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Monongahela National Forest

Deepak loaned me a Nikon D40 camera to test drive for this outing. So I got to play with some zoom lenses and things like depth of field.

Click on the thumbnail images to get larger ones (around 100-300K). Click on the "huge" link to get the full size pictures (around 6M). Around 70 pictures included.

Below is a map of the trail we hiked, starting at the trailhead on the lower right corner. The blue labeled items are links to sections within this web page. Specifically, the Trailhead, the First Night Campsite, the Creek Crossing, Seneca Falls and where we had our Second Day's Lunch.

The Start of the Trail

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Deepak and Frank, with backpacks, ready to begin another adventure.

First Campsite

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The trail followed the Seneca creek. Our first campsite was next to the creek. The tent is visible in the second picture.

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A view of the far side of the creek and the water itself (with reflections of the late-day sun).

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A signpost with our tent visible in the background (upper righthand side). And a closer view of our campsite with a rock circle around a fire pit.

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The rocks around the fire pit were good for sitting, and in fact many had backs. And the one shown in the first picture had a back and armrests. Sweet! And it was comfortable too. In the lower righthand side of the picture, there is a small skull of some animal. The second picture is a close-up of the skull and jawbone. Perhaps aliens?

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There was a bridge by the campsite to cross the creek (as we continued on the next day). A shot of the bridge from the creek, one from the railing of the bridge, and one just beyond the edge.

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Three more shots of the bridge. In the last two, I used the signpost as a poor-man's tripod.

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Deepak wanted to take some macro shots of flowers. He brought a cool, lightweight tripod with him (which is why I was using a signpost...). A few pictures of the different steps in trying to take a close-up picture of a wildflower. The results are (INSERT LINK HERE).

Second Day Stream Crossing

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We stopped by a stream crossing fairly early in the morning to shoot a bunhc of pictures. In this one, Deepak had his tripod positioned in the stream and was on the far shore getting something. I used a flash for this shot. I have no idea what the energy-ball by Deepak is. Perhaps I had the flash on his camera (which I was borrowing) set to "plasma ball." Oooops...

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Three shots of the stream in the morning.

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Looking the other way up the stream, I took a few shots of the light breaking through the trees that shrowded the area.

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More shots looking up the stream, and the trees getting lit by the morning light. The second and third shots include a rhododendron tree along the edge, with the white flowers glowing in the morning light.

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Another shot of the rhododendron flowers. Then I looked back downstream and the leaves of the tree next to me was catching the light of the morning sun, practically glowing. That was neat and unexpected.

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One more shot of a tree with the leaves glowing in the morning light, and two shots of a rhododendron tree. There were many, many rhododendron trees in the area, all with white flowers that had just a hint of pink in them.

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Yet another rhododendron tree, a little underexposed to try to get the flowers. Looking back upstream, into the sun, I got shot of the area with lens flair speckles. And one more of the rhododendron flowers, again, a bit darker.

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We probably spent 45-60 minutes in this area. It started with just a couple pictures, but as the sun broke through the trees, the scene was changing minute by minute and we were both fascinated by it. The first shot is o fthe sunlight illuminating the shore at the edge of the stream. The second is looking up the stream into the light again, this time with the water reflecting some o fthe light. And the third shot is of a rhododendron tree lit up in the morning light.

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The first shot is similar to the last, just more underexposed. Deepak had loaned me his father's Nikon D40 camera, so I was doing a lot of experimentation with it and the settings. And two more shots of the stream.

Seneca Falls

I did some experiements with the 300mm zoom lens.

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Three shots of Seneca falls from the top.

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Three close-up shots of the falls. Different shutter speeds for smooth water and (bumpy) stop-motion.

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The first is another shot of the falls, with that kind of "well of souls" look to the stream. The second is the top of the alls with some leaves framing it in the foreground. And the third is a short depth of field shot with the leaves in the front and falls in the background. A shot that can't really be done with a point-and-shoot camera.

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Then using the zoom to get an even more extreme depth of field shot. The second one is a depth of field shot focusing on the waterfall, and the third is the same as the first, but focusing on the waterfall instead of the leaves. The last two don't work that well, but I was exploring "the evelope" with the camera.

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The first shot is a close-up of the bottom of the falls, and the second was focusing on some streams of drips by the bottom of the falls.

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A shot of the top of the falls, and one showing the larger stream and the split twin streams.

Day 2 Lunch Stop

So we continued to our stopping point for the second day. We had lunch and then took a few shots of the flowers in the area. After that, we decided it was early enough that we didn't want to just sit around for 6 hours, and the nearest source of water was at least a 1/2 mile away. So we walked the third day's trip after that, getting to the car around 5pm and going home. So, we only stayed one night.

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I don't really know what types of wildflowers these are. The first two are one type, with me trying to get a bit closer in the second shot. The third is obviously a different flower.

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Two shots of some flowering grass or reeds, using a narrow depth of field. Normally, I don't really like a blurry background, but I do like how these are in focus and the background is mostly a similar color but very different, blurry shapes. I think I like the second shot more.

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The first picture is of the tree around where we stopped for lunch. The second and third shots shows our backbacks, the food bag, and Deepak's water bottle. The rocks in the foreground were from a campfire. No rock chair with a back and armrests at this site.

Related pictures:
Washington DC
Patapsco State Park, MD

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