Through the woods

The most recent snowstorm left record breaking accumulations in many areas in Pennsylvania. For a change, central PA didn't bear the brunt of mother nature's fury. The final tally, a whopping 6 inches of snow. I headed over to Rothrock State forest during the storm and had the place virtually to myself.

415

Another adorable home in St. Michaels. It made me think about what color I should consider painting my home the next time it needs a new coat of paint.

Come on in

St. Michael's was pretty deserted while we were visiting. We felt like we had the place all to ourselves. I imagine in the summer it's a pretty bustling place. We fell in love with the homes near the water. The porches were just so inviting...

Finding peace

On November 29, my sweet Mika passed away after her long battle with cancer. We miss her dearly. She has left a void in our lives, our house feels so empty without her. The next day my husband and I left town for a few days hoping to find some peace. We landed in St. Michaels, MD, a cute, quaint little town on the Chesapeake Bay.

We've suffered so many losses this year, it seems as though we've done nothing but grieve for months. Our getaway was just what we needed. I still haven't found the peace I was looking for, but I am reminded that with each new day there is hope that things will once again be ok.

Unknown creek

In keeping with my creek theme, here's an image I captured back in early fall while driving down route 144. I don't remember where I found this creek, nor do I know the name of it, but it was a very pretty area.

Granite run

Also from Sinking Creek in Bear Meadow.

Sinking Creek

Another image of Sinking Creek at Bear Meadow.

Bear Meadow

Located in Rothrock state forest, Bear Meadow is a popular area for local residents to hike and bike. Though I've hiked here many times through the years, I've never taken my camera with me. Last week I decided to rediscover this park, capturing this image in my waders while standing in the creek. The water was cold and my so called waterproof waders leaked more water than I cared for!

R B Winter Park

This little park is located inside the Bald Eagle State Park. The lake named Halfway Lake is the source of the creek seen in my last blog image.

Bald Eagle State Park

I visited the Bald Eagle State Park a few weeks ago when the fall foliage was peaking. With almost 6000 acres in this park, there is much to explore. I've been here several times but always go to the lake where I can swim during the summers. So I decided to explore another section of the park and discovered this creek as I was on my way back home. I had to get to work and was already running late, but I snapped this image from the roadside. I plan to revisit this park over the winter and explore it even further.

Fall forest

I found myself drawn to the way the light hit the yellow fern leaves in this forest in the early fall.

Snow leaves

Here's another image from the snowstorm we had last month. I liked the contrast of the red leaves against the white snow.

Fall lane

Taken at the beginning of the fall season, I found this dirt road at the end of a dead end road and decided to explore.

Mika

Exactly 6 months ago we learned that my dog Mika has cancer. It's been quite a journey since then. From chemotherapy, umpteen trips to the vet, emergency room visits, supplements and experiments with various medications we have been doing our best to help her overcome this dreadful disease. The outside life expectancy for the type of cancer Mika has is six months according to the University of Pennsylvania. We don't pay any attention to the stats, instead we just treasure each day for whatever it has to offer. Believe me there are plenty of bad days, lots of tears but also celebrations and joy as we overcome each obstacle she has had to face.

A couple of months ago, I bought two new lenses, one of which is a 35mm f/1.8. Since I have a job working with animals, I have been experimenting with pet photography. Thus far Mika has been the main subject. My first challenge was to compile a photo essay of her using only this lens. The other requirement I had was to only take images at my house thus forcing me to see my home more creatively.

National Building Museum

Since the weather didn't cooperate for our morning shoot in Great Falls National Park, we headed into Washington DC to find some other subjects to photograph. I have never been in this museum, but had seen images from other photographers. It's a great place to experiment with hdr processing.

Great Falls National Park

On sunday, photobuds Mary, Beth, Margie and I headed down to Great Falls National Park in VA. The weather didn't cooperate with our plans, but we made the most of it and headed into Washington DC to photograph some museums while we waited for the rain to clear. Eventually it did and we finally got to snap some images of this beautiful park. I've never been here before but undoubtedly, I'll be back.

Birch tree and leaves

Another image from the Sproul State Forest park along route 144.

Technicolor tree

In Happy Valley, we've had some spectacular sunsets lately, all of which I missed either because I didn't have my camera or I was at the wrong place when they happened. But I had one location in mind I wanted to check out and tonight I happened to be driving down that street as the setting sun was in it's last moments of glory. By the time I got to this tree I had enough time to pull over and snap a couple of images before the show ended. I know I'll be back to visit this tree again.

