Tag Archives: Ohiopyle

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.

On the bike in the woods

The weather was cloudy with chances of rain, but that didn’t dissuade me from loading up my mountain bike and a backpack full of camera kit and heading out into the woods.  Wanting to spend as much time pedaling as photographing, I opted to drive to the Jonathan Run trailhead in Ohiopyle.  This trail is about a mile and a half long and runs to the main biking trail.  Almost to the main trail, another trail branches off called Sugar Run.  Both of these trails are mostly nice singletrack with some sprinkling of technical rocky sections, some nice flowy up and downs along with a few climbing sections.  The scenery is top notch and there was no one around.  I saw a single group of hikers all 3 hours I was on the trail.

Since we’ve had some rain the past few days and I was in the woods, the camera and tripod came along for the ride.  I brought only a prime lens kit which consisted of a 12mm, 23mm, 35mm and my 56mm.  The most used was my 12mm and 56mm.  Having only primes was a nice change of pace and made me think more about the shots I wanted and the angles.  I brought a variable neutral density filter and a circular polarizer as well to help with the colors and exposure times.  All in all, it was a great morning of riding and picture taking.

All of My Favorite Waterfalls

Anyone that views my posts will notice that I’m a sucker for smooth waterfall photos.  Anytime I see flowing water, I want to break out a tripod, screw an ND filter on my lens and slow that shutter speed way down.  It may be cliche, it may be done to death, but a well composed waterfall shot with creamy water is just so tranquil and pleasing to look at.  Below are my favorites that I’ve taken (no promises on the ‘well composed’ part) broken down by location.

This has to start of course with my favorite local hiking place, Ohiopyle State Park.  I go there often since it’s a short distance away and offers so much variety.  Between the colors in Autumn, the freeze in Winter, the flooding in Spring and the complete foliage in Summer, it always a bit different every time I go.  First we have Ohiopyle in the Winter, since that is what we are experiencing now.

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