Tag Archives: nature

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.

A Short Hike in Bad Light

As I woke up today, the sun was nicely diffused by a blanket of clouds and only a few beams of sunlight were able to pierce through.  Combining that with a free afternoon caused me to pack a camera bag, throw on a bunch of layers and venture out.   As usual, my close to home hiking spot is Ohiopyle State Park and even though I knew there would be no snow on the ground, no leaves on the trees and probably not much in the way of grand scenery, I had an urge to be out in the woods.

Once I arrived and to begin my hike, the clouds parted and the sun shone bright.  It was right around noon and the light was harsh.  This kept my camera pointed at the details rather than the majestic landscapes, not that I minded.  I shot mostly with the Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 and had some generic macro extension tubes on hand to assist with the close in shots. Walking around and finding interesting details in such harsh light was a fun challenge and I hope to be out again soon doing it all over again.

Camping Trip With a New Lens

This past week I received a new lens in my ever growing collection of glass for the Fuji X series, the Laowa 9mm f/2.8 ultra wide angle.  Before this, the widest lens I had at my disposal was a 12mm, which, while very wide, seems like nothing compared to this Laowa.  The extra 3mm makes a huge difference in composing and framing.  I haven’t been able to devote a lot of time to using this new lens, my initial impressions of this lens are very good.  The build is solid, but tiny and so far the images look wonderful (technically at least, my composing leaves something to be desired).

An Evening at Cooper’s Rock State Park, WV

It has been a busy few weeks for my family and I and I’ve been needing some down time in nature.  The weather was about perfect, so after work I packed up a camera bag and my mountain bike and off I went to Cooper’s Rock State Park in West Virginia.  Once I arrived I started off with some light mountain biking since the light was much to harsh.  I rode some miles and then put the bike away so I could just trek around.  Once the sun started to go down, the light changed and everything looked so much better.

The evening was fantastic and just what I needed to clear my head.  The biking was fun, using my new Peak Design Everyday Messenger 13 bag was fantastic and the sunset over the gorge was splendid.