Over and Out

Sitting here at the lobby of the Days-Inn at a town near Boston, where we arrived today after noon (another sunrise shoot for me, as Gilad decided to sleep it out this time, wasn't as good or cold as yesterday). We drove 280 miles and walked a bit at the Downtown Crossing. After that we when to one of the only kosher deli restaurant in the area "Rubin's Kosher Delicatessen" and had a pretty good meal. By afternoon tomorrow and after another 230 miles we'll be home.
I hope you've enjoyed this small blog, still don't what will be next, but I guess I'll do the same with the the longer west coast trip I'm planning, which is still dateless at the moment.

See you later,

Itai

Dogs Cold

Wind and rain ruled the day, so not much photography today. Yesterday's sunrise at Mount Cadillac was a delight summer breeze in comparison to today's gushing winds (luckally it started raining only at around 9). On the other hand, we we're rewarded in an absolutely stunning sunrise. The wind almost knocked down my tripod and camera, had to hold it down during the exposure.

Later we headed to boulder beach as the weather declined. Got myself and my gear wet (and salty...) shooting too close to the water. We hoped that the sun will give us another appearance, but there was no sunshine till the end of the day. Guess we had to have at least one day like this..

At the end on the day we found ourselves at Schoodic Point, which is the only part of the park that isn't on the island.

'Building tall' crashing waves and our trusty GPS (a.k.a the incredible time saver) ...





Tomorrow, all the way to Boston.

Waves and Faces

Another predawn morning for us, making it possible to shoot the sunrise from mount Cadillac. The first place the sun is visible in the usa.

Bubble pond and Jordan Pond were next, followed by the Park Loop Road (two one way lanes) that runs along the coast making it very easy to just stop anywhere and photograph. Thunder Hole, Otter Point and Sand Beach as well. Then we turned to the villages of Northeast Harbor, Somesville, Seawall and Bass Harbor. All nice looking fishing villages that smell like fish everywhere. Our Last stop of the day was sunset at the Bass Harbor Head-Light, one of the most popular lighthouses of Maine. The streets are completely dark at around 17:10, crazy..




Along Ocean Drive.

By popular demand, a picture of a person. Don't know if it has the 'localisem' that you all imagine but this is Arthur, he owns the "Little-Notch -Bread" bakery at Somesville. And as he saw my camera he laid out his history with Seven Canon cameras he once had, and why he didn't want to sell postcards for a buck and a half. He was also very thrilled to tell me that his new camera has this amazing little thing that can remove the red-eye when the image is taken. "At least I have my bakery", he ended.

Maine Street

What, no input on the previous post?

Anyway,
A lot of driving has been done today. Around 250 miles from northern New Hampshire to East of Maine. To Acadia National Park, Our last major stop, we arrived at about 15:00 after gaining an hour of sleep last night (back to seven hours, Israel..).

Finding a motel here was more difficult than expected, almost 90% of the lodging here is closed for the season. Good thing we called in advance.

We did manage to go up to Mount Cadillac for a quick sunset viewing and taking a few pictures.

Tomorrow and the day after, we will explore the island and the park, and on Wednesday we will start our two day returning drive.




Taken with Singh-Ray 3 stop hard edge, GND, and car head lights to lit the rocky foreground.

Thoughts and Pictures

In every city, town or village, there is the the local gift store. We had a chance to visit many of these during this trip. In every one the is usually the section of the local book describing why this place is the best place. There are also these photo books, with glorious images (mostly nature) of the given state usually. In most cases this is the highest level of nature photography, though usually under estimated. In every place I visit, naturally I want to capture things the best I can, being inspired and guided by these books and photographers quite a lot. The more land I cover here, the more I see it's impossible. Not because of my skills (though probably too) but because I don't live here. All of the photographers that specialise in a specific place, is in most cases a resided of that area, so they have all year long, with all four seasons. If it's Darwin Wigget photographing the Canadian Rockies living in Alberta, or David Middelton living in Vermont (no room for comparison), and the list goes on (even those who don't live near by, usually have periodically access to their certain area). So is it possible to be this kind of photographer from two weeks (or three months) of travelling? no matter how photo oriented the trip is. Am I waisting my time (obviously I'm not moving here, and in the moment Israel doesn't have the kind of scenes you see here)? As you can see, this chain of thoughts consists of much (much) more variables, and is written here pretty raw, but in essence this is it.

