Glorious Sunlight - October 2012

Sometimes sunlight - or sun and shadow - is what makes an image special. There are three that are like that for me in this post. 

The first is from near Ithaca, New York. It is at the very top of Taughannock Falls from the overlook across the gorge. The light at the edge becomes deep shade so quickly in the grotto behind the cliff edge with the plants growing wherever little bits of soil can accumulate in the rocky ledges.

The second is oak leaves. Have you ever noticed that oak leaves need direct sun to look deep red or yellow in the fall? If they are in shade they simply look green and brown. 

And finally - the third are pine needles. They almost glow in the fall sunlight.

Fall near Ithaca, New York

Ithaca, New York is well known for its gorges. We visited two state parks as part of our fall foliage trip. The first was Robert H. Treman State Park where we did the Gorge Trail. There are similarities to Watkins Glen (well-maintained trail, beautiful stone bridges and retaining walls) and contrasts (wider gorge with more sunlight, fewer pot hole pools, no ‘behind the falls’).

There was lots of fall foliage just about everywhere we looked both at Treman State Park and Taughannock Falls State Park.

We viewed Taughannock Falls from the rim this time. There was a thin ribbon of water shown in the middle picture below. The picture in the upper left is from the base of the falls in the winter of 2009 and the one on the right is from the winter of 2010. It won't be long before winter comes to the park again. The walk to the base of the falls is open in the winter because it is relatively flat (i.e. no stairs or inclines that become hazardous in ice and snow).

Finally - we took a drive through Ithaca and I took a few ‘street art’ photos as we stopped in traffic.