First, the photos I made prints of and mounted:
And the ones I submitted for the digital showing:
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
SANP Entries
By "popular" request, here are my entries into the SANP photo contest.
First, the photos I made prints of and mounted:
And the ones I submitted for the digital showing:
First, the photos I made prints of and mounted:
And the ones I submitted for the digital showing:
Monday, January 7, 2013
Sunday, January 6, 2013
Hiking and birding
Today's nature-ness took me to two place - the John Muir National Recreation Trail and the Hiwassee Wildlife Refuge.
I did a short stretch of the John Muir Trail - only about 5 miles roundtrip. It was actually a pretty strenuous workout, unexpectedly. The first few miles of the trail were supposedly super flat and meant for senior citizens. So I skipped those and went to a parking area further along the trail.
The trail itself is very clearly a National Forest trail and not a GSMNP trail - it's not terribly well maintained or well traveled. That was actually pretty cool. Most of the trail is very narrow single-track, and there were lots of downed trees and other obstructions I had to scramble around. It was certainly more interesting than I had expected. I would have liked to continue on, but I was time-limited in that I wanted to get out to Hiwassee while there was still light.
As an example, this tree trunk was probably 18 inches from the surface of the water, and the water was a good 2 feet deep at points -
It was either scramble over the fallen tree, or try jumping a good 3 ft over 12 inch deep water onto wet, slippery rocks. I think the water was higher than normal... Fortunately, I actually remembered to grab my hiking poles, so I chose to walk the tree and use the poles to balance myself. Victory!
I didn't take many photos during the hike, but here's a quick snap from one of the nicer views:
The first mile or so of the trail (from where I started) runs along a road, so that wasn't great. However, it's also right next to the river, so it was more pleasant than you might think.
After that, I went over to Hiwassee to see the Sandhill Cranes while there was still some light out. There were probably a dozen other people there, all taking photos. I'll make a longer post about this later, but here are a couple quick culls from the ~600 photos I took. I really need to either get a longer lens, or a better teleconverter.
This is actually 3 cranes, not just one at different points. I like the compostion - it's neat that all 3 are at different stages of flapping theirs wings.
And just a lone crane:
I did a short stretch of the John Muir Trail - only about 5 miles roundtrip. It was actually a pretty strenuous workout, unexpectedly. The first few miles of the trail were supposedly super flat and meant for senior citizens. So I skipped those and went to a parking area further along the trail.
The trail itself is very clearly a National Forest trail and not a GSMNP trail - it's not terribly well maintained or well traveled. That was actually pretty cool. Most of the trail is very narrow single-track, and there were lots of downed trees and other obstructions I had to scramble around. It was certainly more interesting than I had expected. I would have liked to continue on, but I was time-limited in that I wanted to get out to Hiwassee while there was still light.
As an example, this tree trunk was probably 18 inches from the surface of the water, and the water was a good 2 feet deep at points -
It was either scramble over the fallen tree, or try jumping a good 3 ft over 12 inch deep water onto wet, slippery rocks. I think the water was higher than normal... Fortunately, I actually remembered to grab my hiking poles, so I chose to walk the tree and use the poles to balance myself. Victory!
I didn't take many photos during the hike, but here's a quick snap from one of the nicer views:
The first mile or so of the trail (from where I started) runs along a road, so that wasn't great. However, it's also right next to the river, so it was more pleasant than you might think.
After that, I went over to Hiwassee to see the Sandhill Cranes while there was still some light out. There were probably a dozen other people there, all taking photos. I'll make a longer post about this later, but here are a couple quick culls from the ~600 photos I took. I really need to either get a longer lens, or a better teleconverter.
This is actually 3 cranes, not just one at different points. I like the compostion - it's neat that all 3 are at different stages of flapping theirs wings.
And just a lone crane:
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
The Nephew, Part V
The Nephew turns out to be remarkably lazy at some things. This includes, for some reason, holding his own drink. He's perfectly capable of it, but very stubborn. I have no idea where he gets that *cough*. So, it took like a minute of wrangling to get these shots.
A few more go-rounds with "the pre-flash scrunchyface game of DOOM"
NOTE: The Nephew is not drunk here. I swear.
Just kinda mean...
Some artsy shots with nice bokeh'ed lights in the background:
The Nephew tried to play some peek-a-boo with this door. It really amused him, although I was able to find him pretty reliably.
A few more go-rounds with "the pre-flash scrunchyface game of DOOM"
NOTE: The Nephew is not drunk here. I swear.
Just kinda mean...
Some artsy shots with nice bokeh'ed lights in the background:
The Nephew tried to play some peek-a-boo with this door. It really amused him, although I was able to find him pretty reliably.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
The Nephew, Part IV
The Nephew, continuing to play "let's scrunch our face in anticipation of bright lights." He looks kinda mean...
Happy again!
Haughtily consuming some briskette. Nephew - remember to point the pinky!
In which we screw with him while he's trying to eat.
This causes The Nephew to be displeased.
Happy again!
Haughtily consuming some briskette. Nephew - remember to point the pinky!
In which we screw with him while he's trying to eat.
This causes The Nephew to be displeased.
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