I will leave you with some views of North Conway, New Hampshire.


Have a great week.


Itai

Cross Country

Today we crossed from Vermont to New Hampshire. Not much visual difference between the two, but in seems that the New-Hampshire's are a bit more organized. At least in their tourism section. In the Morning we were lucky (yes, lucky) enough to come to Moss Glen Falls after the rain (and a bit during). Rain changes a lot of colors in the landscape and brings out all the birds after it.

Our first photography stop in NH was the Franconia Notch Basin (thanks Arnie for the recommendation). A great rock shaped waterfall.

Now we're in the not so little town of Littleton. Where we will probably stay for the weekend.




Pemigewasset River near the Basin, Franconia Notch SP, NH. (Infrared)




SHBTSHLM,

Itai

From Urban to Nature

For all of you that are still here, today began at the Shelburne Farm. Since 1886 they are operate as a high end (1400 acres) dairy farm for the greater area, and since 1972 they are also a non-profit environmental education center. We could have come here yesterday evening, but the sun was in the wrong place, so this morning it was well situated (for the most part, it's hard to anticipate a location you haven't been in before).


The Farm Barn. A Ten vertical shot stitched panorama.




After that we took some time at the Burlington downtown, just to find some more Israelis at Starbucks and people all dressed up for Halloween eve.


This guy was giving a private concert to a toddler and here father, playing "Old MacDonald" Bob Dylan Style.




The Drive to Bingham Falls wasn't to long passing by yesterday's notch again (which looked different that time of day). Bingham Falls is a series of cascades in a narrow gorge, with lots of rocks and boulders, so it's a different scape for the usual waterfall.






Evening came and on our way to the second Moss Glen Falls, we spotted this ranch in front of the soon to become a sunset view. Now we're in the snowless sky town Stowe, and it's empty and cheap motels. Moss Glen will be tomorrow morning and New Hampshire right after that.



My first try with a graduated neutral density filter (Singh-ray 3 stop hard-edge, to be exact).

Misses and Hits

So, Sunday morning we went to give another try at the Ball Mountain Dam. yet, once again we were face with the fact that some state park are closed in Sundays and some are not. From the closed gate we decided that this 3.2 mile hike to the dam is worth it, geared up and on the way. Dam(m), is was cold and windy, that type of cold when your lips feel funny. After all that the light wasn't that good. At least we had a good walk.

Our next station was the famous Jenne Farm, supposed to be one of the most photographed farms in the world. After wandering in the beautiful back roads, and passing by this scene...

... we reached the farm where a the owner, who referred to himself as a "good old red-neck", told us it's not a problem to photograph his land if we grab a quart or two of the best maple syrup in Vermont. We took the 8$ bait (anyone wants maple syrup??) and puled out the cameras.

Jenne Farm Land. A bit mote than 180 degrees of view. 7 vertical frames stitched together.

From there we drove up the the city of Woodstock (not the hippie one, that's NY) and headed to the Vermont nature center in Quechee.

Red-Tailed-Hawk (injured) at the raptor refuge center.

Our night camping out we did at Lake Dunmore.

In a chilly Monday morning, it was the Dead Creek Wildlife Management Area that was mostly a miss after all the snow geese decided it's not a good day to get close to those with their big black round objects (lenses).

Moss Glen Falls #1 (apparently Vermont ran out of names to their waterfalls so there are two of these) was our next stop.

Lunch stop at Vergennes with a great lake\falls running in the middle of the city. Checked out Burlington (largest city in Vermont, they have Starbucks and taxis) at night and to our motel.

Two views of Vergennes for those who don't like the long exposure effect.

Tuesday morning was straight to the Old Red Mill in Jericho.

Now comes the the reason we started all this in the first place. Probably the most monumental, essential and even educational experience we had so far (in our lives).
The Ben & Jerry's Factory Tour. If only every company would have the sense of humor they do.

One of the nice things there was the Flavor Graveyard, with all the flavors that were once on the shelf and now aren't. Some justified (Peanut Butter and Jelly, or Potato Pie) and some not (Caramel and Almonds).

The Narrow Smugglers Notch was our last stop of the day (not before running in to another closed for season toll road we wanted). A one lane road between two steep rock mountains, and wonderful streams along side the road. And motel again.

The Notch.

Tomorrow, more waterfalls, and across to New Hampshire.

So long...

