Exploration

Perhaps it is fitting that I found myself in unmarked territory over a weekend that celebrates Columbus' exploration into the "new world".

The pics below are from a couple of hikes over the weekend. You won't find these hikes in any hiking books, although a hand-held GPS device seemed to function well.

Ooo, a Log!
This is one was taken along the side of the road (figures, huh?). I liked the glow of the yellow leaves in the setting sun, and thought that the trunk was an interesting feature, too. I wish, though, that I had taken the time to grab my cokin 2ND filter to minimize some of the glare on the right-hand side of the pic.

Color Crop

I had trouble framing this one just right (again, the 2nd would have come in handy!). I really like the colors, though, and figured I could just crop it. Hey, thats what I did! I didn't make any color/contrast/saturation adjustments, just a bit o' cropping.

Look!
The pic below may be just "so-so" but it is an example of something I have learned. My current focus is to just try different things and see what happens (resulting in a lot of wasted frames. Luckily, I have plenty of CF cards!). I was pleased with the depth of field for this pic, along with the expert use of my polarizer. Yes, I stood in the water. Yes I made some saturation changes using the canon software (the original didn't have the right color saturation).




Beams of Light
For this pic, I was initially concentrating on the water in the lower corner. The little ripples caught my eye because they were so noisy! However, I ended up catching some great light beams. I converted this to black & white to give it a classic feel (plus, I loooove black & whites). I think that this is my favorite pic for the weekend. (btw, wouldn't it be even more fantastic if I had a 10-22mm???)

I don't know

I am calling this one "I don't know" because, well, I am unfamiliar with this part of the state and have no idea what mountain I am looking at. I love rocks.

The Sign

Given that this place was so beautiful, yet so deserted, and not listed in "the book," I was curious about its history. Del spotted the back of the sign from the beach, and I trekked up see of it offered any clues.

Nope.

Flashy Leaves

This pic was another lesson learned. I thought that the fall colors looked so pretty against the blue sky, complete with fluffy clouds; however, the first pic I took made the branches way too dark. A-ha! Fill flash! I tried several different aperture settings to get a pic that would show the branch in a way that was not too dark, and not too light. Enjoy.

Alrighty, there you go, my lastest & greatest. As always, thank you so much for taking a peek at my pics. Peace.