Derek Doeffinger takes you on a tour of the Finger Lakes region of central New York state.
If I told you there was a place where you could find people with purple tongues, the Dalai Lama’s North American residence, over a hundred wineries and waterfalls, more than a dozen lakes, spectacular views, charming villages, and women of historic proportion, and that it was less than a six-hour drive away from the biggest cities in the Northeastern United States, would you be interested? You can find all this and more in the Finger Lakes region of central New York. Here you’ll come across a thoroughly enjoyable mix of experiences that tantalize the taste buds, enchant the imagination, and captivate the camera. Best of all, you’ll find a diverse menu of photo meals to sample from so that you can test your photographic skills both indoors and out, with a variety of subjects, during almost any time of day.And as Mapquest will likely show, you can reach this destination in only a few hours. Photo opportunities abound in a region of wine and waterfalls.If you live inside the quadrangle formed by Cleveland, Washington D.C., Boston, and Toronto, you’re just one tank of gas and a speedy interstate away. I-90 (New York State Turnpike) runs along its northern boundary, I-86/I-17 along its southern boundary, I-81 along its eastern and I-390 along its western edge. The Legend of the Purple TongueBefore I get to things photographic, I must tell you about the phenomenon of the purple tongue. As you will discover, it derives from a culinary delight so exquisite and so unusual that even an obsessive photographer such as I feels compelled to give it top priority. The culinary delight is the grape pie–a concoction so sweet and sensuous that you dare not depart until you’ve tried it.  Don’t miss this delicious regional fare.Once you reach the Finger Lakes there’s so much to see and do (and photograph) that you can easily adjust your schedule to match your mood. You may want to start your mornings early to take advantage of the incredible and spectacular landscapes, then laze away your afternoons drifting from winery to winery in a dreamy haze of tastings and occasional picture taking. In the evenings you can return to photography, exploring the lakeshore roads for a perfect sunset photo. Cultural and geographic diversityIncredibly diverse both culturally and geographically, the area exposes you to abundant photogenic opportunities. Let’s quickly describe the area and summarize what opportunities await you, starting with the water. Like two giant hand prints (plus one), the Finger Lakes consist of eleven long (up to 42 miles), narrow lakes that run south to north but are distributed east to west across an eighty-mile wide stretch roughly centered below the cities of Rochester and Syracuse.  Exquisitely restored and polished wooden boats show up at antique boat shows throughout the summer.Having endured long, cold winters, residents come out in droves during the summer to play along and in the lakes. Lined with cottages and state parks, the lakes and nearby parks and towns fill with summer activities and festivals. Swimming, sailing, wind surfing, water skiing, picnicking, hang gliding, polo, hiking, waterfall sitting, cycling, triathlons, pie-baking and tractor pulling contests, and much more.  A slow shutter speed (1/2 second) at the Ithaca Farmer’s Market conveys the vitality of the area.Because the lakes are often less than a mile wide and their shores easily accessible, you’ll find a long (300 mm) telephoto lens almost always brings the on-water activities close enough for dramatic stop-action shots. To stop the action of a frame-filling wind surfer or wake-jumping wave runner, use a shutter speed of 1/2000 second or higher with your focus mode set to continuous. The glacier did itWhen the massive glacier that plowed out the lakes retreated thousands of years ago, it uncovered an amazing landscape of valleys and mountains filled with breathtaking panoramas and over 100 waterfalls spilling down the newly created mountains. Eight miles north of Ithaca on Rt. 89, Taughannock Falls plunges over 200 feet from a cliff.  Hello, Dalai: Monks from the Namgyal Monastery in Ithaca visit Stewart Park at the southern end of Cayuga Lake.You can get excellent shots from a grand overlook (fifty yards to the right of the overlook is a short trail for even better high views) or walk almost to its base on a flat, two-thirds mile trail along the streambed. Bring your wide-angle lens and a tripod so you can turn the rushing waters into a cottony blur created by a shutter speed of 1/8 second or longer (see our waterfall article). To get an even slower shutter speed, reduce the light reaching your sensor by attaching a polarizing filter (1 2/3 stop reduction) or better yet a neutral density filter that lets you reduce the shutter speed anywhere from two to twenty stops.That same glacier also created topography (well-drained slopes) ideal for growing grapes. Over 100 wineries cling to the steep lakeside hills, most of them concentrated along the borders of the central lakes: Seneca, Cayuga, and Keuka.  Limos shuttle many wine tasters throughout the day.We know vinoThe wineries and vineyards offer their own unique photo ops. Skeins of grape vines thread down the steep hillsides toward the lake shores. From a distance they form attractive patterns that are most appealing under the slanted light of early and late day. From September to October, you’ll find clusters of grapes dangling from them and if you call ahead to a winery you can find out when the harvest is scheduled. Harvest photography is equally interesting whether it’s mechanical (a machine that shakes the grapes off their vines) or manual.  Look for the many attractive arrangements inside a winery.In addition to daily tastings, nearly all the wineries, individually or in thematic groups, offer an ongoing series of events to attract tourists.Many of the winery buildings feature architectural appeal both outside and in. Before you swirl and sip and succumb to the grape, look over the tasting room; most have large windows with views, creating an attractive atmosphere bright enough for you to handhold your camera. You’ll also find artful arrangements of colorful wine bottles, and best of all, stacks of wooden barrels of wine—often in a basement with cellar doors thrown open to admit a compelling sidelight.  