winter '07 on the Batona Trail

[whippoorbill]

A friend and I made it to Ongs Hat last Tuesday afternoon, completing a winter-hike project on the Batona Trail. I do think it's best to walk this trail in the direction from Lake Absegami north -- the sun is over the hiker's shoulder most of the way, the lighting more effective for seeing. We had walked the trail in its entirety twenty years ago and had wanted to do so again. I carried a camera along this time, casually, and occasionaly stopped to focus in on what I envision as barren diversity. There's an album over at the users-gallery for photo postings, if anyone would like to see some of the images. I took hundreds along the way, but have only uploaded a small portion. I'm not even sure if they're the best of the lot.

The trail certainly remains beautiful (with the exception of the section between Rts. 532 & 563, near Chatsworth, which is lined with litter and houses, and also spends two miles on a paved road).

We walked through a prescribed burn while enjoying the Lebanon State Forest section last week; a surprise -- smokey, but atmospheric.

Thanks for looking.

Take care,
Bill

 

[Boyd]

Those are some great pictures, thanks for posting them! I really like the Penn Swamp Branch photos (the one in portrait mode with water rushing by).

 

[Teegate]

Nice photo's. I bet your clothes had a burnt smell when you arrived home. But the experience made it all worth it I would think.

Thanks for posting.

Guy

 

[james ungehajer]

Real nice photos,liked all of them.

 

[bobpbx]

Gorgeous, lovely photos. I especially liked "trail".

 

[whippoorbill]

Nice photo's. I bet your clothes had a burnt smell when you arrived home. But the experience made it all worth it I would think.

Thanks for posting.

Guy

Thanks, Guy ... and guys. The trail photo-journal (of sorts) was nice in that photography helps one slow down and frame his surroundings.

Partly inspired by the other photos I've seen posted here on this forum, I picked up a new digital slr camera. I have a lot to learn about photography, but it's nice to have an area like the barrens to challenge one's creativity in revealing their beauty.

I'll keep going back.

Also, this spring I'd like to return the the Shawangunk Mountains in New York and try to capture the essence of their dwarf-pine plains. There's just something about scrawny lil' pitch pines ...

 

[bobpbx]

Also, this spring I'd like to return the the Shawangunk Mountains in New York and try to capture the essence of their dwarf-pine plains. There's just something about scrawny lil' pitch pines ...

I always wanted to go there....

 

[whippoorbill]

This batch wasn't taken in winter (but today, in fact) and has nothing to do with the Batona Trail, as this thread title might suggest -- but I didn't want to start a new thread to show off more photos. Sooooo ...whenever I take any pix deemed worthwhile, I'll post them here. Maybe I can figure out a way to retitle the thread.

It's not often I visit the barrens during the day (whippoorbill isn't my name for no reason), but those below were obviously taken during the strange period of daylight ; all within the whereabouts of Beaver Pond on the Mullica.

The next full moon I'm going to give some nighttime time-lapse photos a shot. I recall seeing a few night-time shots posted on the forum before that were quite nice. Has anybody else given this a shot?

Thanx for lookin'
Whipp'dbill

 

[Teegate]

Very nice shots! It proves your camera works in the daytime

Guy

 

[bobpbx]

Nice shots Bill. Tell me something. I can't seem to consitantly shoot a subject in the foreground in focus. Here is one that did not work today:

And one that did:

8 out of 10 times I try, the subject is blurred. What am I doing wrong?

 

[Teegate]

8 out of 10 times I try, the subject is blurred. What am I doing wrong?

Welcome to my nightmare

Guy

 

[Boyd]

Looks like an autofocus issue where the camera is confused about what to focus on. Manual focus is usually difficult or impossible on inexpensive digital cameras unfortunately. However some of them give you a cue as to what they're choosing. My little Canon SD600 draws boxes around the things it's focusing on... does yours have a feature like that?

Also there may be a menu choice for autofocus mode or something like that. In that picture you would want to select a mode to focus on the center on the frame instead of a mode which evaluates the whole scene.

OTOH, you might have also been too close to the object to get sharp focus. You also need to be aware of something called "depth of field" (DOF). When the iris is wide open you don't have much DOF which means only a small range of objects will all be in sharp focus. Can you select ISO setting on your camera? This is the equivalent of film speed on a regular camera. Higher ISO settings offer greater sensitivity to light. If you're having these DOF-related problems, try using a higher ISO setting if possible. That should force the camera to choose a smaller iris opening which will result in greater DOF - in other words, objects which are farther apart are more likely to remain in focus.

If your camera has an aperture priority mode then try that also, and choose a smaller aperture, like f8.0 or f11.0 (larger f-numbers are actually smaller iris openings); that would also help. Again, you might need to switch to a higher ISO number to still get a good exposure.

 

[Boyd]

Sorry Whipporbill, I forgot to compliment you on the great photos! Why don't you want to start another thread? It doesn't cost anything extra and these pictures certainly deserve it

 

[bobpbx]

Boyd, the box(es) in auto is confusing, but like you say, I do have a center one in manual. I'll try that. While in manual, I'll try the higher ISO setting too.

 

[whippoorbill]

Boyd nails the answer to your question, Bob (and Guy). I was so frustrated with my small, basically point-and-shoot digital -- I eventually picked up a digital SLR (when they became affordable) . When I get up and close, I simply click the lens in use over to manual focus. The camera also has close-up settings, which sorta gives one the depth-of-field look Boyd also mentions. It's often nice having the subject focused and the background blurred.

Good luck and keep shooting. The photo work displayed on this forum is incredibly good.

 

[whippoorbill]

I made some first attempts at time-lapse (bulb) photography around the Mullica and Batsto rivers last night. The top photo below was taken along the Batona Trail around midnight (9/23/07); it's a minute-long exposure using available moonlight. The moon is waxing this week; hopefully next weekend I'll be able to take advantage of the fuller moon and see if I have better luck.

The other photo is a 15-second exposure taken directly at the moon.

Thanx for looking,
Bill

 

[Teegate]

Nice Bill! That paint does not look pink!


Guy

 

[whippoorbill]

Nice Bill! That paint does not look pink!


Guy

I wasn't seeing any color at all when I was taking the photo. However, I'm in the barrens so much at night, I've evolved owl-sized eyes.

Hmmm ... the photos look quite a bit blurrier here on the thread (at least on my computer) than they do over on the gallery. If they look blurry there at home, gang ... shoot on over to the gallery for a slightly better peek.

"A hoot-hoot here, a wonk-wonk there, here a hoot, there a wonk, everywhere a hoot-wonk" -- whippedbill

 

[dogg57]

Cool Shots...what Fstop was your camera on?

 

[whippoorbill]

Cool Shots...what Fstop was your camera on?

I had it set at 5.6, I think. (My field notes are buried out in my car now ) To be honest, I paid much more attention to the time of the exposures the first time out.

Boy, the moon has been kicking out some light the past couple of nights; but I won't be able to get back out and play with the camera until the weekend.