Photos by Emil
Moodna Creek Viaduct Gallery

The Moodna Creek Viaduct is located in the Town of Cornwall, New York.

The Moodna Creek Viaduct is one of the most photographed Rail Road Trestles in the Mid Hudson Valley. Located in the Town of Cornwall, New York. There are only a few locations suitable for taking pictures. I chose the intersection of Orrs Mills Rd. and Jackson Ave.. In the winter if there is snow on the ground, there is no place to park so you will have to have someone drop you off and then come back to pick you up. During the spring, summer and fall you can park 1 or 2 cars on the side of the road, or you can park off Otterkill Rd. in a small parking area set up by the Skunnymunk reserve.

Winter scene While driving thru the area one day with my wife we passed the Viaduct and said to each other what a nice picture this would be. Of course I didn't have my camera equipment with me so I noted the time of day so that I may return to catch this scene. We returned the next day and I took some pictures. We were interested in isolating the main structure and capturing the shadows on the snow. When we reviewed the shots later on our computer we were not satisfied with the results. The shadows were not strong enough and they looked washed out. After analyzing this it was decided to wait a couple of weeks until the sun was higher in the sky and try again.

Knowing the location as we do, we knew that the sun was behind the mountain in the morning and there was only a small shadow in the early afternoon. Late in the afternoon the sun was too low and the shadows were too dim. With the sun setting in back of the trestle we decided the best time to take these photos were between 3:30 and 4:00 in the afternoon.

On our next trip we arrived a little later in the afternoon and the sky was clear. It had snowed 24" three days ago so the snow was a perfect white. There are several locations at this intersection to take pictures but they were not accessible do to the deep snow. This left me only 2 spots, one on the side of the road next to the guardrail and across the street at the intersection. I did not have time to work on composition and there was no room to stand a tripod so everything had to be done quickly.

Taking only 2 lens (17 - 35, 70 - 300) and polarized filters I shot off about 10 frames from each location. With the sun directly behind the trestle the polarized filter was not very effective but it did reduce some of the snows reflection. Looking into the sun and having so much white snow in the scene I over exposed the shots ½ and 1 full stop. With the first set of prints I had a clear view of the trestle, with the second view, I used a tree and snow bank to fill in the foreground and give the scene a more 3-dimension look. Although I had 2 lenses I only used the 70 - 300 lens for all of my shots. When we viewed the photos we were very satisfied.

The equipment that I used was, Canon D60 Digital Camera, Canon 70 - 300 Image Stabilizing lens and a polarized filter. Having an I.S. lens made it possible for me to hand hold the camera and lens. I set the ISO speed to 200 so that I could get a faster shutter speed. I was not concerned with depth of field so I used a large aperture.

I down loaded the images unto my computer using a Compact Flash card reader and viewed the images using Photoshop 7.0. Using Photoshop it was easy to adjust the brightness and contrast to let the print have the exact effect that I was looking for. I did not manipulate any of the images. Cropping was not necessary because I used a zoom lens and cropped while taking the picture. I then made 3 versions of the print that we liked best.

Prints: 1- I used the Adjustments and Curves function to create a high contrast scene by making the snow whiter and the shadows blacker. 2- Using Mode and Grayscale function I made the image look as though it was taken using black and white film. 3- Using the Mode and Multichannel function, the color changed to Sepia tone, which makes the image have a antique look to it.