Fiery Forest

From the Sproul State Forest along route 144.

Standing Tall

After seeking out scenic drives on our trip out west, I was prompted to look for scenic routes here in PA. I found one close to my home that heads north toward the PA Grand Canyon, my ultimate goal. Route 144, also known as the elk scenic drive, crosses through several state forests. One of my favorite trees this time of the year is the birch tree, and when I found this group nestled in the woods, I had to stop and check it out.

Fall or winter?

Here's another scene from last week's snowstorm.

Winter Wonderland in Happy Valley

Those of us living in Central PA were surprised to hear the weather forecast for late last week included snow...up to 6 inches of the white stuff! And they weren't kidding either! By the end of the storm I had 4 inches in my backyard. We set all kinds of records including earliest snowfall ever...in over 100 years of record keeping. I drove past this farm on my way to work early friday morning.

The Long Road Ahead

Ah, there's nothing like the open road that goes on for miles and miles. The speed limit was 75 on most of the roads we travelled, but our Minnie Winnie was more content to stick to a safer 62 mph. Which was probably better on our gas mileage anyways!

This concludes my posts from our trip out west. Thanks for stopping by and leaving your comments!! They are much appreciated, I really look forward to reading them!!

Badlands 3

Another image from the Badlands in South Dakota. I love the beautiful blue skies of the west.

Lone Little Tree

We stopped at a scenic overlook at the Theodore Roosevelt Park. After snapping several images, I turned around and saw this view on the other side of the road. This to me represents what the west is all about, open spaces and beautiful blue skies that seem to stretch on forever.

CHARGE!

This guy was about 5 feet from me when I snapped the shutter (no kidding!). In the Theodore Roosevelt Park in North Dakota the bison roam freely throughout the park. If you're lucky as we were, they will graze along the roadside. We went over to some cabins where about 50 bison were grazing peacefully nearby. I wandered into the pack and one took a great deal of interest in me approaching to within a few feet from where I was standing. There are signs all over the park warning that these beasts are unpredictable and not to do anything to disturb them. I backed up not wanting to find out if the warnings are valid.

The day we visited the park, the temperature was in the 80s, a bit warm for a hairy creature such as this. Though he looks as though he is going to charge us, really, he is panting heavily to try to stay cool.

Badlands 2

Yellow mounds from the Badlands National Park.

The Badlands

When we got to South Dakota, we spent the night at a campground just a couple of miles away from the Badlands. We got an early start and got to see the sunrise from the park. Being at the park early meant having the place virtually to ourselves. We saw more wildlife than tourists, including a mom bobcat who had just caught breakfast for her 3 kittens. It was quite a sight to see the family grazing just a few feet away from us.

Hdr image, 5 combined exposures.

Fields of Gold

North Dakota wheat field...

No Trespassing

On our trip west, we drove through Ohio, Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North and South Dakota. That's not even 1/2 of what we had hoped to see. Of all these states, North Dakota was our favorite. We stumbled across this scene on a dirt road in a heavily farmed area. A farmer had posted characters like this guy on his fence posts warning people not to trespass. The clue...note the upside down smile. I was too curious to obey, and snapped a couple of images before anyone toting a gun could chase me off the property.

Mississippi River

We travelled along the Great River Road in Wisconsin which follows the Mississippi River. Here is the scene from one vantage point along the road.

Foggy mornings

During our short visit to the west, the weather was just spectacular...highs in the mid 80s, lows in the the 60s, beautiful blue skies, white puffy clouds...perfect flip flop and shorts weather. The mornings though were always foggy, so much so, that some mornings you couldn't see more than 5 feet in front of you.

The one good thing about travelling in a winnebago is that you spend more time living closer to nature. This was the scene when we woke up in LaSalle Illinois. Had we stayed in a hotel, our view would most likely be of parking lots, storefronts and restaurants. It was a refreshing change from our normal everyday lives.

North Dakota

As if we hadn't had enough problems on our trip, things went from bad to worse. We abruptly cut our trip short with the passing of Steve's father last week. We had made it to South Dakota when we received the news and we headed straight home, a 30 hour non-stop journey back to PA. Needless to say, it was a long ride.

To complicate matters, I had dropped my computer the day before and damaged the hard drive. The little shop we found in Rapid City, ND worked tirelessly for 7 days to get as much data off the old drive as they could before installing a new hard drive. It certainly was a trip with a lot of adventure, but Steve and I feel we were just getting started and we plan to resume where we left off. We'll keep you posted, but we are considering heading back out west in late Oct.

