The Road to Chautauqua

I made the seventy-nine images in this gallery on a journey through western New York State during the summer of 2015. It began amidst the thunder of Niagara Falls, and continued with photographic forays to important historical sites in the cities of Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Auburn.

After a visit to the world-famous glass museum in Corning, I spent a final week photographing and participating in a summer learning program at the Chautauqua Institute – an 800 acre community and conference center. This National Historic Landmark was founded in 1874. Its programs draw thousands to theme-based lectures, as well as music, theatre, opera, and dance performances. (We arranged our Chautauqua logistics through Road Scholar: http://www.roadscholar.org )

These photographs reflect my own interpretation of what I saw, felt, and imagined. Interpretive travel photography can express the personality and character of a place – even an entire country. Even more importantly, interpretive photography can go well beyond mere description. It can tell others how photographers may feel about what they see before them. Interpretive imagery helps us define the essence of a place – we can say something about our subject instead of merely showing what it may look like. As such, I try to make images that offer not only a sense of place, but also convey my impressions of how each place I visit feels and functions. My goal here is not to make a comprehensive documentation of the places I visit, nor a travelogue. Instead, I offer a series of interpretive photographs that express the personality and character of places I visit, as I perceive them.

I used a new mirrorless lightweight camera to make all these photographs – a compact, weather resistant Fuji XT-1 body, offering both a huge internal viewfinder as well as a flip out LCD screen. A pair of excellent Fuji lightweight lenses offered me a range of focal lengths from 24mm wideangle to 345mm telephoto. Introduced earlier this year, the XT-1 is currently Fuji’s flagship camera. It focuses extremely quickly and it also allows me to make photographs at high sensitivity (ISO) levels without losing much detail. I use Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop software to correct and refine the hue, color, contrast and sharpness levels, hopefully making my pictures more vibrant and meaningful. Although all of these photographs were digitally enhanced to some degree, none of the content has been significantly manipulated. The facts are all here, as I captured them. I hope you will enjoy these photographic impressions. To view my images at their best, just click the "slideshow" button to the right. To end the slide show at any time, press your "escape" key. I welcome your comments and questions. Phil Douglis Director,, pnd1@cox.net