Blackwater falls and Canaan valley WV

My wife and I got back from a much-needed 4 day vacation to Blackwater falls state park in West Virginia. We stayed in one of the cabins in the park and visited the park, the towns of Thomas and Davis and Canaan valley while there. It’s a beautiful area that reminds me quite a bit of Colorado and Wyoming on a smaller scale.

Blackwater Falls State Park, WV

A view of the valley from the lodge.

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

Off the beaten path, on a deer trail hiking up the falls south side.

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

 

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

On top of the falls, off any trail at all!

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

The picture on the left is also on top of the falls, looking back up the river.  The right picture is hiking above the falls, back to the deer path. Sheer drop about 300ft to the river and rock.

 

 Sigma 24mm f/2.8                            Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

The next day we hiked to the other side of the falls down a real path to a couple of observation decks. We had walked out near the edge of the falls only a few feet back from the overhanging rock.

 

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4                             Tamron 28mm f/2.5

In the top middle of the picture is where we hiked above the falls for pictures later. Just to the right of the walls themselves in the picture. The picture taken looking down on the falls was taken from there, sitting on slick, wet and mossy rock.

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

Thomas, WV

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

 Canaan Valley, WV

Canaan Valley resort has several very nice hiking trails and we took advantage of them when we were there.

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

 

Tamron 28mm f/2.5                           Tamron 28mm f/2.5

RenFest, Halloween and backpacking

A lot has happened in the last few weeks, a final visit to the MD RenFest for the year, Halloween and a backpacking trip.

RenFest

 

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

 

Zuiko 135mm f/3.5                            Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

 

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

The backpacking trip was from Friday night till Sunday afternoon. We hiked up to the Ed Garvey shelter after dark and spent the night. We then hiked down the Appalachian trail to Harper’s Ferry, had lunch there and ended up at Huckleberry hill on the C&O for the night Saturday night. On Sunday we backtracked. Total distance about 10 miles, 1.5 miles up a spur trail to Ed Garvey the first night, about 8.5 miles from Ed Garvey to Huckleberry hill and then 10 miles all the way back the next day.

The first morning on the trail, at the Ed Garvey shelter.

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

At Weverton Cliffs, about halfway to Harper’s Ferry. Harper’s Ferry is behind the mountain just on the far right at the gap where the river flows.

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

From left to right, the intrepid photographer, Eric and Mike

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

 

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

Further foliage and on Museums

Further foliage fotos for felicitous fans. Sorry, I just felt like alliterating. I have a bunch more pictures of fall foliage in the Potapsco state park as well as some pictures from an outing to DC with the family.

Potapsco State Park

 

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4                               Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

 

Sigma 21-35mm f/3.5-4.2              Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

Western Howard County

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

Western Howard County and on the DC Metro

 

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4                              Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Air and Space Museum

Sigma 28mm f/1.8

 

Sigma 28mm f/1.8                              Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Sigma 28mm f/1.8

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Of Apples, Renfest, Pumpkins and Foliage

Fall is finally here in a big way. This means many things, Apple picking, Renaissance Festival, Pumpkin picking and fall foliage. Many pictures from all these activities.

The first was the Maryland Renfest.

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

Zuiko 135mm f/3.5

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Then apple and pumpkin picking.

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

Zuiko 135mm f/3.5

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Finally a little fall foliage. Sadly Potapsco State park was a bit beyond peak, but there are many other great fall pictures to come in the next few days.

Tamron 28mm f/2.5

Dressed to Kill

I finally finished scanning all of the pictures from the wedding over Labor day and got that DVD off to my wife’s cousin. For now here is a single picture from that weekend, though not from the wedding. He is getting so big!

Zuiko 50mm f/1.4

Alive and well

Its been a long time since I’ve posted. Still alive and well, but I’ve spent the last 6 weeks scanning pictures from the Hindu ceremony of my wife’s cousin’s wedding. It turned out great and it was a lot of fun to do the photography for. A good learning experience as well. I’ll have some pictures up from it in the next week or two. Its back to doing photography for myself now and I’ll have new pictures, and tales, up soon. Until then I have a review of the Lowepro Mini AW bag and Zuiko 135mm f/3.5 lens up.

New lens

Just got a new lens, Sigma 21-35mm f/3.5-4.2. On the cheap as well, $40. So far impressions mixed. It is wide and it is relatively small, though with a 77mm filter thread it isn’t that small (it is pretty short though). There is a tiny amount of barrel sloop side to side, but otherwise pretty solid feeling. I think I prefer 2 touch zooms, at least at the wider focal lengths, but the push pull design isn’t to bad. More impressions and pictures later.

San Diego trip overview

I finally got everything scanned from my trip and I have the overview up along with lots and lots of pictures from my trip.

Here it is, my San Diego trip, now with more Cowbell.

http://omexperience.wordpress.com/travels/san-diego-2009/

San Diego sneak peak

A few more pictures from San Diego. Half a roll left to scan.

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

Sigma 50mm f/2.8 macro

Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8

Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8

Back from San Diego

I am back from my business trip to San Diego. Its going to take me awhile to get all of the pictures scanned. I took 3 rolls total, but I doubt I’ll be done scanning till next week. I also have finished scanning the pictures from the July 4th trip to the beach. So here is a mix of both of those. I’ll write up a full overview of my trip once I am done scanning the pictures. Till then here are some of the pictures. Something I am noticing now is that my Sigma 28-70mm f/2.8 seems to have a bad astigmatism in the upper left corner (might be part of the reason why it seems to be hard to focus. For a variety of reasons I am thinking this is my sample, not the 28-70 in general). I’ll have to look over some more scans to see if this is actually the case or not.

Zuiko 50mm f/1.8

Zuiko 50mm f/1.8

Zuiko 50mm f/1.8

These are pictures from San Diego, Balboa Park.

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

Sigma 24mm f/2.8

Sigma 50mm f/2.8 macro