Category: Nature

Categories
Chester County Downingtown Nature Photography

The Rite of Passage (Uwchlan Trail)

Snow Creek (2011)
Snow Creek (2011)
Walking into the unknown...
Walking into the unknown…

I had just dropped off my daughter at a birthday party for one of her classmates.

Now I had two hours free!

Before I had left the house, I said to Logan, that when I got back, he needed to be dressed to go for a walk in the woods.

When I got home, he was ready, so I grabbed my camera bag and tripod, hopped back in the car, and drove over to the Jones Pond area of the Uwchlan Township Park on Dowlin Forge Road.

We parked in the little lot next to the pond, and as soon as he was out of the car, he was off toward the trail. Nothing was going to stop him. I only had time to get my camera out before he was beginning to cross the small bridge.

At 4 1/2, Logan loves to go for walks, and it is always fun to go with him.

While I followed him, I began to take hand-held shots of the general area, which still had a lot of snow still stuck on the trees.

As you can see in the above picture, there was  still soft unpacked snow on the trail, and had already been split into two lanes. One for the walkers and the other for cross-county skiers.

I explained to Logan the reason for the two trails, and asked him if he wanted to learn, to which he said yes.  (If you are a skier, the conditions were great.)

The last of the leaves...
The last of the leaves…

When we got to the top of the hill, I stopped to put my camera on my tripod, and start doing some HDR captures.

Looking back down the trail, I was setting up a shoot, when I heard a small little voice from behind me saying – “Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom!”

Thinking the worst, I asked him to be more specific, and was happy to learn, it was going to be an easy remedy.

I proceed to carry him a few feet off the main trail, helped him get prepared, and began his first lesson in snow scripting.

Giggles and laughter were all I heard for the few seconds of the lesson.

When he finished, I got him in order and he was back up the trail.

I continued shooting, concentrating on the long shadows and contrasting sun colored leaves still to hanging to the trees.

Several minutes later, I hear – “Daddy, I have to go to the bathroom!”

“Do you need help??

“No!”

and then endless giggling…

Some late afternoon colors
Some late afternoon colors

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Categories
Adobe Chester County Flickr HDR Nature Photo Journal Photostream

12+ inches of overnight Snow!

Day After a Heavy Snow (041)
Day After a Heavy Snow (041)

Last night, we were suppose to only get 6″-8″ over night… at mid-night, when we looked on to the deck, there was easily another 12″ inches…

This morning, there was over 19″ total inches on our porch, 4″-5″ of which was from the storm late last in the week…

I know many people saying that they are ready for Spring already, this has been one of the snowiest December to January’s on record, and we have not even gotten to mid-season yet!

How we forget the two Blizzards in February, nearly back to back almost a year ago!

The schools were closed for a second day, and it easily took me an hour and a half to get all the snow off our driveway, and then finally, I was able to spend a few minutes with my camera out in the snow.

Wish I could have been more…

– Andrew
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Categories
Chester County Downingtown Flickr Nature Pennsylvania Photo Journal Photography Photostream

First Snow Fall – Norwood Road Stream

Snow Thistle (023)
Snow Thistle (023)

The past two nights, we had our first snow falls of 2011.

It was nothing major, about 3″-4″, enough to give the ground a good covering, and then some.

I was not able to go out Friday, but after running Family errands all Saturday, I finally got some time at the end of the day!

Grabbing my gear, and knowing that I did not have much light left, I jumped in my car, and headed to the little stream area off of Norwood Road in Downingtown.

Having driven up and down this road thousands of times, I knew of a small little parking area, about mid-way down the road. After parking, I realized that it also seemed to be an entrance to an ancient access road.

Snow Stream hdr 08
Snow Stream hdr 08

Now I was ready to go! I through my camera bag and tripod over my shoulders, and headed slight back out the road, and into the woods.

Having never walked this area before, it was funny breaking new territory with the fresh snow, but finding trails was very difficult.

Eventually, I did find two sets of prints in the snow: boots and paws, and by the looks of the paw prints, that canine was having allot fun!

I had to cross the stream, back and forth several times, scouting and shooting with each adventure, and I was capturing everything in multi-exposure HDR.

It was getting colder by the minute, and I was not collapsing my tripod with each shoot, which on several occasions, also doubled as a nice balancing rod!

Snow Stream hdr 13
Snow Stream hdr 13

Slowly, I moved up stream, finding many wonderful shoots, and taking in the beauty of the moment.

After about an hour, the light was getting too low and so was the temperature.