Itai

Closed for the season

Hi,

Another early morning in Friday, just to find out that lake park is closed for the season. Apparently a small piece of land with no facilities on it is closed off season. So we changed direction and drove to Jamaica state park only to find out exactly the same closed gate, this time we (and another few families) just walked inside and found a nice spot to photograph some reflections.

And it turned out to be another clear blue sky kind of day.

After a "in-the-car" breakfast, we headed to the recommended quiet village of Newfane, which was true to the recommendations. Walking around the classic Vermont village landscape. This village is populated with an exaggerated amount of "antique" stores that all have very old Chinese dinner ware.

Shabbat was a few ours away, and on our way back to Manchester we had time to stop at the Ball Mountain Lake Dam state park, build be the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and that's open the same time as their work day (9-5).

For Shabbat we stayed at the Casablanca Motel in Manchester, where we stayed at the Battenkill river themed room, which had a wall tappet full of dead fish and many pictures of jolly fisherman.

Coincidentally, two streets next to our motel I found the "Israel Congregation of Manchester". Turns out it's there from the 80', with more than 200 members (in season). They were nice and hospitable.

After Shabbat we toured around Manchester Hall for some night shots (Churches are still the most photogenic) and tomorrow we are on our way to Woodstock.

Have a good week everyone.

Itai

The Stamford Motel road at dawn.

Water flow at Salmon River at the (closed) Jamaica State Park.

Falling leaves at Newfane courtyard.

Ball Mountain Lake State Park, view from the dam.

Our room clock...

Manchester church with a full moon.

Around Manchester

Hi all,

We woke up before dawn (4:45 to be exact) and we’re heeded to Gout Pond on Kelly road. The sunrise wasn’t too rewarding but we managed to get some play with the reflections. Also passing by Branch Pond. Apparently, in this area the foliage has peeked already.
Surprisingly, we got a perfect Vermont blue sky day, so shooting streams and waterfalls were out of the question. Instead we try to get some grand view shots, and drove to Arlington and their famous covered bridge. This area which is a bit more elevated had much better fall color.
Towards the end of the day we climbed up (in the car) mount Equinox for the three state lookout in the sunset light.

And back again to “Stamford Motel”.

Jamaica… maybe tomorrow..

Cheers..







Gout Pond sunrise. Takenn with a Gold&Blue Polarizer, on the gold side.

Branch Pond, taken with Polarizer and a 10 (ten) stop ND filter.

Around Arlington. With CPL.

West Arlington.

Same.

Up mount Equinox.

The Three state lookout.

Hi from Vermont

Hi,

We have just arrived at the “Stamford Motel” at Manchester, Vermont. We drove by five states today (NJ, NY, CT, MA, VT), even though we drove something like 250 miles, it really didn’t feel like driving from Metula to Eilat, or close to that.

The photo is from the road above West-
Point in NY. Still mostly green, but the foliage is getting there.

Tomorrow we're is Jamaica...

Opening Post

Hi there, if you're reading this, then I guess you've gotten my e-mail and was curious enough to see what this is all about.

So yes, I've surrendered to the pressure and opened a blog. Not proud of it, but it's way more efficient and presentable then the e-mail alternative.

Anyway, I'll try to post as the opportunity arise, and I guess that in the up and coming (starting wednesday) three weeks trip in New England, I'll have more chances than in the wet coast trip.

To start things off, below are some images from my recent four day trip with my father to the Catskill in Northern NY and to the Delaware Water Gap in the border of NJ and PA (all this was in a week in late August).

And please do leave comment(s) below, on anything, that's part of the point.

Hope you enjoy,

Itai




Upper Awosting Falls ,Minnewaska State Park Preserve, NY.


Another one from Awosting Falls ,Minnewaska State Park Preserve, NY.

Minnewaska Lake, Minnewaska State Park Preserve, NY.

Another one from Minnewaska Lake, Minnewaska State Park Preserve, NY.

This image and the next three are from an unmapped creek and falls next to a small town in the center of the Catskills area.








Zoom pulled during exposure.


Don't remember where it was, but it caught our eyes.

A preserved village in the area. What's better, this:



Or this..

From the same village.

Raymondskill Falls, Delaware Water Gap, PA side.

Upper Canyon at Bushkill Falls, PA.

And another (and last) from Bushkill Falls.
Not sure why the water is brown, but that was the color.





This blog is sponsored by b&h photo.


I wish...