
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=248&dept_id=462336&newsid=20252336&PAG=461&rfi=9
The Hudson in focus: Resolute photographer captures moods of the river, waiting for just the right moment
RICHARD ROTH
GETTING UP AND HIKING in the highlands at 4 a.m. is not for everybody. Neither is visiting a place again and again until the light is just right for a stunning photograph.
Photographer Greg Miller is willing to do both, and the results can be seen in his new book, The Hudson River: A Great American Treasure(Rizzoli International, 2008, $50).
Miller says the early mornings are worth the effort, because it's his favorite light of the day (sunset comes in second). And while there were times when he "got lucky" during the book project, the majority of his landscape photographs required careful planning.
"Most of the time I'll see a scene I like and pre-visualize the type of weather, time of day and quality of light I think would work best," he says. "My goal is to get the ultimate photo of any specific scene, and you can't just show up. For one shot I had to visit 12 times to get what I wanted."
The Hudson River, an all-color, large-format 224-page book, has been published in association with Scenic Hudson, Inc., which will share in the royalties. The book's introduction is by Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan, and there is a foreword by noted environmentalist Bill McKibben.
There was no shortage of material. "I knew a lot of places, and Scenic Hudson was helpful in building me a list of others," says Miller, who lives in Orange County. "I met with their staff, and we talked through all the places we thought should be represented. They knew a lot of places I was not familiar with."
The entire length of the Hudson Valley is represented, from Manhattan to the Adirondacks. Miller used a 4-by-5 view camera and photographic film for the earlier images and a Nikon digital single lens reflex for the later ones. A computer program was used to produce panoramic views, overlapping succeeding images into a seamless whole. But nothing about the photographs themselves has been altered digitally; that is, the light and color is reproduced exactly as it was recorded by the cameras.
"I don't do filters or digital manipulation," says Miller. "I get there by being there with the right light and weather conditions."
Miller, 48, has a day job as an information technology manager for Sony. But he has always been a photographer, and the advent of digital technology increased his interest in the art form.
"The last five years I got more serious," he says. "It was always hard to get prints made as a color photographer; even by professional labs. With digital printing I was able to make my own color prints, and they actually looked like the slides. It was very motivating to know that, by controlling the whole process, I was able to get a print that looked the way it was supposed to."
The book itself evolved from an earlier plan devised by Reed Spalding, a staff writer for Scenic Hudson, who suggested comparing photos of every section of the Hudson in a book published decades ago with contemporary photographs of the same scenes. The focus changed during a meeting with the publisher.
"Reed and Ned and I visited Rizzoli, and I showed my portfolio," says Miller. "The USA head [for Rizzoli] was in the room, and he decided to do this book rather than the original project."
Producing The Hudson River was a 10-month project for Miller. "Most photographers aspire to have a book of their work," he says, "but for me this was great because it benefits Scenic Hudson and builds awareness of what they do. That was a bonus, from my perspective."
Miller is chair of the New Jersey chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club, which, like Scenic Hudson, is interested in protecting resources and helping spur smart growth and development.
"We felt it was important to remind people of the extraordinary beauty of the Hudson Valley," says Sullivan. "We wanted people to have the physical evidence in their hands and be reminded and inspired that the Hudson Valley is a treasure, that its beauty is the foundation of economic prosperity and quality of life."
The book is also an "underpinning," Sullivan says, of Saving the Land That Matters Most, the land conservation initiative Scenic Hudson has launched in conjunction with the Hudson-Fulton-Champlain Quadricentennial. The Quadricentennial celebrates the 400th anniversaries of Henry Hudson's voyage up the Hudson and Samuel de Champlain's first visit to the namesake lake, as well as the 200th anniversary of Robert Fulton's maiden journey up the river on the first commercially successful steamboat.
"We felt very strongly that it was a crucial time to look ahead and ensure that we're laying the groundwork for the next 100 years," says Sullivan, "and that we're leaving a real legacy that contributes to the environmental health and economic prosperity of the Hudson Valley."
Saving the Land That Matters Most has a goal of protecting a total of 65,000 acres, in partnership with Audubon New York, the Columbia Land Conservancy, The Nature Conservancy, the Open Space Institute and numerous other organizations. More than 1,700 acres have been saved from development since the campaign began, including 320 forested acres visible from Olana State Historic Site, 19 acres of riverfront land abutting Clermont State Historic Site, 900 acres of working farmland in Dutchess and Columbia counties, and 116 acres of ecologically important Hudson River shoreline in Stockport and Greenport.
"We're very pleased that this partnership came together, that Rizzoli agreed to publish the book, and that we were able to publish at the beginning of the Quadricentennial year," says Sullivan. "We have already seen the impact. People are inspired by the beauty captured by Greg's photographs, and they want to know 'where?' so they can go hiking on that ridge, or sailing or kayaking in that bay."
The Hudson River is available from local bookstores, online booksellers, and area museum shops.