Testing out the new toys

 

I have been hiding out, waiting for hunting season to end, and finally got out with some new toys I picked up over the last few months. Winter is rough on me, but spring can be more fun, when it isn't raining.

I needed to put the new stuff through their paces, and get a solid hold on how they work. First out, I went over to Ludlow Falls, where I have taken pictures a few times before. Well, once, at least. I think it was long enough ago that it was on my Sony 828, although it might have been the Fuji S2. I can't find that archive at the moment, so it doesn't really matter. I arrived at the falls and parked behind a sheriff. I checked to make sure my parking job was ok, and he said he doubted it but didn't really care. He told me not to jump in the water and drove off. 

I'd like to think I am smarter than that. Largely because I can hardly swim, so yeah, I'm not cliff diving into a literal death trap. 

I headed to the upper observation area, and put on an ND1000 filter, and aimed for the waterfall. I have previously used ND filters to slow water down before, but I haven't done so in a long time. Even then it would have been with an ND 2 and 4 stacked. I am a little shaky on the math of it, but I think this new filter is about 3 times slower than the stack I had used before. 

But it worked great! Of course, the main observation area is nice, but... I wanted closer. By closer, I mean to the water, I was already as close to the falls as I could get. So I made my way down an old path to the streambed, and hiked back towards the falls, using my tripod for stability as I went. It was a little slippery, but I got as close to the falls and the middle of the channel as I could while staying dry. 

They may not be the most impressive falls in the land, but worth the hike. Still, I wasn't done testing out the new gear. I hiked back up to my car, and headed to another park I had only been to once before, and I think that was without a camera. 

The Blankenship Riverside Sanctuary is a small little park on the side of the road just outside Covington, Ohio. The most prominent feature seen as you drive by is the old closed-off bridge. Of course, driving by hides so much as well. Hiking the trail towards the fishing and canoe area (What kind of sanctuary allows fishing?) I noticed the bridge to the bridge.

From the road, and the parking lot as well, this looks like a driveway to the closed down bridge. The stonework on it was nice, and unless you hike down to see it, you wouldn't even know it was there.

 To me, it was far more impressive than the old steel bridge. 

I wasn't there though to play with the ND filter, I was instead putting my "new to me" zoom lens from KEH. It gives me much better zoom ability, but it is a heavy lens. I like the extra power it gives me, and it is a little easier to manual focus when I need to, but I like the lighter kit lens I started with for most things. This was really my third time taking the lens out, I used it once for some nice deer shots when I made sure it worked before my wife's birthday run, which I used it for as well. This was the first time I took it out using it to see what I could really do. Not testing it, not getting event pictures, but testing myself. 

I have plans to correct a wrong in a few weeks. Last year I went to Hocking Hills for astrophotography, I plan to go back and actually get pictures on the trails. I hear it is too good of a park to have missed it in the daytime. Then I will see what I can do, and both lenses are going to be pushed as far as I can take them.