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When visiting the White Mountains of New Hampshire it's easy to get caught up in taking pictures of all the beauty that makes up this wonderful region of the country.  However, you could end up with the same pictures that many, many people have taken before you, and many others will take after you.  I admit that I have a lot of the standard pictures from the touristy locations around the White Mountains, but I also challenge myself to take photos that others might not take the time to get. 

One of the locations that I recently did this at was The Basin.  It's located right on I-93 with parking on both sides of the highway.  The Basin itself it a nice little waterfall that drops into rock that has been worn into the shape of a bowl.  It can make for a nice photograph.

However, I wanted to get some photos of the surrounding cascades and chutes. 

Just walking some of the trails around The Basin can spark some photographic creativity.  It's not difficult for me to spend a lot of time in an area like this because of my love for waterfalls and moving water.  I could literally take hundreds of photographs along these trails and end up with something that nobody else has.  It's all about taking the time to look around and see the details.  The photo to the left is a small drop that many others may have taken pictures of before I took this, but I loved the mix of greens, yellows, and oranges that offset the milky, smooth water.  This isn't the most photogenic little drop in the area, but I like the result which came from looking for something different in such a heavily travelled area.

The Basin isn't the only attraction in this area.  There are two more named waterfalls along the Basin-Cascades Trail....Kinsman Falls and Rocky Glen Falls.  They are nice waterfalls, but probably not seen by as many people as The Basin.  I like these waterfalls and think they are worth hiking to, but there is another waterfall along this trail that I don't believe is named that I like better than the others.  It's a wide waterfall that's perfectly suited for a nice panorama.

I did take some photos for a large panorama, but I also wanted to see how this waterfall looked upclose.  I put my 70-300mm lens on the camera and zoomed in a little to catch the water as it was forced to move in many different directions due to the shape of the underlying rock.  The large panorama doesn't have the detail of this movement as shown in the closeup.  This is why it pays to take your time and move around.  Many of us have more than one lens in our camera bag.  Us them.  Try wide angles.  Try closeups.  Take horizontal and vertical shots.  Use the photographic rules for your shots and then break the rules.  Just make sure to take your time and take a look around.

Until next time.

Glen Taylor

Mountain View Photography

11/9/11

I have made several trips to Rhododendron State Park in Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire to try and catch the Rhododendron in bloom.  Up to this point I have struck out.  I would see a few blooms, but not enough to get excited about. 

Today I had some free time and decided to head to the park.  The flowers are supposed to be at "peak" in the middle of July but I was hoping that maybe I'd catch some blooming a little late.  I wasn't expecting too much when I pulled into the park, based on going toward the end of the month and the fact that we've had days around 100-degrees F lately.  As soon as I walked into the Rhododendron grove I was pleasantly surprised.  There were quite a few blooms.  In fact, it was the best I had personally seen.

Some of the flowers had already bloomed and fallen to the ground, but there were many others like those shown in this photo.  It's a big enough area that I didn't have to worry too much about being in the way of people on the trails while trying to take some of these closeups.  In fact, according to the NHstateparks.org website, this 16-acre grove of Rhododendron Maximum is the largest in northern New England.

For those who can't make it to see the Rhododendron in full bloom, there is another reason to go to the park.  You can hike up the trail to the top of Little Monadnock Mountain where you can find nice views of Mount Monadnock to the east.  I've made the hike to the top of Little Monadnock a few times but this day was all about the blooms.

Until next time.

Glen Taylor

Mountain View Photography

7/24/11

I'm a very happy dad today.  Not that I'm not usually a happy dad but today I took my daughter hiking and she brought along her camera.  Since she's just over 2-1/2 years old I couldn't take her on a hike that was too difficult.  I want to make sure she enjoys going hiking and picture taking and will want to keep going as she continues to get older. 

 My favorite photographic subject, other than Kelly, is waterfalls.  As such, I decided we'd go to "the old standby" Doane's Falls.  What makes this hike that much easier is that my daughter likes waterfalls too.  As we were getting ready to leave our house I kept hearing "are you ready yet?'  "Are you ready yet?"  "ARE YOU READY YET?!!!!"  I was finally ready and we went out the door.  As I tried to buckle Kelly into her car seat, I thought she was going to bounce right out of it due to her extreme excitement.  You see, Kelly had not been out hiking yet with her camera.  So we finally hit the road and not two minutes down the road I start to hear "are we there yet?"  Are we there yet?"  "ARE WE THERE YET?!!!"  We finally arrived at Doane's Falls and I opened my window so that Kelly could hear the roaring water going over the falls.  I thought she was going to turn into Super Toddler and rip the safety belts from her car seat, then tear the door from it's hinges in order to get to that water.  Yeah, she wasn't wired.  You'd think she was hopped up on Mountain Dew.  We gathered our gear and headed down the trail.  The picture to the left is at the trailhead to Doane's Falls.  Just after I took this picture, Kelly started down the trail, gained a little too much speed, and landed on her butt.  All I could think was "oh no, all the hype and buildup of going hiking to a waterfall with her camera, and she's down and out before seeing it."  Luckily she got up, brushed off, and was ready to keep heading down the trail.

