travelogue

we're very much experiencing indian summer here. i don't mind so much because i love autumn weather best, and it's an indication that fall's here.

i had to drive up to state college on friday for a meeting. road construction was awful and it added an extra 45 minutes to the usual 2.75 hour drive. i didn't want to be late for my meeting so i didn't stop to take any pix. the scenery was gorgeous. i'm hoping to head up next week just to catch the autumn leaves at their peak. i'll post pix here and at my flickr account.

saturday was another beautiful day and i'd already planned a visit to fallingwater...seems that everyone else did, too! the place was packed so i left without bothering to walk the grounds or anything. ohiopyle was crazy...couldn't find a parking space. i'll make one last nice weather visit to both places next week (but i am hoping the weather stays nice for many more visits).

on the way to and from ohiopyle and fallingwater, you pass all sorts of neat places. one is christ chapel of st. paul's evangelical lutheran church (top right). i'd forgotten my tripod so i couldn't do an hdr of it, so that's on my list for next week. another great place to visit is kentuck knob (left). i took a quick shot of some of the trees -- this was one of the few areas where there weren't any people milling about.

i drove down the mountain and decided i wanted to take some more pix. i went home and grabbed my tripod and headed to brownsville, pa (about 5 minutes from my house), where the river takes a couple of interesting bends. i was crossing the lower bridge when i noticed some barges in the river (right). the sun was almost directly in the camera and since i was in traffic i couldn't adjust the settings, so i set it to automatic and hoped for the best.

last but not least, this is a 3 exposure hdr of the river at fredericktown, pa (left). i'm going to do a few variations on it and perhaps go back and do a 5 exposure. i find hdr imaging fascinating! digital photography makes it very easy since my nikon d80 is more than up for the task. (if you're wondering, i use photomatix software for the tone mapping and exposure blending...and i still have a lot to learn!)

btw, make sure you click on the photos. they'll open much larger in a new window so you can take a good look.