Hocking Hills for our Anniversary

Lisa and I returned to Hocking Hills, to celebrate our second anniversary.  The trip was a lot of fun, despite the heat.  We stayed in a new cabin and were pleasantly surprised to discover a nest outside the sliding glass door to our porch.

We got to watch both parents feeding their babies all weekend.  It was a lot of fun.  We think that they are Flycatchers.

Rather than visiting Old Man's Cave again we decided to explore some of the other sites in Hocking County.  We went to Ash Cave, which in my opinion is more impressive than Old Man's Cave.  Lisa suffered through the heat while I played with my camera.  I am experimenting with a new type of photography, called HDR (high dynamic range).  Basically you take 3 different exposures and combine them into one image.  I think the results are pretty amazing.  Here are a couple of images of Ash Cave and its surroundings.

The scenery is amazing throughout Hocking County.  I enjoy driving there with all the windy roads, despite the stress of having to be constantly on the lookout for Deer and other woodland creatures.  Speaking of woodland creatures on our way to see the sights on Saturday we crested a hill and in the distance on the road ahead was what initially looked like a fox.  I immediately started to slow and as we got closer the "fox" didn't run away.  Turns out it was a Pomeranian that had been shaved in the front and was wandering the woods.  Lisa got out to check on him.  Several work trucks coming the other way also stopped.  I was afraid that with so many stopped cars that an idiot would cause an accident so I got out and picked the puppy up (looking back on it not the smartest move).  We put him/her in the back seat and drove to the ranger station near Old Man's Cave.  By the time we got there our little friend had cooled off enough to be himself.  In other words a biting, growling, tough guy.  We decided to let the ranger extract him from the backseat.  they have a kennel behind the ranger station and our new friend seemed happy to be there.

We continued on to see the sights.  However, on the way back in nearly the same stretch of road we came across a Turtle in the middle of the road.  Once again I stopped and Lisa got out and moved him to a safe place off the road.  

I love my wife dearly, but I think that animals can sense that she is a Veterinarian.  We always seem to come across animals in need of help.  I don't mind, I actually enjoy it, but sometimes I wish they would wait until we are on our way home without plans.

I can't believe that Lisa and i have been married now for 2 years.  It has been the happiest time of my life.  Love you Honey.

The Zoo

Lisa and I along with some friends from her work went to the Columbus Zoo for an afternoon. One of my main ideas was to get pictures of the new Polar Bears. Everyone else seemed to have the same idea and I wasn't able to get any decent shots of the Polar Bears. I did get some other good ones though.

A Fun walk in the woods.

Today I got out of the house and headed to explore a park I found on the internet. for those familiar with the Columbus area there is a neat waterfall at Hayden run park. Unfortunately, the city decided to build a boardwalk to the falls. The claim was that it would make the falls easier to reach with less impact to the stream bed. Unfortunately this ruined a great photo site as you can no longer access the falls directly. I have been searching for a while to find another neat location like Hayden Run for photos.

That lead to today, I found another set of falls in the area and decided to explore them. They are at the Indian Run Falls Park in Dublin, OH. The park has a great trail system and a bridge across the water. Unfortunately the trail system only takes you along the top of the gorge that the falls are in. There is no way to access the lower falls. Which is a shame as they are really neat as seen from above. I did venture off the trail on a well cut path and was able to access a section of the upper falls. Anyone care to Shoot pictures there?

Playing with Product Photography

Over the weekend Lisa and I added lattice to our deck, to keep the critters out. While cutting one of the boards for the project I accidentally cut the tape measure with my Compound Mitre. To make the mess up public in my facebook profile I took the mangled tool into the studio. I have a set up for product lighting and was able to create a neat image.

I like the seamless look to the image. I also like the reflection of the ragged edge. I think this is a great example of how even everyday objects can be made unique with a creative set up.

Florida for Easter

Lisa and I went to see her parents in Florida over the easter weekend. I had a lot of fun and it was great to see them. The photographic theme for the weekend for me started the first morning we were there when Lisa woke me up to see the sunrise. There was a low hanging fog layer, that made the woods near the condo look like something out of jurassic park. From the 25 th floor the scene was awe inspiring. Of course I started snapping away. One of the Trees caught my attention and became the focus of the shot below.

I could see on the camera's LCD the tinge of red in the shot and thought it would look great. It wasn't until i got home that I noticed the hawk or eagle in the lower left side of the picture. It adds such life to the shot.

Later that day we went out on the boat and I was playing with the camera trying to get a shot of a pelican doing one of their extremely low passes over the water. My newly purchased Canon 2x teleconverter helped out and i was able to get the shot.

I love the primordial look of pelicans and their skill at low level flight is impressive.

On our last day we went for a walk and came across a Gopher Tortoise. Honestly I don't think I would mind if this guy were tearing up my lawn. Although Cricket would probably freak out.

I will also be uploading these pictures to the Lanigan's Lens page on Facebook.

Landings

I haven't updated this as much as I should. I will try to be better about it in the future.

I flew last night from Denver to Columbus and got to thinking about one of my photos.

I took this while Lisa and I were in Monterrey, CA for her ACVP convention. It has become one of my favorite nature shots. i think because you can see the concentration in the pelican's eyes as it flares to lans on a tiny rock.

I thought about this photo because it shows the thing of beauty that a landing is. I think that we as earthbound beings, relying on machines to fly, can only have a glimpse at what it is like for birds as they master the skies.

We all know a bad airline landing when we feel one, however, when you consider the incredible amount of variables and nuances that comprise a landing it is incredible they aren't flubbed more often. I will spare a long description of how to land an airplane, but consider this: Last night I flew over a thousand Nautical Miles and then had to place a multi-ton aircraft going 140mph onto a strip of pavement 150 feet wide and just over a mile long. (If you want to get technical in order to land as a part 121 air carrier I had to touch down in the first 3,000 feet of the runway.)

For me the mark of a good night landing is when I open the cockpit door and can still see people rubbing their eyes because they didn't wake until we reached the gate.

But I am no where near as good a pilot as that Pelican is.

A Wonderful Birthday

For my birthday, Lisa rented a cabin in Hocking Hills. It was a great vacation. Nothing like getting a couple of days away with your spouse and the dogs. It was nice to reconnect and have nothing to do but go on long walks and talk. Of course I took my camera and had a lot of fun just taking pictures of the scenery. We hiked the trail around Old Man's Cave. We also went to Cedar falls, I had a great time shooting pictures, while Lisa froze.

Here are a couple of pics of the cabin. It was great with a hot tub on the back porch. It was really quiet at night which was great.

Cricket And Brewster had a great time. I was amazed at how close Cricket would stay to us, Lisa got this pic of my dog behaving herself.

Crick exploring.

Brewster had a great time too. I loved how his tongue became a little smile. He was so energetic and just loved to walk and explore.

These are from our hike around Old Man's Cave.

This rock formation is called the Devil's Bathtub.

This is Cedar Falls it is really beautiful. I love how the two streams come together to make one fall.

The fall colors were amazing I couldn't believe the variation.

In the next couple of days I will be uploading larger versions of these files to my site laniganslens.com. They will be under the nature section.