So Worth the Hike

The view above is from Tibbet Knob in the George Washington National Forest, basically the sister hike to another favorite of mine, Big Schloss.  Both hikes are pretty easy if you're in good shape, but throw in hot and humid conditions and the hike is a little harder than I want to admit.

This past weekend, part of the reason for hiking was to get out with Rudy, our recently adopted Labrador.   But even during the middle of the day I wanted to also make photography part of the reason for being there as well.

The panorama above is handheld and stitched in Photoshop.  I shot it with a D200 converted to Infrared by LifePixel.  Using the Infrared is a great choice when the conditions are too harsh for color photography.

Frederick Photowalk

This past Saturday we hosted our first photowalk of the season.  We held it in Frederick, MD, a great little town with a very vibrant old town section.

Photowalks are a great way to stretch your creativity.  Personally I try to find shadows, colors, textures, shapes, reflections and anything else that catches my eye.

It's always cool to see what others see, so check out our meetup page and view the gallery of photos submitted by our participants.

Guest Blogger

I'm a guest blogger on the Hunt's Photo and Video and I share my love and brief experiences with the new Lensbaby Velvet 56.

http://wbhunt.com/blog/lensbaby-velvet-56/

The shot above was taken with the Velvet 56 at the Lonaconing Silk Mill a couple months ago.

A Fleeting Moment

Last Friday Denise and I arrived in Davis, WV just in time to be greeted by significant rain. I was making Denise drive so I could work on my motion abstracts when suddenly the sun pops out before it stopped raining.  Without missing a beat Denise proclaims there must be a rainbow somewhere.  I started looking around and sure enough there was one behind us over the Canaan Valley Wildlife Management area.  We quickly turned in, jumped out, and started shooting.  

From the time the sun popped out to the time the rainbow disappeared was about 5 minutes.  These moments are fleeting and knowing our gear allowed us to jump out and start shooting.  If you have to fumble with your gear you just might miss some opportunities.   

Palouse Year 3

In a few days Denise Silva and I will be heading to Washington for our Palouse Photography Tour.   This is our third year doing tours in the Palouse. For those who don't know, the Palouse is the largest wheat growing region in the country.   The landscape is full of rolling hills, barns and my personal favorite, lots of old trucks.  

We are looking forward to working with a great group of participants, several of whom have done other tours with us.  We can't wait to see what they create!

During the last 2 years we have mapped thousands of miles of country roads and, believe it or not, we will be scouting some new areas in the days before our participants arrive.  I already know the week will fly by.  Did I say fly?  Stay tuned to this blog to see what that means.

Sweet 35

I must admit that not all items in my camera bag get equal use. It has been a long time since I used the Lensbaby Sweet 35 lens, at least it feels that way. But before I go on, I must digress.

I have been a Nikon Shooter for close to 10 years. I know the buttons and controls in my sleep. But during the last couple of years many of my friends have been making the switch to the Fuji X system. It's small, lightweight, the quality is stunning and finally it got to the point that I could no longer ignore the Fuji. So about a year ago I made the plunge and purchased the XT-1 and several lenses. Ever since I have been having a love and hate relationship with the Fuji. I love the Fuji because of all the items that I listed above. It's just sometimes the controls are not intuitive to me. This has caused me to fumble at times when I should be in the moment. I'm sure most of this could have been avoided if I had locked myself in a room for a day and read the horrible little manual that seems to accompany any camera regardless of cost.

Let's get back to the the Lensbaby. I have no idea what the market share is for the Fuji X- Series cameras, but at this point it must be small enough that Lensbaby has not opted to make a lens specifically for the Fuji. So I obtained an adapter from FotoDiox (on Amazon) and it has sat in my camera bag for the better part of a year, that is until last weekend. I decided to finally try the adapter and the Lensbaby. It was wonderful, and once I was looking through the viewfinder it was the same as it has always been. The experience was seamless. I'm not sure when I will reach for the Lensbaby and Fuji combo, but I'm sure it won't be a year.

The final image was processed using MacPhun Tonality Pro.   For a discount on all MacPhun products use the discount code "ROADRUNNER".    Clients of Road Runner Photography Tours are eligible for a 10% discount on Lensbaby products.  Contact us for the discount code.

One last thing, the image above was shot at the W.A. Young & Sons Machine Shop in Rices Landing, PA on one of our recent meetups.

UPDATE: Rumor has it that Lensbaby will be announcing a version of their lens for Fuji cameras.  Stay tuned...

Meet Macy

Last weekend we hosted our 2nd annual Light Painting Workshop at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum.  Looking for something a bit different, I started asking the staff if anyone wanted to stick around and model for us.  Macy was kind enough to volunteer and she even found an old dress.  I’m heading back to the Asylum in July for a daytime photo tour.  Check out the Asylum’s website if you want to join me.

The rest of May is super busy for Denise and myself, besides hosting Meetups, we will be heading to Palouse at the end of the month for our photo tour.  Thanks for taking a moment to checkout my blog.