Photographing East Hampton’s Trails: Scoy Pond/The Grace Estate

The Grace Estate is a 516 acre preserve in the Northwest Woods section of East Hampton. There are larger preserves on Long Island, but in some respects the Grace Estate might be superior to other tracts of greater acreage.

One of the reasons for that is the uninhabited beach which runs along Northwest Harbor which can be hiked to through the woods. Another reason is that the remaining borders are formed by Northwest Road and Alewive Brook Road, (two of the most scenic and infrequently driven roads on eastern Long Island). Because of that, it’s exceptionally quiet in these woods. Additionally, there is even more preserved land on both sides of the roads in Cedar Point County Park (600 acres) and the Grassy Hollow Area owned by the town (just under 200 acres). To the south is yet another reserve connected to the Grace Estate by the Paumanok Path.

In other words, there’s lots of woods…lots of places to recreate.

The Paumanok Path traverses most of the Grace Estate, and a variety of loops and hiking combinations are possible from the trail (either by staying in the Estate, or by continuing out of it into another preserve).  The Paumanok Path is Long Island’s Appalachian Trail–a path which travels 125 miles from Rocky Point to Montauk Point.  Over that distance, the trail visits an impressive array of habitats making it one of the most unique long distance trails in the United States. The East Hampton Trail Preservation Society is the definitive source for  information about hikes in East Hampton:

http://www.ehtps.org/

There are a few residences that border the Estate (and unfortunately there’s more to come). Those who love the woods on Long Island learn to brace themselves for disappointments. At least there’s nothing on the immediate horizon that will threaten the wonderful degree of biodiversity found here.

The southern end of the Estate is home to several impressive kettle holes dominated by White Pines. Samp Hollow is the most conspicuous one. This region of East Hampton is virtually the only place on Long Island where White Pines may be found in indigenous stands. Quite possibly, the forest that has survived here is a remnant population from the last ice age.  Pitch Pines are also here. At the other end of the preserve is Scoy Pond–a sequestered fresh water hole which was the location of extraordinarily rare beaver activity a couple of years ago. Last week there weren’t any beavers, but the woods around the pond was ringing with the songs of warblers.

The photographs were taken a few days ago on the Paumanok Path at Scoy Pond.

For me, something about “two-dimensional” images such as these recalls the dripped-paint creations of  Jackson Pollock. Admittedly, making this sort of a connection requires a bit of a stretch.  If there is an analogy at work, it might be in the chaotic order of the twigs, and the fact that the visual language of the forest speaks in dominant colors much like his paintings did.

Beyond that, there’s no analogy in photography for the expressiveness of flung paint–and in truth, the two mediums are much further apart than they often look.

Relict White Pines – Paumanok Path/East Hampton

If you walked the entire 130 miles of the Paumanok Path you’d be spending the majority of your time in the company of Pitch Pines – the definitive species of the pine barrens. But in East Hampton, the honors are shared with White Pines, where they represent a forest type so rare that it’s the only such example on Long Island. On the Paumanok Path the transition begins in the vicinity of route 114 south of Sag Harbor. It’s here that White Pines begin appearing in increasing numbers growing side by side with their Pitch Pine cousins. Over the next mile the forest changes quickly. Between Two Holes of Water Road and Bull Path the dominant tree becomes the White Pine. A little further east at Wilson’s Grove, the trail descends into a kettle hole adorned with an unbroken forest of hundreds of White Pines. Nearby, there are other similar hollows filled with their straight-limbed timber. In the spacious shade below them it’s easy to imagine you’ve somehow wandered into the Adirondack wilderness.

Some theorize that the White Pines in East Hampton are a relict woods – a southern remnant of vast forests that grew in the wake of the last ice age. Colonial records indicate that the trees were already present when the South Fork was colonized by Europeans in the 17th century. Other pockets of White Pine found elsewhere in the county are the result of plantations, or are escapees from nearby development. The nearest place where the trees naturally occur is across the Sound in Connecticut where they become common as one travels north of New London. At one time East Hampton’s forest in the Northwest Woods region of  the township was proposed as a 10,000 acre County Park. The park was never created, but the forest survives in various parcels thanks to the efforts of Town, County and State governments and also the Peconic Land Trust.

