I was lucky enough to have a free day to go out and do some shooting.
The later Summer, early Autumn weather has been relatively warm, and no cold snaps to set the leaves into colors yet, but I was still going to go out.
If anything, just to do some scouting.
So off I went…
I love having a GPS!
After about an hour of just driving around, enjoying the beautiful scenery of the Morgantown, Churchtown and Honey Brook areas, I headed toward Hibernia Park to find the spot I had surveyed earlier in the Summer on another GPS drive.
After parking in the small little lot, I equipped myself, crossed the bridge and down the trail to find a way to creek edge.
What had caught my eye about this section before, was the bigger rocks and swifter water flow.
I was hoping for more color in the canopy over the water, but it was not going to be…
Looking up the Brandywine – Hibernia Park
Even without the real reds and oranges of Fall, this part of the Brandywine presented many nice sections of water action, and found myself setting up and capturing several section during my creek walk.
As I crawled across a fallen tree, I noticed out of the corner of my eye, a single small white mushroom, growing in the hollowed out root ball of one of the trees.
Tree Stump with White Mushroom – Hibernia Park
Setting up my tripod for this shot, was very difficult because of the angle I needed to see into the stump, and having a stable platform to do the multiple shoots needed for HDR, but I think it was worth it.
When I was woken up, I was presented with Father’s Day cards, and a special banner that Amy, Madison and Logan had worked on just for me!
What a nice way to start the day!
From there, I was allowed to watch my Sunday morning programs with a hot cup of coffee and an omelet in peace!
So far so good!
And peace was a relative term…
I could hear the kids up stairs running back and forth in the upstairs hallway, screaming and giggling…
It was also not hard to realize, they needed to get out and burn off some of the energy that is perpetual when the two of them are together!
Since it was Daddy’s Day, I got to say where we were going! Yeah!!
I did not have to compromise or negotiate, especially when the kids heard that Mommy was going to come with us!
Marsh Creek Reservoir looking North (Panorama 01)
My plan was slowly taking shape!
(Insert “Mad Scientist” Laughter)
Now the hard part… Where?
I wanted to try some place that I have not been to before, but keep it close by.
I knew because of the heat and humidity, I wanted to be near water.
Based on that, I looked up Marsh Creek State Park.
Am I suggesting that I have never been to MCSP before? – NO
Along the trail (20110619 Marsh Creek 107)
I have been to the Pool and Water Park area on the east side several time, and I have been Mountain Biking before in the south-west part near the Brandywine before, but I did not think anyone but me would be interested in that adventure.
So I had to figure out some place new, so I took to Google Earth to fly around a little to scope out a trail, and in doing so, I remembered the damn in the southern park.
So I gather up the troops, jumped into the car, and headed out, and about 30 minutes later, we were parked and heading down the trail.
There are many small coves that surround the lake, and as we approached the first one, there were some folks fishing and a dog that was having a grand time in the water.
Not to be out done, Logan and Madison pleaded with us to be allowed to go in the water and play with the dog.
Who am I to say “No”?!
We let them play for a little bit, and then called for them to join us on the rest of the walk, and all we got was “Awww…”, but finally we were off again!
I should have figured that as soon as we were on “open” trail, Logan would be running down the trail, and the parents calling out to him to slow down and be careful! Soon to be followed by his sister, trading back and forth who would be our guide, calling out rocks and roots so we would not fall.
Very cute, but after the first 50 “obstacles ‘… Well, what do you say as a parent…
We finally got to the over-flow drain, and the kids were having fun walking on the grate, looking down into the rushing water as it fell in, but Amy was a little more apprehensive about the whole situation.
Butterfly on the Damn
Then we crossed over the main damn, where we were pasted by several Mountain Bikers as they headed to the trails on the far side. I reminded both kids, that we needed to work on getting them off of training wheels so that we could start doing the same thing.
At the edge of the meadow, we stopped and rested, saw a Red-Winged Black bird, and agreed that it was time to head back.
Tree Stump and Ferns (20110619 Marsh Creek 110)
On the trip back, Madison made sure that we all knew she was the guide, but after some time, she relinquished her lead, and Logan scampered to the front.
As we returned the swimming cove from earlier, both the kids just ran into the water without evening asking, and happy played until it was time to leave once again.
On the car trip home, there were talks of baths and then fun that we had on our Father’s Day Nature Walk.
It has been several months since I have had a chance to sit down and pull a collection of images to submit to Panoramio for Google Earth.
So this morning, while I was drinking my coffee, I slowly went back through my catalog of images, and pulled together a series of 22 images that I thought would be a good selection for submission, including late Fall, Winter and Spring images from:
If you care to see what I have selected, as well as my other images that have been accepted, they can be found on my Panoramio (Google Earth) account.
As always, please feel free to add comments!
– Andrew
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Update on Panoramio submissions
6/6/2011 – Wow! The folks that monitor submission seem to be working overtime!
Normally, or at least from my past experience, it usually takes 3-5 days for any news on images being accepted, but by late Sunday night, ALL 22 of my images have been approved! (I now have 135 images on Google Earth!)
