Smoky Mountain Stream
Traveling down the interstate, thoughts of the beautiful Smoky Mountains auditioned in my head. Mountain tops, water falls, rivers, wooded paths, all that.

As we approached, the reality was far different.

"Ugly, ugly, ugly" is the only way I can describe Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg.

People apparently love it in those towns. I was gagging.

Oh the humanity, Oh the humanity.

The family reunion part was good. Great people, good food, fun times.

Driving anywhere - well, not so much...

I did manage to make a drive to the mountains and do some drive-by shootings.

No real hiking or outdoor adventure, but at least spending time in the real mountains.
Below is a picture of a stream flowing south from Newfound Gap.

I shot about 100 photos and found one image that I sort of liked.

The white balance setting of florescent seemded to give the best overall look - interesting.
For the people who never got out of the towns, well hopefully they had fun shopping for overpriced stuff and getting stuck in traffic.

Oh the humanity.

Chillaxing

The new word that I learned today is: Chillaxing.

That is what a person does after 3+ hours of quality mountain biking, especially if in a place as nice as Brown County State Park!

Ground wheat nostalgic

Photograph the old mill parts

Buy bread at grocery

Blossoms on the trees
In the hospital courtyard
Rain falls to the ground.

Backpack Trip

Last weekend's backpack trip to Zaleski added another entry into the adventure log of Running Wolf - the outdoor photographer.

This shot shows Jordan Hart, photograher, looking through a small opening in the rock. Jordan took a "real" camera while I only took a point and shoot just to record the trip for posterity. I can't wait to go back with the D300 and a tripod and get some actual pictures worth enlarging and framing. Did I just insult every point and shoot owner - sorry. But the tripod really does add a lot for depth of field and sharpnes.

Anyway, the backpack trip was, of course, outstanding. We stayed at campsite "D" which appears to be a popular Zaleski destination for shorter trips. We experimented with four different stove configurations. Two were homemade alcohol stoves and one was a homemade twig burning stove. It appears that the MSR Pocket Rocket "won" the competition. My homemade pop can alcohol stove came in dead last and gave my double wall titanium mug some character. Some might have said ruined, but the coffee still tastes the same and the mug is still usable. But it is back to the drawing board for me as far as home made stoves go. Tim's twig burning stove did real well, but I am still more interested in the alcohol for quick, clean, and light cooking.

We were camped by a group of German Baptists who were out with their sons. Around 10pm we heard the most beautiful hymn singing ever. They were singing in four part harmony some of the old time hymns. That experience may never be topped.

Here are some shots of the stoves:

And another shot of Jordan Hart, photographer:

Peeling

peeling old white paint

exposes rusting metal

once a protection

OK, the fall trip photos are finally on my web site at www.photobyhart.com. This trip was to Watkins Glen, NY, Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and Southern Ohio.

Yes there really is a Grand Canyon of Pennsylvania and while it is nowhere near on the scale of THE Grand Canyon in Arizona, it is still pretty grand. It was very cold the day we arrived and just as we pulled up, there was an entire school bus of kids unloading. As it turned out, the kids were no problem. If fact they were kind of helpful in spotting the eagles flying around overhead. In one flyby, one of the eagles circled pretty close and I was able to squeeze off several frames (while Gary was messing with his tripod I could add...).

This was one very enjoyable trip and Watkins Glen, Ithaca and the entire Finger Lakes region is definitely a place that I want to go back to.

Now that winter is in full swing, it is harder to get motivated for going out where the pictures are. Not too many photos are going to pop up while sitting on my couch. It is just that it is a little bit chilly out. Minus 17 puts me in a stay inside frame of mind.

But now it is +28 so that is practically T-shirt weather. The Adams Street bridge shot at the right was taken a few weeks ago before we had more snow, so perhaps today will provide the motivation to get out and start looking.

I saw in a mailer from the Hayner that there is a paper making class in February. For some reason, this really has my interest. Plus my friend Suzy knows how to do a process to transfer photos to paper. I don't know the details yet, but making transfer prints onto paper that I made just has me psyched to try some experimental mediums. I want to do something a little different that the average photo and that may be a new creative means. A sort of bridge throught the fog to a new shore (to make a cheesy comparison to my blog post pic - the "bpp").

If you have not checked out Whitney's blog from Hong Kong, give it a click. She has some beautiful shots both daylight and night from Hong Kong. Makes me wish I was there.