Winter is a good time to experience this forest. The woods will likely reward you with a sense of remoteness more exhilarating than you might’ve thought possible. For that matter, visiting any of Long Island’s diverse habitats after a snowfall – whether in boots, skis or snowshoes – you’re likely to encounter much of what Bill McKibben has aptly described as missing information. The splendid wildness of winter here on our fish-shaped home has been embarrasingly underrated.  Both our island and the waters which surround it are replete with much of that information.

Above – two recent images of East Hampton’s  White Pines   shot in   snowy   light.

 

Sag Harbor Photographs – Round Pond

Round Pond is a part of the Long Pond Greenbelt – a woodland and wetland corridor of over 1100 acres that extends from Mashashimuet Park nine miles south to Sagaponack. Much of the area has been preserved over the last 40 years and there’s now an excellent network of trails including one of Long Island’s best rail to trail conversions. Because of the presence of so many wetland plants, this is also a good place for photographs particularly in October. For these pictures, I  focused on Round Pond with it’s shoreline ringed with Red Maples and Black Tupelos – trees claiming the most intense fall colors in these parts.

One morning last week I joined a friend of mine there for some photography. Our timing was good. It was cool and windless with a slight fog evaporating off the pond. This hazy, almost spring-like effect was most apparent on Round Pond 1 (top of page) and on #4 (at the bottom). We got to work snapping pictures and conditions remained good for an hour. On the reddish piece just above(#2), I played with the idea of leaving a “ragged” tree-line in the reflection, a look which suggests a picture with gently ripped edges. For me, both this picture and #3 (to the right) evoke 19th century landscape photographs –  a period when Round Pond was home to an ice house on a rail spur which ran through the woods south to Bridgehampton. The former rail bed is still in the woods and may be hiked in its entirety. In the last image below,  I created a fraternal twin sister of sorts to the photograph at the top of the post – this time done as a horizontal. As was the case with the other photographs, my aim with this one was to keep things simple – by pretty much avoiding the sky altogether and by presenting the values and textures of both the water and the woods as seamlessly as possible.

Round Pond and the rest of the Greenbelt can be seen up close and personal once you get out on your feet. For more information about the trails, preservation and natural or human history of the Long Pond Greenbelt be sure to visit these links:        http://longpondgreenbelt.org/http://www.southamptontrails.org/index.html

East Hampton Photographs-Northwest Woods/Pond Variations

 

I’ve been photographing ponds and wetlands both here and in Massachusetts recently – new work with a common thread.  In a few days I’ll be posting images from a trip up to the Quabbin woods (in central MA) – along with new pieces from the Long Pond Greenbelt in Sag Harbor. The three images above are from home in East Hampton, specifically from the part of town known as Northwest – an area with a number of wetlands and kettle holes accessible by foot. In this group I kept the placement of the horizon the same for each image. This pond, on an overcast day in the Fall can take on the look of a tapestry – stitched, as it were, with Pitch Pine, Water Lily, Blueberry and Red Maple.

East Hampton Village Nature Trail – Cinnamon Fern and Bittersweet

A photograph of Cinnamon Fern, Asiatic Bittersweet and Sweet Pepperbush – captured a few days ago on the East Hampton Village Nature Trail which meanders through the wetland corridor just south of the Village. This hike can be accessed from either Huntting Lane or David’s Lane. Another of my posts with a group of three landscapes from this trail may be seen at this link:

http://johntodaro.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/three-photographs-east-hampton-village-nature-preserve/

For more information about local trails, The East Hampton Trails Preservation Society website is a good source: http://www.easthamptontrails.org/

Three Photographs: East Hampton Village Nature Preserve

Three views of the East Hampton Village Nature Trail, on the sections both north and south of Huntting Lane:

 

Paumanok Path Photographs

Below you’ll find a group of images which I captured last autumn at three different locations on Long Island’s Paumanok Path – a hiking trail largely brought about through the efforts of groups like the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference and the Southampton and East Hampton Trail Preservation Societies.  It is enjoyed  by a core of devoted hikers, mountain bikers, and naturalists here on Long Island, but for better or worse, the path is little known elsewhere.

