Chimney Bluffs State Park in Wolcott New York

My first view of Chimney Bluffs.  Check out the Oswego power plant in the bottom left.

View from the beach looking up.

Today I spent a half day on a trip to Chimney Bluffs State Park in Wolcott, NY.  I had never heard of the park before, and in fact I was taken there as a surprise.  My girlfriend had been there once before, and knew I would be impressed.  She certainly was right.  It is amazing how much natural beauty and variety there is within a couple hours of driving from Syracuse, NY.  This trip took about an hour and was well worth it.  When we first arrived I assumed she had just brought me to some nice hiking trails along the shore of Lake Ontario, but when I looked up the coast and saw the "chimney bluffs" I was shocked.  At first I didn't know if I was looking at something man-made or natural.  As we hiked closer it became apparent that we were seeing incredible geologic features made from erosion.  The view reminded me of photos I've seen of places like Bryce Canyon, and yet they were only made from the eroding hillside of a drumlin.  How these spires continue to stand is beyond me, as it looks like a single storm would take them out.  What was obvious was that the erosion of the bluffs is ongoing.  There were many downed trees lying at the bottom of the hill having apparently fallen from the cliff edge.  The hiking itself wasn't very hard, but the trails take you right alongside the cliff edges.  I don't recommend this for your children or anyone who isn't surefooted.

This view was probably my favorite.

I bumped up the contrast in this one to make it a little more dramatic.

Sweet Chariot Music Festival

Kahlil Sabbagh

A few years back I was visiting a bed and breakfast in St. Albans, Vermont.  In this small town, practically in Canada, I happened to meet Douglas Day.  His family was on a road trip through the US from California on there way to Maine.  I had no idea that when I started showing Doug my sketchbook of photos and drawings during breakfast that he would invite me to photograph at his music festival, which was just a few weeks later.  In August I finished my third year photographing the Sweet Chariot Music Festival on Swans Island, Maine (I missed 2010).  Every year has been an incredible experiance of fantastic music, great people, sea shanties, and a gorgeous setting. I had posted photos from this event before on my old website, but I am happy to announce that I have now finished a new public gallery of some of my favorite photos.  You can check them out at www.dustinangell.me/chariot  If your interested in the festival, here is the official site: www.sweetchariotmusicfestival.com 

To give you an idea of what its like to be a part of the festival, I'm also including on the blog a video I shot of an impromptu jam.

Moira Smiley, 2009

Denny Williams, 2011

Photo one of National Geographic Favorites

Last year I entered some of my photography in a National Geographic competition.  I never heard back from them, but today I just found out that one of my photos ended up being a popular one.  The website www.demortalz.com posted it as one of their top 50 photos from the competition.  Check it out along with a lot of other great photos: 

http://www.demortalz.com/2011/08/29/top-50-pictures-from-national-geographic-latest-photo-contest/ 

Photos used in Bella Gaia perfromance sponsored by NASA

Cranberry Lake, NY

Last week was busy and exciting.  Over the last year I have been working as part of a NASA grant to help organize an event at the the MOST (http://www.most.org/) that involves music, NASA Earth visualizations, scientints and consultants from accross the country, educational activities, and the Onondaga Nation School and community.  Usually I'm writing and performing my own educational performances, so this was a BIG challenge and commitment.  Not only did everything work out pretty well, but Kenji Williams ended up using some of my photography in his Bella Gaia (http://www.bellagaia.com/) performance.  What he does is work with NASA to put together a 30 min. video that starts out above the galaxy and flies in to Earth.  While it runs, he plays live electric violin over a digital track.  The view in the video takes the audience flying around the Earth looking at all kinds of cool satellite data.  Since the event was designed to be localized for the Onondaga Nation, the video zooms in to Central New York.  And when it does, all the photos that represent the aboriginal land of the Onandoga People are my nature photographs.  This wasn't part of the original plan for the grant, so I was very thankful that Kenji decided to do this.  His whole performance was beautiful and emotionaly moving.  What made everything even better was that an Oneida man, named Heath Hill started the day out by recited the "Thanksgiving Address" in his native language.  This may have been the highlight of the whole day.  I feel very honored to have been a part of this.




 

Green Lakes State Park, NY

Sterling Renaissance Festival 2011

Sterling Renaissance Festival Joust

Singing Pirate

A little known fact about myself is that I have a minor in Medieval and Renaissance studies.  Another one is that I used to work as a squire at the Sterling Renaissance Festival in Sterling, NY (http://www.sterlingfestival.com/).  Today I spent most of the day at the festival after having not been in a number of years.  It was a great experience.  I loved seeing some of the old performers and craftsman I remember from before, and it was cool to see acts and vendors that were new, or at least new to me.  I left with some homemade soap, an awesome hand-made wooden box, and some great memories.  Oh yeah, and some photographs, too.

The Mud Show is always a must see.

Daniel: Duke of Danger!  Handstand, while balancing a mug on his head.

Mud Show Kraken

Mud Show Medusa

To Maine and Back Again

While in Schenectady I photographed
Grace, one of Emily's friends.

I'm on my way back to Syracuse from a week long road trip to Maine.  I will put up more details later, but I want to share a few of the photos I took.  I was in Maine for my third year as an artist-in-residence at the Sweet Chariot Music and Art Festival on Swans Island. 

The rocks on the coastline of Swans Island are unlike anything in Central New York.  These are boulder sized rocks in a puddle made from the low tide.

I love a good camp-fire.  This was taken during my last night on the island.

Overcast, my favorite weather

Emily

Today was overcast and a little rainy.  This type of weather is my favorite for taking outdoor portraits.  Luckily, my girlfriend humors me by modeling when I ask, so we went out to the Goodwill store and bought a couple of dresses (as well as some Conan comic books from the 1970's for only $1 a piece).  The backyard of her summer job field-house is the perfect backdrop for a photo shoot.