Join our photo lessons at Croton Gorge Park, a scenic Hudson Valley location offering dramatic views of the New Croton Dam, flowing water, historic architecture, and the surrounding natural landscape.
Croton Gorge Park sits at the base of the New Croton Dam, giving photographers an impressive combination of architecture, water, rock, and wooded scenery. The massive stone dam and its arched bridge create strong lines, patterns, and textures that can be photographed from a variety of angles. Your Digital Photo Academy instructor can help you experiment with perspective and framing to show either the enormous scale of the structure or smaller architectural details.
The park also offers strong photography opportunities during the winter months, when it remains a popular destination for activities such as sledding and cross-country skiing. Bare trees can open up clearer views of the dam and surrounding landscape, while snow and ice create contrast against the dark stone and flowing water. Depending on the weather, photographers may also find icicles, frozen sections near the spillway, and snow-covered paths that add texture and foreground interest to winter compositions.
The dam’s spillway provides an excellent subject for practicing shutter speed in any season. Use a faster shutter speed to freeze the movement and texture of the rushing water, or experiment with a slower exposure to create a smoother sense of motion. The nearby Croton River also provides opportunities to work with reflections, foreground elements, and compositions that combine water with the surrounding landscape.
Throughout the park, trails and changing elevations provide different views of the dam, gorge, and surrounding woods. Look for leading lines created by pathways, bridges, railings, and the curve of the dam itself. Your instructor can also demonstrate how changing your camera position can simplify a composition or emphasize the scale of the landscape.
Each season gives Croton Gorge Park a different appearance, from green foliage in spring and summer and colorful leaves in fall to snow, ice, and more open views in winter. These changing conditions make the park a useful year-round location for practicing landscape, architecture, nature, and long-exposure photography in one setting.
Meeting Spot:
35 Yorktown Rd.
Croton on Hudson, N.Y. 10520
Know Before You Go:
Please bring your DSLR or another type of digital camera that you use, a fully-charged battery, and the equipment that you can carry. You should dress for the weather and wear comfortable shoes.
Each Composition in the Field class begins with a talk with one of our experienced instructors, and then you and your fellow students take a stroll through one of a variety of photogenic locales (in any of the 20+ cities the DPA encapsulates). There is street photography, magnificent interiors, farmers markets, zoos, landscapes, and more, photos of which are included within. These photos are a mix of student and instructor images in many different venues and cities across the United States and Canada.
You will have fun, learn to shoot strategically, get more interesting photos of the event, and walk away with a foundation to improve your photographs in the future, whether you’re traveling, or at a birthday party and everywhere in between.
Please note: If a class must be cancelled due to weather or other circumstances beyond our control we will be happy to work with you to reschedule. If you should need to cancel and require a new class date, contact us. A $25 transfer fee will be imposed without a 3 day notice before the scheduled class.
