The inquisitive bovines that I spent my Friday morning with were awful cute. They spooked at first when I arrived, but after a minute they couldn’t get enough of me. I threw on my ultrawide lens and held the camera at ground level to give a “worm’s-eye view” of the calves crowded around me. There were a few close calls between wet noses and my lens.
Linear perspectives fascinate me. With all of the different ways to view the world, it is amazing when things just line up. I have seen a great number of clear cut swaths through treelines for various reasons. Some are for gas lines, others are for high tension power lines. This is the first one (in my memory at least) that I’ve seen used for smaller utility poles. I stood out in the rain on a small back road to get this angle. In addition to the desired composition, I get a lot of strange looks from morning commuters. It is something that I’m all to familiar with.
Sunrises in Pittsburgh are always interesting. Sometimes you get an extremely colorful display for only a few minutes. Sometimes it lasts for the better part of an hour. If there’s a considerable temperature difference, you can see a light mist or a dense fog. This morning seemed like it was going to be a brilliant display of color until the few clouds disappeared prior to the sun rising above the horizon. I noticed that the light from the ball of fire was catching the mist hovering at the city’s base and shadows formed in front of the buildings. I used my ND10 filter to lengthen the shutter speed and soften the ripples on the water.
While driving around searching for a good spot to capture the beautiful sunset I drove over this rail line and saw an engine backing up a row of cars. The contrast of the warm orange sky and the coolness of the foreground in shadows looked perfect. I also loved how the rails reflected the light in the sky and stood out from the rest of the ground. The lights on the active engine really pop in the background.
I’m a sucker for seeing the details of the small things in life. These thistles were all on the same plant and I figured that they would look great if isolated from the busy background with a shallow depth of field.
On the drive down to Washington D.C. we saw several wind farms off in the distance. We made it a point to try and get closer on our return trip. This image was shot from Rt. 68 right outside of Frostburg, MD. The light beaming through the breaks in the clouds were a pleasant bonus. The line of turbines were relatively close to the road, so we decided to get a closer look. We managed to find a road leading right up to the one closest in the image. They are absolutely massive machines. They make an eerie sound as they rotate too.
A road trip through the hills of Uniontown on our way to Washington D.C. led us past this dirt road alongside of the National Pike. As it usually happens, I see a scene out of the corner of my eye and I immediately search for a place to turn around and pull off to get a shot. Fortunately I was able to find a spot safely and jump over the bank, compose a few frames, and be back on our way quickly. This shot absolutely satisfied my need for the day. The remainder of the drive to D.C. I could not wait to get this one out into the world.
Today I got to accompany a fellow photographer to my favorite falls in Western PA. We had planned on a trip to this waterfall for a while, but the fresh snowfall made it a perfect day to shoot. The water was flowing well and the late season snowfall covered the rocks and branches of the pines all around the falls. I used my trusty ND10 neutral density filter to lengthen my exposures. This particular cascade caught my eye due to the multiple changes in direction over a short distance. It was a very good day to be in the woods.
Today I visited a little preserve near my house. I had driven past it many times before and have even been encouraged to visit there by a friend who holds it in high regard. Wingfield Pines is located in a valley in Bridgeville. It is a series a ponds near a stream that houses a variety of plants and wildlife. This small plant plays host to a vine that is using it to get a better view of the world.
My plan for this day was to catch a reflection of the clouds of a predicted sunset in a small pond. The sunset didn’t happen as I had hoped, so I scrambled to find an alternative. Fortunately my experiences shooting in the area led me to a small waterfall that had received a bit of a swell from the morning’s rain. A short walk through the woods and crossing of the stream gave me a great vantage of this small falls. The water wasn’t too deep that it kept me from getting right out into the middle for this shot. I’m really thrilled that there were some icicles left on the branches at the stream’s edge. The lateness in the evening allowed for a nice long exposure to exaggerate the movement of the water, which is one of my favorite ways to shoot waterfalls.
