This summer, Allman Environmental Services Photography will be photographing and filming the Genesee Valley Greenway for the Friends of the Genesee Valley Greenway’s new website, rack cards and other marketing assets. We’ll spend one week there in late spring, and then again in the fall, when the leaves of the Southern Tier are almost incandescent.

The Greenway venerates the rocky existences of an old canal route and railway, from Rochester to the bottom of the state. Today, it’s a 90-mile long linear park that’s bike-able and hike-able, but also has some more primitive, less-developed sections that are in need of funding. And, to be honest, outside of the Genesee Valley itself, I’m not sure too many people are aware of its existence.

Photography and videography can go a long way toward promoting these tourism assets. But it can also help spur fundraising efforts, grant money acquisition and can serve to get a dubious public the side of a particular project. Show people how beautiful and worthwhile a trail is, and they’ll drive the 100-plus miles to get there. Especially when they’re seeking solitude.

Our directive is to document not just the trail itself (including some places where erosion has made the bank unstable, and drone photographs  help secure funding for streambank improvement), but also the pretty “Trail Towns” that support rural tourism: Scottsville, Geneseo, Avon to the north. Belfast and Cuba, south of Letchworth State Park.

On a personal note, these are the kinds of projects I just love. We shoot a lot of infrastructure projects with heavy documentation needs. But bike trails and greenways are the lighter side of heavy civil projects. Exploration, using every piece of equipment in the trunk, planning for days and days in advance, mapping out routes to places I think will yield the very best photos and video — this is how I love to work. I know the byways of the Genesee Valley won’t disappoint, and I’m looking forward to working that soft warm evening light, the blue highways underneath, long distances between here and there. And summer coming.

Allman Environmental Services Photography provides progress photography and videography services (including aerial) to environmental projects of any scale, in all kinds of weather and geographic conditions. We can accommodate any type of long-distance projects, including greenway, scenic and historic trailways and waterway documentation. We’d love to hear about your project.