The best view of the waterfall isn't far at all from where we parked.  Once we stopped at this spot, I grabbed Kelly's camera from her backpack.  Yes, she wore her own backpack and kept her camera in it.  She felt like a real hiker/photographer.  The photo shows Kelly with the first three drops at Doane's Falls, plus a hint of the stone bridge just above the first drop.  The cables you see are to keep people from going over the edge.  The drop isn't real far, but far enough to do so damage.  There have been several deaths at this location over the years and the Trustees of Reservations (the group that owns the property) wants to keep everyone safe.

For those with an eagle eye, yes, that is a Lego camera my daughter is using.  Her grandparents bought it for her earlier this year and it's digital.

I was such a proud dad today watching my daughter hike the trails around Doane's Falls and take pictures at different spots.  It makes me happy to think that not only will she (hopefully) enjoy going on adventures with me as she gets older, but that she'll appreciate all that nature has to offer.

On the way home I was given a good laugh.  Kelly says to me "I have seeds on my bum-bum."  I asked her how she got seeds on her butt.  She says "when I fell I got seeds on my bum-bum."  When she fell at the trailhead she got woodchips on her pants and pullover and she was saying those were the seeds.  So I asked her what kind of seeds they were.  She says "waterfall seeds.  I'm growing a waterfall on my bum-bum."

I hope all parents can have fun adventures with their kids and may you grow a waterfall on your bum-bum.

Until next time.

Glen

Mountain View Photography

7/1/11

My favorite subjects to take pictures of are waterfalls, landscapes, and waterfalls.  Yes, I said waterfalls twice...that's how much I like them.  However, I have now been bitten by the wildflower bug.  Too bad I waited so long to get the itch to go out and take pictures of them this year.

After a lot of work around the house over the first part of the holiday weekend (Memorial Day here in the states), I decided to get up early Monday morning and head into the woods with my camera.  I have some places that I've been to before that I could have gone to, but I wanted to try someplace that was new to me.  Recently I was checking out some photos taken by another nature photographer and took note of where he had taken his photos.  After a little bit of research on this location, I noticed that the group that stewards the property also stewards another large parcel of land that is closer to my house. 

I was all set for wildflowers, with the bonus of only having to take a quick trip from home.  I arrived at the "location" and wasn't really sure I was actually where I was supposed to be.  There were some small signs posted along the woods so I park along the road and got out of my truck.  Instantly it was like a thousand Vuvuzelas were sounding in my ears.  Of course they weren't Vuvuzelas, but rather the vampires of the woods...mosquitoes.  These seemed to be especially blood thirsty, having met me right at my door.  As quickly as I could I grabbed my DEET bug spray and pretty much took a shower in it.  It worked to the point that they only seemed to circle the wagons but keep about a 1 foot perimeter around me.  I didn't get bit while walking through the woods.  I knew I was a little late getting out for wildflowers but there are still some growing here in New England.  The first flowers that I saw were Starflowers, nice pointy while leafed flowers that grow near the ground.  There were everywhere.  I have these same flowers in my own woods so I didn't spend too much time with them.

I then went and did a little more exploring, to see if this location was going to be someplace to visit earlier in the Spring next year, and to see what other wildflowers I could find.  The next group of flowers were Bunchberries.  This is another white petal flower, but a little bit bigger petals than the Starflower.  I spent some time checking out a few different groups of them since I hadn't seen these before (at least not that I had noticed anyway).  By this time some of the mosquitoes were getting brave and heading in against the wishes of the rest of their group.  Some were lucky enough to escape while others went to meet their creator.  Still, no bug bites.  Yeah, DEET.

Not only were the bugs annoying, but it was humid out.  I decided that really exploring this area was better suited for a day that wasn't so "icky sticky" as my daughter would say.  I decided it was time to head back to my truck and try to find some my wildflowers on the way out.  I saw more Bunchberries and Starflowers but it was the Pink Lady Slipper that caught my attention.  I am lucky enough to have close to a dozen of these growing around my house, but I didn't want to pass up the shot while I was out.  These beautiful pink flowers have some nice detailed lines on the petals.

All in all I found enough beauty at the sanctuary to be intriguing enough that I may go back and visit later this year just to do some scouting.  I will definitely go back next spring, but a little earlier than I did this year so that I can hopefully find some of the other wildflowers that are known to grow in the woods.

Until next time.

Glen Taylor

Mountain View Photography

5/31/11