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  "description": "I looked around, and spring did the rest.",
  "path": "/where-the-lake-carnegie-dam-meets-the-millstone-river/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-09T15:06:54.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:y4mvqqxmjy6biftl5tzlnwuh/site.standard.publication/3mmc72c4y2cka",
  "tags": [
    "Adobe Lightroom Mobile",
    "Bird Watching",
    "Carnegie Lake",
    "Delaware and Raritan Canal State Park Trail",
    "iPhone Photography",
    "Kingston Historic District",
    "Millstone River",
    "Nature Walk"
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  "textContent": "NOTE: This post is publishing while I am away in Bequia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, where the X-T5 is getting its first proper outing. Posts this week were scheduled in advance. I didn’t see many birds near the Carnegie Lake Dam that morning. I could hear them — a full, layered cacophony of song from somewhere up in the canopy — but my camera stayed mostly idle. I’d walked down from the D&R Canal Trail via an almost hidden path to the water’s edge where the dam meets the Millstone River at Kingston with the Fujinon XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R LM OIS WR attached to the X-T5. Wrong lens entirely. Built for pulling distant birds out of the sky, it was useless for the bright green and blue, open scene in front of me. Millstone River near Carnegie Lake Dam in Kingston · Friday 24 April 2026Apple iPhone 17 Pro · ISO 80 · 1/3600 seciPhone 17 Pro back camera 6.765mm f/1.78 · 6.76 mm · f/1.8 So I put the Fuji away and reached for my iPhone 17 Pro. Adobe Lightroom Mobile handled the capture, Adobe Lightroom Classic handled the processing. Not the kit I’d planned on, but it did the job. Millstone River near Carnegie Lake Dam in Kingston · Friday 24 April 2026Apple iPhone 17 Pro · ISO 80 · 1/4000 seciPhone 17 Pro back camera 6.765mm f/1.78 · 6.76 mm · f/1.8 Small flies circled my head. I zipped my Patagonia up tight. Goose and duck feathers were scattered everywhere, and somewhere nearby lay the skeletal remains of a waterbird that hadn’t made it through winter. Not a particularly inviting scene. The small flies were irritating. I continued walking through the trees, following the shoreline through. Tributary of Heathcote Brook and Millstone River near Carnegie Lake Dam in Kingston · Friday 24 April 2026Apple iPhone 17 Pro · ISO 100 · 1/680 seciPhone 17 Pro back camera 6.765mm f/1.78 · 6.76 mm · f/1.8 And then I stopped looking for birds and just looked. Tributary of Heathcote Brook and Millstone River near Carnegie Lake Dam in Kingston · Friday 24 April 2026Apple iPhone 17 Pro · ISO 100 · 1/1100 seciPhone 17 Pro back camera 6.765mm f/1.78 · 6.76 mm · f/1.8 The water was almost completely still, mirroring the tree line and the pale blue sky with an accuracy that felt faintly surreal. A single arching branch swept low across the surface, framing the far bank like something deliberate. Lily pads drifted in loose clusters near the dam. That particular yellow-green of early spring — the one that only lasts a week or two before everything darkens into summer — covered every tree. Tributary of Heathcote Brook and Millstone River near Carnegie Lake Dam in Kingston · Friday 24 April 2026Apple iPhone 17 Pro · ISO 100 · 1/500 seciPhone 17 Pro back camera 6.765mm f/1.78 · 6.76 mm · f/1.8 I’d come out hoping for a frame full of birds. I got mud, flies, old feathers, and the kind of natural beauty that doesn’t announce itself. Millstone River near Carnegie Lake Dam in Kingston · Friday 24 April 2026Apple iPhone 17 Pro · ISO 80 · 1/1400 seciPhone 17 Pro back camera 6.765mm f/1.78 · 6.76 mm · f/1.8 God, I love spring.",
  "title": "Where the Lake Carnegie Dam Meets the Millstone River",
  "updatedAt": "2026-05-10T14:08:17.000Z"
}