300 Miles and little to show

Sept 11th 2020

Fridays are a day I try not to assert to much effort into my workday. I'm fortunate to have a job that allows me the freedom to either work in the office in Syracuse, or in the field, so on Fridays I normally forgo the hour long drive to the office and work locally in the field, but I didn't get that choice today, I still worked in the field, just not locally.

My morning started with the hour-long drive into Syracuse, to a location near the office only to be diverted to a second location another 30 minutes south in Cortland. I wasn't the least bit upset about this as driving anywhere south of Syracuse is filled with beautiful scenes of rolling hills and tree covered mountains. I prefer the mountains to flat land, I always have.

I had finished my given task in Cortland by mid-morning and headed back toward Syracuse. Distracted by the sight of a farm on a hill I made my way up some back roads to see if I can find a better view worth taking the camera out for. This is where I ran into my same ol' conundrum, pulling over on the side of the road, often in front of someone’s house, standing there with a camera and a tripod. If I saw someone standing out front of my house taking pictures, I'd be pretty suspicious, so although I saw an opening, I passed on the opportunity to capture the little farm on the hill to avoid the leering eyes of rightly suspicious neighbors.

The road back, however, lead me into the village of Homer, Located just outside of Cortland. Homer is a small town, barely noticeable if not for the large local department store downtown. As if time had never passed the department store looks as though it were ripped right out of the 50's and nothing ever changed, those kinds of things catch my eye, but what caught my eye today was a church at the end of a long walk way framed by some large trees across the street from the department store.

I'm certain when someone walks out of a van with a tripod and a camera there's a little curiosity, "is he with the news? is it for a newspaper? is he just some guy that likes to take pictures?" I'd be asking the same questions.

I set up and snapped a few photos trying different settings, positions, focal lengths. This photo comes by way of the in camera HDR settings, I dialed back some of the extreme-ness in post.

What I like: I like the scene; it has a lot of potential. the leaves on the ground show that Autumn is slowly starting to take over but, the green leaves show there’s still a little warm weather left

What I don't Like: There’s a bit I don't like, some of which I can't change. The door to the church is not in line with the side walk, the bench on the right seems like it should be facing toward the sidewalk, I could have sworn I was center of the sidewalk and level but still my left side is disproportionate to my right side. If I were to go back, I would align my camera better, pull focus sharper, and use the light pole and the bench to balance the photo better.

I headed back to Syracuse to finish off my day in the office since I was going to be there anyway, but as fate would have it, there was more to be done in the field. This time in Norwich. I jumped at this opportunity. The village of Norwich is easily in my top 5 if not #1 favorite towns to go to. nestled within some low-lying mountains and miles from any major city it's like a self-contained world. Large enough to garner such big box stores as a Wal-Mart and a Lowes but small enough to still be using most of its downtown retail space for Diners, Jewelers, Grocers, Pizza, Barbers, Hardware, Thrift Stores. Shopping Downtown is an actual viable thing in Norwich, a concept far removed from most smaller towns these days. On top of that the general lay out and landscape of Norwich is like that out of a Hallmark movie. A large village green sits in front of the county courthouse. and another directly across from it in front of a bandstand.

From the Bandstand a view of the flag. This picture doesn't speak to the loveliness of Norwich but, it’s the one that I like. As I stood on the bandstand taking the photo, I could imagine the park in front of me filled with people for a local festivity, a fall festival, a farmers market, an outdoor summer movie. I imagined it because it wasn't there and, I'm not certain it ever will be again. Although these simple things that we didn't even know we were taking for granted have been stripped away from us in this time of pandemic and fear. the flag still waves for freedom.