Letchworth State Park

Scottwdw

Scottwdw

Member
William Pryor Letchworth gifted 1,000 acres to New York State in 1907. These acres represent some of the most picturesque in the US. Coined the "Grand Canyon of the East", Letchworth features a deep gorge cut by the Genesee River, three waterfalls and miles of hiking trails. The original Glen Iris Inn, where Mr. Letchworth hosted US presidents and other influential dignitaries, is now a restaurant and popular inn for guests of the park. The park is about 35 miles south of Rochester, NY.

I can not hope to show you the magnificent beauty of the park in just a few photographs. I'll post a full gallery in the future. All these were taken on October 20, 2007, as the leaves finally came out.

Upper Falls
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Middle Falls
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Lower Falls
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Overlooking Middle Falls from an east side trail. Notice no railings.
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The 2007 Fall Explosion of Color
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50th anniversary rededication plaque in front of the Glen Iris Inn overlooking Middle Falls.
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Glen Iris Inn at night. Open seasonally from late March to early November.
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beautifully done, scott. i MUST go there in the future.
 
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I added a couple more images showing the plaque to Mr. Letchworth and the Glen Iris Inn at night. Letchworth is about 2 hours from my home so I will be going back to Letchworth from time to time. Tim, if you ever come up, I'd be happy to be your guide. :) I think you'd find Letchworth worth the trip up from NJ any time of year.
 
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where exactly is it? i am from south jersey near atlantic city.
 
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"Tim" said:
where exactly is it? i am from south jersey near atlantic city.
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Mapquest says it's a 6 1/2 hour trip from Atlantic City. If you use "Letchworth State Park" as a destination, Mapquest knows where it is. Be a good long weekend excursion or part of a vacation. Niagara Falls would be another 1 1/2 hours driving from Letchworth to give you an idea where in NY state it is.

Of course, it might be cheaper to fly to Rochester, NY and rent a car or rely on a fellow TMIPer to provide transportation. ;D
 
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and it's every bit as scenic as these photos show, i can remember stopping at the overlooks in the early 80's if we were empty going or coming from the attica run
now there's another interesting subject, new york states older walled pens, some of them, esp attica, napanoch and danemora are really gothic, castle like in their designs, once you see those 30 foot walls there is no mistaking what they are
the old rail bridge is pretty photogenic, if memory serves me it's an old steel girder, almost erector set looking style
nice work scott
 
Gah.. all I can think of is how flat and boring Illinois is. That's not entirely fair, we do have bits of something other than prairie, but I have to go quite a distance to get to any of that. I think I'd almost have to go to Kentucky to hope to get anything like this, though.
 
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Beautiful shots Scott. I wish the colors of our trees here in NJ would come in like that. They always seem to be so blah.
 
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To Dan and PM...thank you and I bet you can find some great places near you which would amaze me.

"gary" said:
the old rail bridge is pretty photogenic, if memory serves me it's an old steel girder, almost erector set looking style
nice work scott
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Thanks, Gary! Here's the Train Trestle bridge at Letchworth. The sky was overcast at the time (maybe I'll add color to it later). It spans 800 feet at a height of 234 feet over the Upper Falls. They don't go very fast over it. Must be quite a sight from up there of the gorge. You can also see it in my Middle Falls photo in the first posting but you have to know where to look as it gets lost in all the colorful trees.

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"Craig" said:
wow, very very pretty.
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Craig, I took all these with the 18-200VR. I only used my tripod for some of the middle falls and the night shots. Lets me be creative without having to stop and change lenses all the time. Because of the weather, many of these shots were taken at less than 1/60th of a second with very high keeper results.
 
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Scott, that is a great lens isn't it! It does make it so easy to hardly ever change lenses. I still have never carried a tripod into the parks (I do know I am missing opportunities).
I get so aggravated reading reviews that knock the lens because its not f2.8 or faster or because it doesn't perform as well as a multi thousand dollar lens.
To me the lens is an almost perfect combo of weight, size and money.

On our last trip to WDW in October, I only changed the lens once in 4 days.
I was able to get 1 second handheld exposures at the halloween party. Those pictures are here if you want to look. They are the pictures I took of Dina during the party. Those are using the "night mode" of the D80 and the fantastic 18-200VR lens.

These are great photos you are posting, very pretty.
 
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Those are wonderful shots, Craig. Night mode? Does that use a slow or rear sync flash? 1 second, huh? I've gone as slow as 1/5th with good results. Not sure my hands are as steady as yours, VR or not. ;D
 
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Thanks Scott. I meant "night portrait" sorry.
It fires the flash at the beginning, then holds the shutter open.
I am assuming that firing the flash first helps with the sharpness of the subject.

Those photos are also usually one in three that turns out fairly acceptable.

Looking at them full size, they aren't that great. Probably could not enlarge them over a 5 x7.

The only way, I can get these to turn out at all is to tuck my elbows in and smash the camera against my face. Also, I am holding the camera with both hands almost entirely under the body.
 
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Oy...seeing my first post of this thread I promised a gallery link. Well, instead of giving you hundreds of images to look at I got the idea of doing a photo essay for my blog. So, I thought I'd share it with you here.

Letchworth State Park Photo Essay

I also went back to my originals and re-processed them in Aperture 2.1. Oh, interested in seeing my blog, you say? Here's the link... 52 Views of 2008
 
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Those are some gorgeous shots Scott. How are you liking A2?
 
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