"Listen to the voice of nature, for it holds treasures for you." (Huron Indian saying)
 

 Whispering Falls 

Resica Falls 

Pocono Mountains Pennsylvanin  Shohola Falls 

Stone Bridge  Located At the base of  Buttermilk Falls 

Pocono Mountains Pennsylvania

On Sunday my wife Dee & I spent a wonderful day  with our good friend, Joe photographing Eagles, Ospreys & Waterfalls in the beautiful Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania....NATURE RULES!!!  Buttermilk Falls 

Pocono Mountains Pike County, Pennsylvania Dingmans River 

 The Glen Lower Cascade 

 The Glen Lower End Of The River 

Pike County, Pennsylvania   The Glen 

My wife Dee & I spent the day birding at a new location in Pennsylvania. This was our first visit to the area and we were looking for birds to photograph. After walking about 1/4 mile down a gravel trail we came upon this beautiful waterfall, we had no idea this was there.  I had my camera set up for birding not shooting long exposure waterfall shots. I had the wrong lens and no tripod for long exposures. So I had to use what I had and shoot handheld.

Here I am shooting the falls... Photo By Dee Don't Do It This Way 

I could only shoot the very top part of the beautiful falls, no wide angle lens & no tripod...The Result Handheld & Long Exposure  Waterfall 

You can bet that Dee & I will make a return trip very soon with the right equipment. I really want to see this place in the fall when all the colors of Autumn are bursting.....NATURE RULES!!!

    Well, I finally got off my butt and went out and shot some stuff... mostly crap!  I was too shoot happy at first and wasted a lot of time.  I think because it was my first time out in a while.  A few made it past the delete key for various reasons but, overall I was happier at just getting out than with the shots.

 Misty Wabash   Misty atomosphere, snowy banks, and frosty cottonwoods on the Wabash River.

 The Bench   original name, huh?

 Big Tree    and again.

 Au Natural   no sepia tint just light not a good subject but shot it just for the light.  Might make a good jigsaw puzzle.

 Cataract Falls   Odd comp but shot for a desktop and I put all my icons on the left so needed some space.

 Worst Group This may be the worst group photo in history.  This is the one I was telling you about Wildman. A few days before Xmas my cousin called me and asked me to come to her house the next day and take family portraits of her and her kids to give to my aunt(her mom) for a gift.  She wanted them taken in her living room and had already told everyone to come and wear a black shirt and bluejeans, obviously she was pretty confidant that I'd agree.  I told her that as long as the groups were small it would probably be ok, even though I'd never done this before, but there wasn't enough room for the lights and to get far enough back to use a normal focal length in her living room. No problem, just small groups.  On the way there my son called and needed us to babysit Jaryd and Avary so we had them to contend with too.  After all the family groups shots which turned out ok but not great, being it was my first time I was happy with them, naturally... somebody suggests a photo with everyone in it.  I explained how it wouldn't work in there that it would be distorted and stuff but nobody cared and they wanted Barb and I in it too.  I finally gave in as it was almost time for the Bears game and I still had to drive twenty miles home.  So everyone lined up, I spread the lights out, moved the camera back, put on the wide angle, and set the timer, pushed the button, and ran over and took my seat.  While the timer counted down, here comes Jaryd into the shot, I'm trying to shoo him away before the timer runs out but he gets right into the group and just before the lights flash he says to the quiet group of people, "Hi,everybody!". Naturally everyone cracks up.  My cousin's husband in the back row looks like he's going to explode.  You can just see Jaryd on the left behind Barb.  My aunt picked this one from all the shots for her gift and they had it enlarged and framed for her and while it was the worst shot of the bunch it was my favorite one also. 

If you want to have fun you can enumerate all the things wrong with this shot!  Just remember I'm very sensitive.

High Peak's Falls

The multnomah waterfall is one of the tallest continual flowing waterfall in the US. It is only about a mile from the Wahkeena waterfall. It is odd that in all my trips to Portland I did not know about this place until one of the Sales Reps from a local distributor told me about it.

 From the parking lot

 Falls 1

 Falls 2

For kicks I tried taking this one with the walkway lights on. It was taken not very long after Falls 2. Both were taken after sunset with little light.

 Walkway

The following set is of the Wahkeena waterfall in Oregon. The waterfall is located about 15-20 miles East of Portland. The first picture in this post is for  reference . It was taken at 27 mm.

The following four were taken with the 80-200 and picking the area around the rock in the foreground. I realize the first two are somewhat similiar but differ in the blur of the water. I figured I post them both to see if there is preference for one or the other. Any comments/critiques will be appreciated.

 Wahkeena 1    1/3 second f10 @ 80mm

 Wahkeena 2    2 seconds f22 @ 80mm

 Wahkeena 3    1/3 second f10 @ 112mm

 Wahkeena 4   1/10 second f8 @ 80mm

The only thing these pictures have in common is that I took them on a recent trip to Montana.

We had record snowfall amounts in the North Cascades this winter, and this is the result of the spring melt (it was raining in addition to the spray and mist, resulting in an almost dreamlike quality - except for the deafening roar of the water)  Snoqualmie_Falls1  

This one I should have had for the BLUE challenge - how many shades can you count (aqua counts too) Flathead_Lake  (I know the horizon should be higher or lower, but I couldn't move it without losing shades of blue in the sky or water).

And finally, lots of timber industry in Montana, as you might imagine, and I liked the look of these bundles of fence_posts

Heading up to NY State to get my son from school soon and wanted to practice waterfall shots. We are going to stop and see Niagra Falls. I want to take pictures from a unique view, you think this will  help?

SPLIT ROCK STATE PARK
Split Rock Light house #1 One of my favorites
Split Rock Light house #2
Split Rock Light House #3