Tag: Ohiopyle

A Short Outdoor Adventure

Some of you already know others may not but on March 1 of this year I had a heart attack. So I’ve been kinda taking it easy  lately gaining my strength and yesterday I finally took a short hike in Ohiopyle State Park. For those of you familiar with the area I crossed the bridge above Cucumber Falls and then took a lesser used trail and made my way down to the Youghiogheny River. Not a far walk but definitely a steep hill to climb back up. After that trek I also made my way down into Cucumber Falls and out to the river. All in all it was a nice trek with my camera and backpack along for the walk as well.

The Path
The path less traveled
Flowers in the Woods
A few purple flowers
Fungus
A little fungus anyone?
Fallen
A fallen tree along the path
Companion
My companion along the river. Possibly a brown water snake.

A Walk in the Woods

Had another great day off and got to spend some time in the woods in Ohiopyle State Park.  I photographed Cucumber Falls completely frozen over, the main falls and then a little in the woods.  At one point I was in the woods and noticed a set of footprints in the snow.  They were filled with the last snow and a little windblown but still visible due to the late afternoon sun casting its long shadows over the area.  And I wondered to myself, perhaps this is the road less traveled and the road which I should be following.

Cucumber Falls FrozenCucumber Falls frozen over after a week of below freezing weather.

Hidden FootstepsFootsteps in the woods.

Ohiopyle FallsThe main falls in Ohiopyle State Park.

Shall We SitWould you like to sit and watch the water.

Water SlidesThis is the top of the natural water slides in Ohiopyle State Park.  I just don’t understand why there was nobody enjoying a ride down the slides.  Could have been that the temp was just a little over 15ºF.

A Swift River

For tonights post I am showing you a photograph that I took last summer in the middle of the day in bright sunlight.  By stacking Neutral Density filters on top of one another I was able to get the exposure down to 35sec at f22 with 100 ISO.  This is a digital photo and I found with longer exposures and more filters I was getting a strange red cast to the photographs.

Let me know your thoughts and if you have ever experimented with this type of filter stacking before.

OhioPyle2

Familiar but Different….

From time to time we revisit a familiar place and yet somehow it seem different than the way you remembered.  Recently I had a few hours to spare, which by the way never occurs, and I took a ride Ohiopyle State Park.  I have visited and photographed the water fall know as Cucumber Falls many times before and quite often I just go for a walk and don’t take any photos at all.

As photographers we are often faced with this dilemma of seeing the same subject over and over agin.  Often this causes me to not want to take a photo of this particular subject.  The question arises, “How do you make the Familiar Different?”, well my answer to the question is a very simple one.  Simply choose a  lens that you wouldn’t typically use and only photograph your subject with that single lens.  I will offer a suggestion here though, I would pick a lens that really doesn’t fit the subject.  In my case, at the ever so familiar Cucumber Falls, I chose to use a fisheye lens.

I guess that I’m trying to make myself see a familiar subject in a slightly different way.

Let me know what you think of the photographs.