Tag Archives: Ohiopyle State Park

Hiking in the Cold With a New Camera

This time last year I was posting about how I switched from the Fuji X series of cameras to a Sony Alpha full frame.  Needless to say, I’m now fully back into the Fuji ecosystem.  The short story is simply that while the Sony can deliver stunning  images, I just never got along with it.  So out with the A7iii and in with an X-E3.  My first hike with the new camera was chilly, but wonderful to be out in nature as always.

The locale was my usual Ohiopyle State Park and the surrounding area.  This offers many waterfalls, rivers, streams and as much hiking as you want.  I packed light this hike, an X-E3, Fuji 16-80mm f/4, Laowa 9mm f/2.8, a Freewell 6-stop ND/PL and a small tripod.  Everything but the tripod was packed into a small Domke F-5xb.  I didn’t hike very far, but the trip was more about just getting out and away and in nature.  With a camera of course.  I stopped by Cucumber Falls, the Natural Waterslides and followed that stream up for a little bit until I lost good light.

A new piece of gear that I very much enjoyed was the Freewell 6-stop ND/PL filter.  It’s a 72mm circular filter, but it attaches via magnets.  This is great for quickly swapping the filter on and off.  The glass quality seems to be quite good as well as I noticed only a very slight color cast when using it.

Using the Fuji X-E3 was like reconnecting with an old friend.  The controls and settings almost mirrored my old X-Pro2.  Picking it up was intuitive and gratifying, as if I never even left the system.

Creek Walking up Bruner Run in Ohiopyle

There are not many places that I haven’t ventured too yet in Ohiopyle State Park, so when I hear about something new, I jump at the chance to find it.  This happened when I had a day off of work and needed a place to get some hiking in and test out the Sony A7iii setup that I recently moved into.  The place was the Bruner Run area of Ohiopyle and in particular, a half mile stretch that had a ton of small waterfalls as the creek made it’s way off the  mountain and into the Yough River below.

The hike itself wasn’t long, but there was a lot of up and down to stay along the creek.  This wasn’t a problem and gave my legs a good workout.  My loadout today was somewhat light; Sony A7iii, Tamron 28-75mm f/2.8, Voigtlander 15mm f/4.5, carbon fiber tripod, remote shutter release, ND filters, batteries, rain covers and other small odds and ends.  All of this fit beautifully into a Peak Design Sling 10l bag.  For the longest time I’ve fought the urge to buy that bag, but I’m glad I did.  It carried extremely well, didn’t hurt my shoulder and was much easier to work out of than a backpack that I would normally carry.

One of the biggest surprises was using my new Breakthrough Photography ND filters.  They simply worked as they should with almost no color cast or other detrimental effects to the image.  I’m used to using somewhat cheap ND filters and these normally leave a purple-ish cast that can be difficult to remove in post.  The Breakthrough filters exhibited none of this and just did what they should. I mostly used an X4 6-stop ND on the Tamron 28-75mm, but I also picked up a pair of X2 10-stop’s for use on the Tamron and another for the Voigtander 15mm.

All in all, this move to Sony is going well.  I do miss the Fuji control structure at times and some of the colors, but the Sony A7iii is a very powerful camera that I have a lot left to learn about.

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.