Return To Massanutten Spring With The Big Camera

About a week ago I found a little mountain spring  that was a 2 mile day hike from our home. I only had my cell phone with at the time so I snapped a photo with my litle Galaxy. I knew I wanted to return with my "Big Camera". So I set out to return yesterday with my Nikon D300 and a 2.8 17-35 mm lens, a circular polarizer and a two neutral density filters (a 4 and a 10) and a tripod and cable release. For some reason the hike seemed sooo much harder than the first time! When I returned with an aching back and sore knee I realized once I got home and weighed my photo gear that I was toting 11 lbs! Oh well I got a good work out in and a photo I'm pretty happy with. Here is the resulting photo from my hike. I hope you enjoy it too and feel a sense of peace from it like I did when I was there.

Prints and greeting cards can be purchased HERE if you would like to support my photography endeavors. Thanks for stopping by my blog and feel free to share my blog. :-)

Beauty In Our Own Backyard

Sometimes you don't have to go as far as you think in search of photo inspiration. I was recently lucky enough to make a new friend  who told my hiking buddy & I about a trail that we didn't even know existed that ends at this beautiful little spring. I was super excited when I first found out about it and and wanted to check it out to see if it was worth bringing my SLR camera and a tripod and it turns out it is! I shot this with my my phone but I'm definitely going to return with my big camera and tripod soon. It's a good work out too. It takes a total of about 2 hours round trip from the woods behind our house with a good deal of it going up the mountain and then down the other side so I'll be getting back in shape in my quest for beautiful photos too which is a win win! :-)

How To Get Nikon Optional Picture Controls Onto Your D300

Sometimes it's the little things that either drive you crazy or make you happy depending on the outcome.

I just spent hours and hours trying to figure out how to load the Nikon Picture control landscape setting onto my Nikon D300. I love nature, I love photographing nature but I am no programmer. All the computer jargon took my poor brain for a ride. What's a "root folder" anyways? Through trial and error I finally succeeded in getting this onto my Nikon D300 and I can now shoot using the landscape mode if I so choose. Here's one of the first photos using this mode:

Ahh greens look ...well green! And I have nice saturated color but not too saturated. I'm not exactly sure why the camera didn't come with this and also the portrait mode but it didn't. I tried following the instructions on the Nikon website but they were as clear as mud. I'm pretty sure the newer Nikon D800 and 810 comes with these already in the camera but I'm still saving for one of those. If you want to contribute to my new camera fund you can buy something Here or Here  :-)

So for anyone else who has pulled their hair out trying to figure out how to add the Nikon optional picture control settings onto their camera, here is my non-programmer minded explanation for the rest of us.

First you go to their website Here

Next I went onto my main drive on my computer and created a folder called PICTURECONTROL. I don't think it matters what you name the file but I put it in all caps because I read another tutorial somewhere that had it in all caps so I did this just in case it did matter. I don't think it matters what you name it either. Then I went back to the website and selected the one I wanted (landscape in my case) and then I found my camera model and operating system which was Nikon D300 and Windows and I clicked on the button to accept the download. Then I navagated to the folder that I created and clicked inside it and made sure it downloaded there. I have Windows 7 so it may be a little different on windows 8. Your computer may default to another place for downloads but you can change it to get it into the new folder you created by navagating there.  Once it downloaded, I then had a file in my new folder. Next I double clicked on this and it created a Nikon folder with the picture control inside.

This is where it got tricky. At frist I just put the file on a formated Nikon CF card using a card reader but my camera wouldn't recognize it. *Note I think it's important to start out with a formatted card (card that has been formatted in your Nikon camera).  It said "no file on card" or something to that effect.  I finally figured out that I needed to copy that whole Nikon file that contained the picture utility file. Once I copied the Nikon file with the picture control utility inside, I pasted it onto the Nikon CF card (not in the DCIM file but just on the card.

Next I put the card into the camera and in the menus found the little icon that looked like a camera. Under that I went to manage picture control and then load/save and then copy to camera and OK. Wala! Now I have more options to choose from on my camera.

I hope this is helpful to anyone else who was pulling their hair out trying to figure out how to add these onto their Nikon D300 or other Nikon DLSR Cameras.

