

Images of New England captured in dramatic light and atmosphere

Trip Cut Short…

I’ve been looking forward to this vacation week for some time now, and have been planning out lots of shots for my gallery. Among the ideas were a bunch of shots of Mount Washington, including sunrise from Wildcat’s summit, and sunsets from Pierce and Martha. As a photographer though, the one thing you cannot count on though is the weather, and this week proved that. Mount Washington has been in the clouds every day except the one day I was on it, and looks to be socked in through the end of the week. Add to that the rain in the forecast, and well, I’m home early!

Even though I didn’t get to accomplish many of my pre-planned goals, I did have a productive few days of shooting, and look forward to sharing some images, some stories and some knowledge in the coming days. And a good place to start with that is the beginning…

Sunday morning I drove up from my house at 4AM to catch sunrise at Chocorua Lake. The view over the lake to stunning Mount Chocoura is one of the most photographed views in the state, and I’ve tried to get a decent sunrise from this location over a dozen times, with little luck. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t confident this morning either.

I met my buddy Ed O’Malley (I’ll share some of his shots next post) there a bit before sunrise, just as some GOOD light was hitting the clouds looming over the peak! Luck had finally changed!

Over the next half hour the pinks and oranges of first light moved from the high clouds to the low clouds to the mountains themselves before being pinched off by clouds near the horizon. I focused my efforts on the line of ice and open water near the bridge, which coincidentally seemed to take the shape of the mountain looming above it. Symmetry at its best…

A note on the technicals…all of these were shot with four stops of ND filtration, and a polarizer to cut the light. Many of my exposures that morning ranged from 10 to 20 seconds…which really helps the color saturation pop!

I have a bunch of shots to examine and edit through, but these are early favorites. Would love to hear how they strike you…

Thanks for reading…more to share soon!

Chocorua Lake #1

Jim Salge Photography - Chocorua Lake #1

 

Chocorua Lake #2

Jim Salge Photography - Chocorua Lake #2

 

Chocorua Lake #3

Jim Salge Photography - Chocorua Lake #3

2 Responses to “Trip Cut Short…”

  1. Chris Adams says:

    All three are beautiful Jim! Probably the third being my favorite because it is balanced. I thought at first that the 1st one would be but the tird one won out.

  2. Jonathan Swartz says:

    I’ll go with number 2… love the fire and ice contrast and the shape of the ice on the lake is an uncanny mirror of the mountain. The light also really brings out the shape of the mountain and the lenticular to the right evokes mystery or suspense in the new day. Beautiful!

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