Lying beyond the bulk of the island’s celebrated suburbs and traffic jams, the trail winds its way through an array of preserves for an astonishing 125 miles. Over several days it’s possible to walk from Rocky Point east to Riverhead, eventually entering the quiet forests of the South Fork and proceeding for another thirty miles to the Montauk Lighthouse. Your hike will conclude with a view of the ocean surf as it pounds the offshore boulders. During your hike you would have bypassed the villages of eastern Long Island in relative solitude, occasionally crossing a road. Your tired feet would’ve enjoyed the distinct tread of a long walk in sandy woods across pine needles. This is not wilderness and you would have had to tolerate the sporadic sound of distant cars, but you would’ve listened to more birdsongs than complaints on your walk, and you might’ve encountered more turtles and turkeys than other human beings. If you completed this hike, you’d understand one reason why  the woods occupying the fish-tailed half of Long Island are a well-kept secret.

Before reaching Riverhead, The Paumanok Path traverses a group of protected land parcels totaling more than 100,000 acres.  This is the pine barrens near Manorville where Pitch Pines grow in seemingly endless numbers. It  crosses through countless kettle holes and goes up and down glacial moraines. In Hampton Bays you can walk to tea-colored ponds ringed by rare Atlantic White Cedars. Further out in East Hampton there are hundreds of acres of White Pines said to be a remnant population from the last ice age, and in Amagansett you’ll find beech forests that might remind you of places you once visited in New England. In the Point Woods near Montauk you can stand beneath a canopy of salt-blown trees hundreds of years old, and from bluffs in Hither Woods you can gaze from the trail north across a glassy bay to Gardiners Island and beyond.

In November, wild cranberries may be picked in places along the trail and those who won’t be stopped by the presence of ticks can snack on blueberries in  July almost anywhere. Indeed, the biodiversity of both plants and animals which thrive along the Paumanok Path rivals that of many wild places in our country much larger and far more famous. If you live here you may not have known you had such a good place to walk, and if you’ve been told that Long Island’s best hikes are in shopping malls then you’ve been misled.

Now to the pictures. The photograph of the maple leaves and pine needles was taken near Chatfield’s Hole in the Northwest Woods area of East Hampton. The image of the lily pads was taken while standing in the murky waist-deep water of Scoy Pond near Cedar Point. The detail of the Scrub Oak leaves was shot near Manorville where the trees grow in profuse tangles. All these places can be accessed from the Paumanok Path. There seems to be no end to possible studies of details like these along the path- especially in the fall.

In A Mist

The triptych of images below explores three variations on scenes shot in fog, falling snow or low contrast. In each instance, I’ve used short focal length telephoto lenses. This combination of lens and light can result, at times, in a beguiling compression of space.

Much like Beiderbecke’s piano mist, if you’ve succeeded at this, you’ve arrived at something that’s both simple and lyrical.

In the first piece, the lens of choice has been the very petite 90mm f2.8 Sonnar, a Zeiss optic which was made for the Contax G2 rangefinder. Much like it’s sister Leica, the G2 had superb balance and unsurpassed resolution. This 90mm lens is my favorite telephoto, and when it’s installed on its camera with its metal lens hood, it’s easy to imagine you’re handling a well-constructed musical instrument.

The second and third pieces were recorded with a Canon G10- a much-discussed digital camera that comes with its own virtues. Resembling a tiny Leica, the G10 allows you to capture, review and edit images with ease. Unexpectedly, I’ve found that it’s empowered me to move from one thought to another much in the same fashion as an improvising jazz musician.

Pears In Bloom

Grace Estate

             Stony Hill

Pears In Bloom, Grace Estate and Stony Hill are available as limited edition signed prints. The first print in the edition for Grace Estate is available for sale. The first prints for Pears in Bloom and Stony Hill are no longer available.

If you are interested in ordering or would like to set up an appointment to visit my studio in East Hampton, New York, email me at:

johntodaro1@verizon.net

To visit my website, go to:

http://johntodaro.com/

In a Mist may be heard here:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q_3m4bbsLdc