Excellent Junk

I had grand plans for this morning.  I was going to get up early and hit the trails, collecting footage for a short mountain bike video.  However, I didn't get out of bed too awful early this morning (Last night's White Russians put the kibosh on that plan - Damn you!  You delicious concoction!).  Still, I made it to the trails, in Union Mills, by 9:30 and had some fun collecting footage in the woods.  I don't think I got enough action to put together anything interesting but we'll see.  I had picked up a Gorillapod from Adorama, specifically for this purpose.  It worked like a charm today.  I was able to wrap it around trees and logs and get some low angle shots with my Micro four thirds camera.  So, the day was spent riding for a few minutes, stopping, looking around and then either getting off and setting up the camera, or pedaling on to repeat the process.  Its fun to collect footage.  You want to collect neat footage; pretty footage; interesting footage; sunlit nature scenery footage.  You don't want boring footage.  So it's a challenge to be creative out in the woods; a fun challenge.  

I've said this before, but I really like finding junk piles in the middle of the woods.  I usually find them when I'm hunting and will spend a while rooting around to see what there is to see.  Junk piles are just inherently interesting.  Today's pile was awesome.  I was glad I had my camera with me.  The toy gun is probably, the coolest looking item I've found in a long time.  Old telephones are always cool to find, bottles are always nice, but toys take the cake, in my book.

I dig the old Tropicana bottle.  And what the hell is Upper 10?  I had to Google it.  Wikipedia tells me that it first debuted in 1933.  Its similar to 7UP/Sierra Mist etc and it's still sold outside of the US.  Weird name.

Several items (shoes, cans, bottles) had moss growing inside of them, among other things.  Spiders seem to like bottles; they make excellent homes.  Several bottles I picked up, held spiders inside them.  And this creepy puppy also caught my eye.  I love the enthusiastic look on his decaying face.

Snowy Christmas Adirondack trip

A snow covered diesel rests quietly in Old Forge, NY.

A friend and I drove up to my folks place and childhood home in Sherrill, NY this past Thursday evening, after work.  They live about an hour and a half from the Adirondack Mountains.  Thanks to my father, as a kid, I spent a lot of time in those mountains.  It was there that he taught me the woodsman skills I have today:  How to hunt & fish, use a compass, build a fire, which berries to eat, and which ones to avoid etc.  While visiting with my folks these past three days, I made time to introduce her to a close friend but also scoot up into the great white north.  We stopped often, snapping photos along the way.  My friend had never been to the Adirondacks, so I showed her some of the nifty areas, the areas I was familiar with.  We stopped in Old Forge and kicked around the old hardware store, checked out the Adirondack Scenic Railroad and then pushed further north into Inlet, NY.  We grabbed a pizza and had a beer at the Screamin' Eagle (which was was pleasantly surprised to see has increased their tap selection from the three or four I had known, to over forty!). Warm and toasty inside, we watched as snowmobilers ripped up and down the street outside.  I wished we could have stayed longer.  It was a great trip and the snowy weather made for a classic Adirondack Christmas experience.

Rubber ducky

Saturday a friend and I went exploring north of Gettysburg, in Caledonia State Park. It was great to take the jeep off the beaten path and explore some of the gravel roads around the park. I foresee some backpacking at Caledonia in the near future. We stumbled upon a small rubber ducky in the woods and decided he'd look best photographed in his natural environment, so we set him a float for a little while. He's now found a permanent home on the dash of the jeep.

Flowing through Schaeffer - 15 miles

Today's ride was great all the way 'round. Cool temps, beautiful scenery, excellent trail conditions, abundant wildlife, and my legs were feeling pretty fantastical. I covered 15 miles of singletrack today and stopped to take photos, explore a defunct Skeet Range and pretty much had the place to myself. Though I started my ride at Schaeffer Farms, I quickly left the park, crossed Black Rock Road and entered the new (to me) Seneca Ridge Trail. My friend Damien and I stumbled upon this trail the last time we were riding at Schaeffer and its my new favorite for flowy cross country riding. It's also pretty neat because there was a forest fire here within the last few years and several trees are burnt & blackened. It's kind of surreal to ride through the really burnt out areas. Aweome trails... awesome. The Cannondale just eats it up here. Light and nimble she is. mmrrph, sound like Yoda I do.

The Skeet Range is a creepy place. The shacks which once slung clay pigeons out for shooters to knock out of the sky stand like guard towers over an overgrown field of tall grass and broken pigeons which crunch underfoot. Shotgun shells of all gauges lay here and there and trees grow up through the sidewalks that lead from station to station. A little bit of research taught me that this range, the National Capital Skeet and Trap Club was closed in 2005 after much litigation which started in 2003 when incredible amounts of lead shot was found in Seneca Creek. Check out this article; it's pretty interesting. Imagine scooping up handfuls of lead from the bottom of a creek bed...

As I said, I did take some pictures. I couldn't help it. It was a beautiful day. I purposely boosted the saturation, contrast and vibrance of these images and like they way they came out. I typically don't bump these properties nearly this much, but I dig it.

Ohio

This past Easter weekend, I took a trip out to North Olmsted, Ohio to visit friends. Saturday morning I decided to take a walk with my camera to see what there was to see. Looming above most of the area was a water tower. I decided to make it the subject of a series of photos, just to keep my photographic eye in shape. It's been a while since I've done any dedicated photography, and little projects like this help to keep me out of ruts. When I step back and look at the series as a whole I feel an invasive/controlling vibe to the set. I get a sense of: You're being watched. The legs of the tower seem to be beaming down which adds to this alien vibe.