In the meantime, now that I am reunited with my computer, I will be processing the images I had taken thus far. Today's blog image is from North Dakota and the Theodore Roosevelt state park.

Land 'O Lakes

We pulled over and stopped somewhere in Central Minnesota for the night. When we got up yesterday morning, we headed for the Lake Country Scenic Byway or route 34. We ventured off onto some side roads, some of which ended up being dirt roads and here we found the reason why Minnesota is called the Land 'O Lakes. They boast having 11, 842 lakes in all, most of them concentrated in the northern part of the state. We counted the number of lakes we passed before crossing over into North Dakota...the final tally being 50. I guess we have some more exploring to do! Today's blog image is of Bottle Lake.

Wisconsin's Dairyland

Our day today started with waking up in Prairie du Chien Wisconsin on the Mississippi River. It wasn't as glorious as it sounds as we were also parked about 200 feet from the railroad tracks with freight trains running about every ten minutes until 2 am or so. Thinking I could get some photos of the river when we woke up proved to be a hopeless idea as the fog didn't lift until late morning.

We took the Great River Route scenic byway up route 35 in Wisconsin follows along the Mississippi River. Every now and again the road would veer into Wisconsin's farmland and to our surprise we only encountered 1 dairy farm, today's blog image. After crossing into Minnesota we got on a highway to make tracks so we could prepare ourselves for the next scenic highway adventure somewhere in the state of 10,000 lakes.

Rural Iowa

Our trip out west thus far has been quite an adventure. From bee stings, to losing a credit card, to frying the brakes on our RV, we've had our share of things gone wrong. It's been a heck of a learning curve, but slowly we are getting used to life "on the road."

In spite of all the setbacks we managed to get as far as Illinois by the end of our second day. There wasn't much photo taking opportunities as our truck problems required our full attention. Today was an easier day and we travelled some rural roads in Iowa. Learning to nagivate the backroads and stop a 12 year old 22 foot RV to photograph the scenery has posed it's challenges, but I did get this image of rural Iowa.

Elfreth's Alley

I recently moved from the Philadelphia area, but before doing so, I spent some time photographing some of the sights of the city. Here's an image from Elfreth's Alley, the "nation's oldest residential street" with the homes dating back to the early eighteen century.

Due to my move, I haven't been able to keep up with processing my images or photographing any new ones. But all of that is about to change as my husband and I are about to embark on a month long journey out west. We begin our adventure tomorrow, so stop back and follow along with us as we travel some of the most scenic roads in the country.

Washington Crossing

Last month I spent an afternoon walking around Washington Crossing Park taking photographs. When I saw this house, I knew I wanted to give it an old photo look with the use of texture. I've done a little experimenting with textures and everytime I do, I like the results. It's a fun way to be creative.

Rex Ave Bridge

Here's another image from the Wissahickon Creek outing earlier this month.

Ridley Creek

These are the falls from Ridley Creek State Park.

Antique tractor

I found this antique tractor at the Warren County Fair.

Me!

My camera club is doing a summer assignment where we take self-portraits with different themes each week in August. The first week is just a regular self-portrait. I have never done a self-portrait and the only thing I knew for sure was that I wanted a back lit portrait of myself shot in the late afternoon sun. I went out to Springton Manor the other night and planned to scout out a location on the drive over. Instead, I found these big bales of hay behind the barn and decided to work with them instead.

I have much to learn about portrait photography including post-processing images. But here's my first go around at it.

Wissahickon creek

Saturday afternoon fellow photobuds Ed and Kelly Heaton, Mary Brooks Brown and I went to scout the Wissahickon Creek in Fairmont Park. It was an adventure and a place well worth checking out!

Up, up and away

Last Thursday night I took a drive to Philipsburg, NJ to attend the Warren County Fair. Not that I needed to attend another fair, but this one had nightly hot air balloon launches, weather permitting. I've always wanted to attend a hot air balloon festival, but somehow my schedule never coordinated with the festivals in the area.

There were about 35 brightly colored balloons. It was well worth the long drive to photograph this, but I must make a note to myself to remember to attend a festival in PA instead. In NJ it is against the law for spectators to wander the fields where balloons are being launched.

Goshen Fair

Hung out at the Goshen Fair last week with some photobud friends and took night shots of the festivities. As always, I had a blast!

Out of the past

I've been playing with different processing techniques with these images and gave this one a vintage look.