Lake Everest on the Ausable River, New York

Looking upriver from the Route 86 bridge, Wilmington, NY.  Here the Ausable River is
dammed to form Lake Everett.

Behind the Scene

I just finished a week of fly fishing with four fishing buddies, along the Ausable River in the Adirondacks of New York.  The Ausable is generally a fast-moving (except above dams as shown above), rocky-bottom river that runs in a northeast direction to the western shore of Lake Champlain. The Ausable is a famous brown trout fishery.

The water this year was quite high which made for difficult wading and challenging fishing. We nevertheless caught plenty of fish, mostly brown trout but also rainbows and brookies. But we did drive around a lot looking for areas that were fishable.  While driving to Wilmington to scout out the flow downriver of the Wilmington Dam I was attracted to the view upriver from the Route 86 bridge next to where we parked.  

The dam has created a very slow moving and peaceful stretch of river called Lake Everest. It looks like it provides some relaxing fishing from a canoe.  And in fact there is a single fisherman in a blue canoe way in the distance. For us this was no more than a pretty picture, because we had come to the Ausable to fish fast water for strong trout.

The camera I had with me was the Panasonic LX5, which does a very nice job as long as I can keep it at ISO80 or ISO100.  The result is a shot that (to me) is worthy of printing and framing.  

The  above shot was taken at ISO80, F4, and 1/500 second.  I did lean my elbows on the stone bridge wall, but at a shutter speed of 1/500 second stabilizing the shot was probably unnecessary.  The clouds obviously helped greatly in making this picture attractive, as they both blocked out the bright sun that was nearly in front of me, and also provided a beautiful cloud reflection on the still water. 

There are a number of photographic elements I like in this shot.  Primary here is the rule of thirds, both vertically and horizontally.  Also, I find there are leading lines taking your eye from the foreground and up into the background.  I frequently use a vertical orientation when photographing landscapes.  In this case it helped present the cloud reflections at the bottom of the image and allowed me to pick up the blue in the sky at the top of the image. And finally, I like the "stacking" from front to back of differently exposed areas that add to the feeling of depth.

Additional Images. Same Day. Same Time.
Same Place.

Checking out the flow below the Wilmington Dam.
Due to historically high water, it would have been dangerous to
wade and fish here.

The Route 86 bridge as seen from the dam.  Wilmington, NY

My wader-clad friends admiring the view upriver

We ended up fishing elsewhere on the river that evening.  I would have loved to have come back to the same spot on the bridge at sunset, but fishing took precedence on this day!