Tag Archives: bridge

Hiking With a Single Lens

Normally when I go out to combine my hobbies of hiking and photography, I load up a backpack full of gear,  a tripod a Clif bar, a water bottle and head off somewhere.  In that bag is my usual landscape kit consisting of a Sony A7iii with multiple lenses such as a 15mm and 50mm primes, 28-75mm f/2.8, and even a big 100-400mm just in case I see some wildlife.  Add to this bag batteries, remote shutter, cleaning supplies, various ND filters and all of the other random stuff and that bag gets rather heavy.  Not this time however.

After a day in the office, I stopped on the commute home at Laurel Mountain State Park and then Linn Run State Park.  These are great places for hiking, mountain biking and even swimming in the creeks.  Knowing I was coming from my day job, I brought along only a single camera and lens on a strap.  No bag, no tripod, no filters and no accessories.  I brought along a Sony a7iii with an attached 7Artisans 35mm f/2 manual lens in a Leica M mount adapted with a Haoge LM-NEX close focus adapter.  Simple.

Having only a single focal length was great.  It really helped me compose my images with care, made the process of shooting a joy and my back was happy not to be lugging around all that gear.

An Early Morning Under the Bridge

Once again it’s late August and my wife and I visit the Greenbrier Resort in White Sulphur Springs, WV for her to attend a work conference.  I tag along and during the day, while she is busy attending meetings, I venture out to the surrounding area with a camera.  Previous years, I’ve been to the Falls of Hills Creek and Sandstone Falls.  This time I drive a bit further out to see the New River Gorge Bridge and drive the single lane road underneath it.

I arrived just after dawn and roamed around for a few hours waiting for the light and happily stomping around the river.  Once I got the shots I wanted, I headed up to the trailhead parking lot for Long Point.  This trail is almost 2 miles and heads to a beautiful rocky overlook of the bridge and surrounding area.

Other times during our stay, with my wife in the conference, I wandered around the grounds of the resort and happily snapped away at the historic structures.  The kit I brought with me consisted of the X-Pro2, Rokinon 12mm, 23mm f/2,  XF 18-55mm and XF 55-200mm along with a tripod and other small accessories.  For walking around the grounds, I carried only the primes to keep weight down and force me into certain perspectives.  Once again, the Fuji setup was a pleasure to use and produced some great images.