This past weekend the family took a drive a couple of hours north to visit Amish country in Lancaster County Pennsylvania. This was not really a photographic trip so I didn't take a lot of photos. We drove up on a Sunday and discovered that almost every store and restaurant was closed in the area. The positive side is there was very little traffic and we didn't feel rushed driving on the country roads.




All of the farms fields have been harvested and the corn has been put in corn cribs to dry out for feed and grain.


We also visited a couple of covered bridges. However, the one that everyone typically photographs was closed for construction and renovation.



It was a nice day and a great destination for a Sunday drive.

When I was at Big Meadow in Shenandoah I brought my macro lens and tried to concentrate on the small details from the meadow. I was not very productive photographically, but it was nice to walk in the fields early in the morning after my sunrise photo shoot.



Here is a close-up photo of juvenile milkweed bugs (Oncopeltus fasciatus) on a milkweed seed pod. They were everywhere this time of the year.



One thing to keep in mind that you can use your macro lens just like a normal lens. I saw this family walking in the field and I shot the following photo with my 180mm Macro. I liked the composition, but didn't like the initial edit I made in color. I ended up playing with the image and converting it to black and white. I also added some noise and texture to the photo. It ended up giving the photo a charcoal drawing look that I really like.



I also ended up shooting a lot of video on this trip, but my initial edits of the video are not very compelling. Basically its just a bunch of flowers and weeds blowing in the breeze.

Other than the video, I think my Shenandoah trip was photographically productive in the 24 hours I was up in the park. I'm already looking forward to visiting again, maybe in the spring next time.

During the Columbus Day weekend I camped at the Big Meadow campground so I can have easy access to take sunrise photos from the Shenandoah overlooks. On Monday sunrise was at 6:41 AM so I woke up at 5:30 so I can make the 19 mile drive to the Hazel Mountain overlook to photograph the sunrise. When I arrived there were already two photographers there setting up for a sunrise shoot. One of those photographers was Joshua Taylor. He is a well known local photographer that teaches local workshops and classes. He mentioned he left his house before 4 AM so can arrive at Shenandoah for the sunrise. For the next hour we photographed the light show that was displayed before us.

Here are a few of my favorite photos from this morning.


On a technical note, I was using an ND Grad filter for all of these photos. One tip that Joshua gave me is to stack a couple of filters when your single filter is not capable of blocking all of the light from the sun. For some reason I never thought of that before. Joshua is a great teacher and if you are looking for workshops or classes check out his website for his upcoming training sessions.

One of the main reasons why I wanted to camp overnight in Shenandoah was to be able to easily photograph the sunrise and sunset at the park. In the middle of the park past the 50 mile marker you reach the top of the mountain range. Here at the top is a location called Big Meadow.

Big Meadow is typically the location you visit if you want to see deer. It is also a great location for photographing the sunset.



I knew that I wanted to photograph the sunset from this location since you have a great view of the Shenandoah valley when you stand at the top of the hill on the South end of the meadow.



Once the sun is below the far mountain range you learn why they call this place the blue ridge mountains. The far mountain ranges will be blue and the sky will turn from very warm reds and oranges to cooler purples the farther away from the sun you look.





Once the sun has set completely the sky will turn darker and more vibrant with deep reds and oranges, while the mountain range retains its cool blue tones.



Here is a little technical note for the photographers that follow my blog. Most of these were shot with my 70-200mm zoom lens at the 200mm end of the zoom. I was also using the landscape photographers best friend, the ND grad filter for the majority of these shots.

Here are some quick examples of the foliage from the Columbus Day weekend.

There is no noticeable Fall color on the lower end of Shenandoah. This is around the 6 mile mark.

Back in July of this year I took a trip out to Manassas Battlefield to photograph for my Civil War in Infrared project. I blogged about some of the photos from that trip previously. I entered several photos from that trip into the annual Civil War Preservation Trust photo contest. This is the second time I have entered.

About a month ago I was notified that I was a finalist in the Battlefield group and my photo of Henry House Hill was the background image on the home page.


I ended up coming in second in the Battlefield category and I'm very pleased. The infra red photo technique may not be as accessible to most viewers and I'm happy that the judges liked my photo.

Here is snippet of what they had to say about my photo on the website.

"This remarkable landscape photo of the Henry House at the Bull Run battlefield caught all of our judges attention."

I would like to congratulate all of the winners. You can view all of the winning photos at the following link. I plan on entering again next year and I hope I can place as well again.