I crawled back up to Norwood road, startling homeowner across the street, shoving their driveway, as I broke through the trees.

It took me a few more minutes to get back to the car, and another seemingly successful outing.

– Andrew
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Update

May 31, 2011 – With the Winter memories slowly fading away, I finally got a chance to revisit Norwood Road Creek with my son, Logan, for an afternoon walk in the cold water!

Categories
astronomy Chester County Downingtown Flickr Nature Photo Journal Photography Photostream Science space

2010 Winter Solstice – Lunar Eclipse

Winter Solstice - Lunar Eclipse - Composit 01
Winter Solstice-Lunar Eclipse - Composit 01

It was a cold early morning with a steady wind blowing across the area, but the night sky was crisp and cloud free!

While waiting for the event to start, I was reading various Facebook posts from friends talking about how the clouds in their area where making in nearly impossible to see the moon.

I was also using “The Photographer’s Ephemeris (TPE)” software program to figure out a particular capture I had in my mind.

Finally, at about 1am, I packed up my car with my camera bag, tripod and extra clothing, and set off to my secret location.

Driving to my location was very easy, and I was surprised not to see many people out looking into the sky.

After getting to “my” location, and setting up, I realized, “my shoot” was not going to happen with the event occurring nearly straight over head.

Oh well, I was going to get some picture no matter what.

What really surprised me was how bright the moon was!

I did take a few early shoots from “my secret location”, but then packed up and headed back home because the wind was cutting right through me.

At home, I setup again, but used the garage to block some of the wind, and I was able to go inside to warm up a little between captures, and have a beer!

Initially, I was able to shoot at ISO100 at 1/15-1/80 in the ƒ8-11 range, but by the full eclipse, I had to push the CCD sensory speed up to ISO1600, and focusing was becoming very difficult.

By 3am, I packed up for the morning, and went inside.

I was too tired to download my images, and went to bed.

After a night to recover, I finally transferred my 150+ images my computer, and used Adobe Lightroom to sort though all of them.

Even with a tripod, I was able to notice, the wind moved the camera just enough to cause many rejects.

I ended up shooting a 50:1 ratio, which is not very good, but if I had been using traditional film, I would have gone broke with processing charges!

Yeah Digital!

I did spend some time looking on Flickr to see what others had captured before I created my final composite, and finally posted everything to my “2010 Winter Solstice – Lunar Eclipse” Flickr set.

References

NASA – “Eclipses During 2010”

Flickr group – Lunar Eclipse December 21 2010

– Andrew
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Categories
Blogging How to(s)? Ideas Information Nature Reference

Cold Weather and our Outside Neighbors

When I got back home after dropping of Logan at daycare, I looked out on to our deck, and I saw “Sarah”, our red/orange tingled squirrel that the kids name a couple of years ago.

Not sure why “she” has that coloring, especially considering all the other gray squirrels, but it does make “her” easier to identify, plus “she” is a little bit smaller than the rest of the “gang” that inhabits our backyard which filled with Black Walnut trees.

Seeing her today, reminded me of my chores for our outside friends at this time of year, and hence the reason for this blog post.

Here is a list of some simple things to help out our furry outside neighbors:

  • Fresh Water – At this time of the year, unless you are near running water, the birds and squirrels that are still running and flying around still need water. So please take a moment and fill a container with water so they have something to drink.You will have to change it in the morning, but it is a great way to get kids thinking about nature.
  • Bread Crusts – Madison does not like the crust on her bread (yet), so we have a little container next to the cutting board to collect the what is cut off, and those scraps are then later put on the deck.
  • Pop-Tart Edges – Don’t know why, but the kids do not like them either, but the squirrels do!I have not figured out what their favorite flavor is, but I have watched one of our squirrels trying to get a long piece through the railing on the porch. Very entertaining! (Think of a dog with a long stick, trying to get through a fence door…)
  • Stale Snacks – These can take on many forms, cereal, pretzels, cheese balls, cheese curls, pop corn, french fries, you name it! You may not like it, but our furry friends do not seem to care, especially the crows! (Ever notice what the crows eat on “Trash Day”?)”Crow Salad“/”Critter Granola” – Trying mixing a bunch of items together! It my look gross to you, but trust me, our friends will not care!
  • Kitty TV – This is more for our indoor animals, but our two cats. Jessica and Joy, love to sit/lay on the couch and watch their outdoor friends as they eat!

These are just a few thoughts and suggestions, and I hope I will hear some more from my readers!

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