My First Public Exhibition

I'm super excited! My baloon photo was chosen among the photos of Vincent Warrick & Neal Lewis to be hung in a display in the Page Memorial Hospital. The hospital recently moved into a brand new building and this display is seen as you walk in the front entrance of the hospital. The hospital wanted to showcase local photographers myself included.  More photos from Vincent Warrick can be seen here . And more phototos from Neal Lewis can be seen here. What an honor to be shown with two amazing photographers! 

Helping Our Feathered Friends

This weekend took on a sense of urgency for our feathered friends. The temperatures in the valley were ranging from 5 degrees to the teens but with the wind gusts of up to 45 miles an hour the wind chills got as low as 25 below zero! Some people don't think that we humans should interefere with nature and wildlife...but the way I look at it is that since we already have altered the balance of nature by our presence here on planet earth, it's up to us to help take care of our fellow creatures. We had a steady stream of birds at the feeder all day long today. We kept them fed with home made peanut butter suet, rose hips, black oil sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. We were even surprised by a visit from a rather large female pileated woopecker. We also saw cardinals, red bellied woodpeckers, downy woodpeckers, juncos, purple finches, gold finches, titmice, chickadees, nuthatches and one of my personal favorites, wrens.

Feeding Winter Birds

Here are a few of my favorite winter birds in the Shenandoah Valley:

These little beauties "will work for food" and seem more than happy to pose for me when given their favorite tasty bird treats.

We have three feeders in the winter months to help our little bird locals get through the winter months.

We feed them home made suet, black oil sunflower seeds and safflower seeds. The cardinals really like the safflower seeds.


My home made suet attracts a wide
variety of birds ranging from
woodpeckers, to wrens.

 Here is a loose recipe for my home made suet:

I buy the store bought suet for the
little plastic molds that they come in and then I use those for my home made suet. The birds will eat the store bought but they devour my home made.

Recipe:

Melted Lard (not Crisco but real lard) Maybe about two or two and 1/2 cups
Once melted, remove pan from heat and add about a cup of peanut butter
Add about a 1/2 a small bag of cornmeal
Add about 2 cups of black oil sunflower seed
Add enough flour until the consistancy is about that of cookie dough
Scoop into the molds and put in the refrigerator or freezer until hard and then you can pop them right out of the mold and put them in any suet feeder.

Good Morning It's A Great Day to Be A Photographer

Some days are better than others. Today was certainly one of those that falls into the better category. My morning routine is to wake up in the morning, drink a nice cup of French roast coffee and check my emails and Facebook. I had been feeling a little blue about my photography lately and started wondering if I should continue to put so much energy into it since my sales had drastically dropped off. Well this morning the powers that be told me loud and clear to keep going! 

 I first saw a message from a friend on Facebook that said they had seen my photo on the Washington D.C.NBC 4 Weather News . I submit my photos to them when I get a pretty sunrise or snow scene and sometimes I'm lucky enough to have a photo shown during the weather segment. Thank you Tom Kierein! 

Then I got another message in Facebook from   Shenandoah River Outfitters requesting to use one of my photos for thier website in exchange for two free kayak trips on the beautiful Shenandoah River!  How could I refuse?  The photo above is the one that Shenandoah River Outfitters wants to use on their website. 

The photo below is the one that was shown on the Washington D.C.NBC 4 Weather News this morning. 

To anyone reading this blog, I hope you all have a great day too! :-)

The Reset Button

It's a new day. It's a new chance. It's a new opportunity. Yesterday didn't go like you wanted? Use this new day as an opportunity to start over and replace those negative thoughts of "I can't" and "I'll never get there" with "I will and I can!"  And remember to take the time to be more giving with your loved ones, more patient, more understanding and more loving and see what happens! :-) "Give and ye shal receive!"

The Colors of Winter

Winter is often devoid of color here in the Shenandoah Valley when all of the deciduous trees shed their leaves and the farmer's fields turn brown... but sometimes we are blessed with vivid colors in the middle of winter like this double rainbow that graced the valley yesterday.


 

 After the clouds parted we were blessed with this colorful sky. The sky appeared to be on fire with warm and welcome tangerine and orange hues. I'm so thankful for the colorful days of winter that give me hope that Spring really is just around the corner!










If you would like to support my photographic endeavors, please click below to purchase greeting cards or prints. I create my photography on a shoe string budget and do not pay for any advertising, so please feel free to help spread the word about my photography and share my blog or photos! Thanks for any help in allowing me to follow my passion, it's much appreciated! :-)