Amazing Places & Landscapes

The Ancient Bristlecone Pines

The Alabama Hills in Owens Valley

The Night Sky - 10/2022

I'm hoping to take a trip out west this year and do some landscape photography so I thought I would try my hand at some backyard photos and get some practice. After a short walk I got to the highest point that didn't require getting into an automobile to see what I could do working with midday sunlight. On a day like this the light is ever changing so I learned you must be patient and wait for the sun and clouds to do their work. As a bonus I threw in a couple of shots I took earlier this month later in the day at a local wetlands preserve because they fit the theme.

We don't get enough 70-degree days in April, so I went for a walk down at the Dauphin County Wildwood Wetlands Park and had my camera in tow. It's a place I'll have to go back to when spring is more in bloom and take along a longer lens to get images of more of the wildlife.

I usually keep an eye on the sky during the course of the day in hopes of having an opportunity to photograph a nice sunset. On this day it was almost completely overcast the entire day to the point where I had blown off thinking there would be any opportunity of a decent sunset. The about 7pm something happened and the sky to the west started to break up and disappointment turned to hope and about a half an hour later the sky was drenched in color and I was there to capture it until it disappeared into the night.

For quite literally decades I have seen the moon rise over Harrisburg on my way home from work and think what a great opportunity for a photo., especially if you could compose the image so that it was directly behind or just above the Capitol Building. For almost a year with the help of some friends I made several attempts, some of which are in another collection here. The photo has plenty of challenges not the least of which is knowing where to stand so that everything lines up when you are a shooting from a mile away on the west shore of the Susquehanna River. Then there is being there at the right time and being ready as you only have about an 8 min window when the shot is available and only when the weather cooperates. In the fall of 2020, I was able to finally get some photographs that captured this special occasion.

Just north of Harrisburg where Route 225 and the Appalachian Trail crosses Peters Mountain there is an overlook that I made a couple quick trips to, trying to capture the last of what was a very early and short fall colors season. Each time I did there was quite a bit of clouds and or haze in the sky as the humidity was quite high. Undeterred, I took pictures thru, over, and behind the haze trying to use whatever available light the clouds allowed to get thru. I have decided to perhaps make this a daily trip next fall as it is not far so I can try and be there when the colors and skies are at their best. After only 2 years of trying to get photos of central PA's fall colors I have decide that we have 2 separate opportunities. The first is the early fall when the trees that turn yellow are in full color and then later the oranges and reds come out, but to often, not before the yellows have turned brown or are on the ground. These photos are from the latter stage of Fall. Fortunately there are some trees refusing to give in and we had a couple days of rain the week before so the fields that were not yet plowed under provided some green tones that add nicely to the shots.

I was starting to plan my next attempt at getting a photo of a full moon rising over the Harrisburg Capitol Bldg when I realized that for just 2 days in August the Sunset would share the sky with the a tiny sliver of a moon. On Aug 19, as luck would have it clouds ruled the sky but on the 20th things cleared midafternoon and there was chance. During the day the moon wasn't visible, it was to close to the same position in the sky so it got blown away by the bright sunlight as it chased the sun across the sky. Hoping for the best I went down to the east back of the Susquehanna at sunset to try and capture the event. At first it looked as though it wasn't going to happen. As you can see below the sun is going down and no moon to be seen. Halfway across the river a couple of Great Egrets flew down stream as they headed west for the night, but still no moon. More time passed and with the help of an app on my phone I found a faint outline, zoomed in and sure enough there is was. But it was going to take time. Fortunately, my partner cooperated and I got to get some pictures of the moon with a backdrop of the sunset. This is an event that does not happen all that often due to the paths the earth and moon follow around the sun. The panorama at the end was taken when I returned to the same spot just four days later when the sky wasn't overcast again and had to stitch 12 portrait pictures together to include both the moon and the sky where the sun went down. You will also notice how much the look of the moon changed in that short time.

The spring of 2020 is not one any of us will soon forget, but this to shall pass. Even when time feels like it is standing still it marches on. The oak will finally loose its leaves and the buds and flowers will return and eventually life will return to a new normal like the signs of spring popping out everywhere this month.

You don't always get to take sunset photographs like the first one below from last month. More often than not they usually look more like the second shot. When that happens I start to look around for something of interest to shoot. Here are some of the random shots I took when the sunset didn' t provide and one or two where it did provide when I didn't expect it.

These photos are some of my earliest photos taken with camera loaned to me by my good friend and photography mentor Marty Ginter (martyginterphotography.com). He loaned me a Nikon D300s and a zoom lens and said go take some pictures. I proceeded to inundate him with photos from every turn in my day. Since it was late September fall foliage seem to be an easy subject, turned out not so much, as the colors were not all awe inspiring. But I pressed on. He helped learn about things like aperture, shutter speed, ISO and how the 3 make up photography’s holly grail. He introduced me to developing digital images in Lightroom and tried to show me Photoshop. My first shots desperately needed post processing to salvage shots that anyone but a total rookie would have deleted. Eventually some of what he was saying started to stick and the pictures got better. The fall images below where taken on various days and locations. Some of the best were taken at a state park near Derry Pa where my brother lives.

Sunsets come early in January in PA so too often they have come and gone and go unnoticed. On this day I happened to look out back and notice the sky was full of color from horizon to horizon. So I grabbed my camera and went out to capture all the glory while it lasted. Unfortunately there are about a dozen power lines along Crums Mill Rd that were between me and that magnificent sunset and I couldn't get on the other side of them. Fortunately Lightroom provides a solution and after a couple hours of work I got rid of them without ruining the bands of color that crisscrossed the sky.

There is a park along the east bank of the Susquehanna River just north of where PA Route 39/ Linglestown Rd ends at Front Street. I think it’s a great spot for photos and especially sunsets. It was cold and windy when I got there on this night – well maybe not that cold for February but still not a day you wanted to be standing along the river for very long. Fortunately as you can see I did not have to because the sky was filled with color everywhere I looked.

At the beginning of February I decided to take an online project workshop put on by a photographer and YouTuber I follow by the name of Hudson Henry. (check out his work here: https://hudsonhenryphotography.com) The theme of the project was “long exposures” which I thought would help me with the kind of sunset & night skyline pictures I like to take and perhaps make me a better overall photographer. The project was a blast & while most of the photographers were far more skilled than I am, I felt welcome and got plenty of encouragement and tips. So I thought I would highlight some of the photos I took for the class.