Since this is one of my favorite places to hike around, I once again schlepped a camera and tripod around the State Park. The fall colors were fairly close to peak and I had no other times when I could get away, so I left the house before dawn and arrived just before sunrise. As much as sleeping in an extra hour would have been nice, good light simply doesn’t last all day.
One of our favorite places to vacation is a very specific neighborhood in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It’s a small community sandwiched between the State Park and a large campground. No high rise hotels within a mile and the only people on the beach in front of the house is people in the neighborhood. It’s very quiet and the beach is great. Walking a half mile to the north is the Myrtle Beach State Park pier. This provided me something to include with the sunrise shots. A tripod and variable ND let me slow the shutter down enough to flatten the water.
We also visited the aquarium down here and just had a wonderful week relaxing on the beach.
Once a year or so, I get to tag along with my wife and travel to her work conferences. This time we were at the Greenbrier for a few days in West Virginia. It’s much more high class than I’m used too and the only thing I owned that fit in were my Billingham Hadley bags. The new lens is a Rokinon 12mm f/2 prime. I’ve been wanting an ultra wide angle for awhile, but couldn’t justify the price of the Fuji 10-24mm f/4. Every review I could on the Rokinon/Samyang 12mm was overwhelming positive and the price can’t be beat. In my first outing, it performed remarkably well.
During the day when I was on my own, I ventured out and took a hike around Sandstone Falls in the New River Gorge National Park. I managed to arrive before the sun cleared away the fog and low lying cloud cover, which added some darker atmosphere to the pictures.
Since I was working on a tripod for all of these shots, I decided to test out the new Panorama Merge feature in Lightroom 6. This panorama is from 5 shots that it stitched together.
Once back at the Greenbrier I still had some time to walk around and enjoy the old world charm of the buildings.
