After capturing the “Lightwave – Baltimore’s Beacon” installation last year, I started playing around with zooming the lens with the shutter open to see what patterns I could capture. The ones where I opened the shutter while zooming in seemed to work the best.
Cherry Blossoms from the Tidal Basin in Washington DC.
Last fall I had the opportunity to attend two photo charters in Colorado, so I extended the trip to allow time to visit a couple of national parks. First up was Mesa Verde National Park. Created on June, 29th, 1906 by Theodore Roosevelt, Mesa Verde National Park was the first of it’s kind. All prior National Parks were created to preserve nature. Mesa Verde was established to preserve the works of man.
I only had one afternoon to visit Mesa Verde this time, but that was more than enough time to capture the two images I had in mind. First was sunset at Square Tower House:
Second was the Milky Way over Park Point:
As a bonus I got a post sunset shot of the old Knife Edge Road that served as the entrance to the park for many years. The went around the rock formation to the left in the image below, literally only one car width wide. Thankfully they’ve built a wider road to replace it:
After finishing with the milky way shots, I headed north to the Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park. More on that in Part 2.
Square Tower House in Mesa Verde National Park is the tallest cliff dwelling in the park. It also is a great location to shoot at sunset. Since the last time I visited was a cloudy day, I made a point to stop at Mesa Verde on my way to Black Canyon of the Gunnison on a trip last fall. I’ll post the first part of the trip report on Tuesday.
FiFi makes a photo pass during the 2016 Mid Atlantic Air Museum WWII Weekend.
The B-29 Superfortress was manufactured by Boeing from 1943 to 1946 and was flown by the US Army Air Corps and later the US Air Force from 1944 to 1960. Of the 3,970 built, only a few remain. Twenty-two are preserved in museums worldwide, a handful of airframes are in storage plus a couple of known crashes scattered throughout the world. For many years, FiFi was the only airworthy B-29 Superfortress. Recently a second B-29, Doc, completed its flight testing, earning a revised airworthyness certificate from the FAA, allowing it to travel without restrictions. I can’t wait to see Doc out on the airshow circuit starting this summer.
Here’s one of my favorite photos from a private photo charter on the Durango & Silverton back in February 2011. 478 pulls a mixed train along the Animas River at a location called Tank Creek. In the background just before the tracks curve out of the frame, you can see the water tank that gives this location its name.
Another from the archives. Sunrise at Fairview Farm along the Strasburg Railroad during a Lerro Productions photo charter in February 2013.
A year ago this weekend I stopped to photograph the Strasburg Railroad on my way to a photo charter on the Reading & Northern. Shortly after I arrived I saw Strasburg’s Russell Snow Plow heading out of the yard. I went straight for a cut hoping for deep enough snow to capture the plow at work. Fortunately I guessed correctly.
One from the archives, this time from a Lerro Productions Photo Charter at the Western Maryland Scenic Railroad in October of 2013. Shot just after sunset, this scene featured a perfectly restored Mercury pickup truck, Western Maryland 734 and Mr. Helmstetter’s Barn.
In case you missed my original review, please take a minute to check it out. Now that I have my copy of the book (the review was of a pre-production copy), I’m happy to say it is even better than I expected.
To go along with the hard copy, a PDF reference version was recently released by the author to allow you to take the book in the field with you as a reference. The PDF copy is low resolution and formatted specifically for loading onto a smartphone or tablet and can be loaded onto multiple devices.
The PDF is available directly from the author’s website and costs $30 if you don’t own a hard copy of Treasured Lands or $5.00 if you own a copy.
Q.T., thanks again for putting this together!