By early autumn, it’s time to get grapes from the vine to the presses.If visitors are few you could probably use your tripod inside a winery but a better option might be to use a stabilized wide-angle lens and high ISO (400 to 800 on a dSLR). That combination will free you to wander and shoot quickly so you can pay attention to your companion and not trip up any strangers with your tripod.  A stack of wine barrels is a common photogenic sight you’ll encounter.Your winery visit is also the time to reward your patient companion for putting up with your picture-taking obsession. So after grabbing a few snaps, put your camera away and join your companion in tasting. And don’t forget to buy her or him a nice bottle of wine that you can open while admiring that evening’s setting sun from a lakeside vantage point.If you tire of the upscale tourist presentation found along the lakes you’re only a ten-minute drive from a more down to earth world.Meanwhile, down on the farm…Less than a mile away from the shore of any of the lakes and quilting the land between them is solid, rural, small-farm America. It’s a startling contrast to leave the limo-laden wineries and in ten minutes stumble into Mennonite country, where horses pulling black buggies replace automobiles and giant Belgians carving furrows in the fields replace tractors. Penn Yan is the heartland of Mennonite settlements. By July and August, expect to come across rolling fields with giant hay rolls dotting the landscape and small county fairs with prize-winning pies and pigs vying for the highest bidders. A mile or two inland from the lakes you’ll find rural working farms.From the air, the lakes might appear as slender dumbbells as villages and small towns form primarily on the northern and southern shores. Nearly all of these towns are picturesque and feature harbors filled with colorful sailboats and active water sports. And most of them offer ferryboat tours, some including dinner or lunch. The more picturesque include Skaneateles perched on the north shore of Skaneateles Lake. It’s definitely upscale as symbolized by the polo matches (open to the public for a small fee) played nearby on Sunday afternoons in August. In the summer a mail boat delivers mail to cottagers; you can ride along for a small fee.  On Sunday afternoons in August, drive a few miles south on route 41A from the village of Skaneateles and you’ll find a match on the polo fields.At the southern end of Keuka Lake is the equally picturesque village of Hammondsport. With its tall church steeple and small town square, Hamondsport seems more like a New England village and earns those clichés of quaint and Rockwellesque. It’s also the birthplace of Glenn Curtiss (and a museum honoring him). Although not the first to fly, he may have had the greatest impact on early aviation—a case convincingly made by the museum. It’s a wonderful…photo opSeneca Falls, once best known as the inspiration for Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life,” has become famous as home to the Women’s Rights National Historic Park and as the location for the first Women’s Rights Convention. Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Susan B. Anthony, and other pioneers of women’s rights did much of their work in the area. Another revolutionary woman spent much of her time down the road in the city of Auburn (at the north end of Owasco Lake) developing an underground railroad to bring slaves to freedom in the north. That would be Harriet Tubman.For a culinary delight, head to Naples, a few miles south of Canandaigua Lake on Route 64. There you’ll find the fountainhead of a regional dessert that has found its way to television stardom-the grape pie. This delicious concoction is not to be missed. Roadside signs call out the many creators of this tasty turn of the grape. Each September, the Naples Grape Festival celebrates all things grape but for me, grape pies steal the show. Judges at the pie contest evaluate entries at the Wayne County Fair.Watkins Glen at the southern tip of Seneca Lake offers a world-renowned international race track, a beautiful harbor, and an almost equally famous gorge with a stone trail and steps (sometimes steep) snaking a mile or so through a series of cliffs and modest waterfalls. Ithaca (southern end of Cayuga Lake), home to Cornell University and Ithaca College, is a bastion of eccentricity and delightful diversity. To understand the possibilities of Ithaca, you need only know that on Aurora Street in downtown Ithaca is the Namgyal Monastery (open to all), the North American residence of the Dali Lama. Hippies and hopefulsThere’s no better place to observe the vibrant new millennium of hippies and hopefuls than the Ithaca Farmer’s Market—busiest on Saturdays and Sundays but also open on Tuesday and Thursday until late fall. Filled with organic produce, exotic foods cooked on the spot, and a flavoring of skilled artists and musicians, it’s a lively place with lots of photo ops. On a calm day, the harbor at Watkins Glen offers beautiful reflections.Two of the western Finger Lakes, Canadice and Hemlock, function as water reservoirs for the city of Rochester, and as such are near wildernesses that allow only small fishing boats and canoes and kayaks. A few bald eagles inhabit the area. Come spring and fall thousands of wildfowl flock to the lakes and the swamps of Montezuma Wildlife Refuge at the north end of Cayuga Lake along Routes 5/20. In March, wavering V’s of Canadian and Snow geese leaving the swamps in search of food in the fields fill the sky with wavering Vs..Running along the northern corridor is the historic Erie Canal. Still open to recreational (and some cargo) boating the canal, finished in 1825, expanded the commercial development of Syracuse, Rochester, and Buffalo. And if you’re a true photo buff, you may want to dash into Rochester to make a pilgrimage to the George Eastman House on East Avenue. This wonderful museum of photography won’t disappoint you.  Cruise night at Fairport Village along the Erie canal brings in an unusual sort of 60s car.With so much to see and photograph, your biggest problem will be creating a photo game plan. You may want to time your visit to a few of the more entertaining festivals. You can start by visiting www.fingerlakes.org. © 2008 Adorama Camera, Inc.
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