Sunday, January 29, 2012

Presque Isle


For our first nature photography trip we took a ride up to Presque Isle, in Erie, PA.  The weather forecast wasn’t very promising.  To start off when we got there, we went to the Tom Ridge environmental center to see our professor, Chris Rolinson, give a presentation about his book and photographs of the Pennsylvania State Parks.  The center and Chris’ presentation were both a lot more interesting than I’d expected.  There are a lot of beautiful places in Pennsylvania, yet we’re often left out in the world of beautiful nature photos.  Even in the cold, snowy, rainy, windy weather we encountered there, there were a lot of beautiful things to be found on the Presque Isle Peninsula. 

When we first got to the park after leaving the environmental center, the first place me and my friend Evan went was to the beach.  I love beaches.  Even covered in snow, the beaches up there are beautiful.  There was even some little waves crashing, I guess from the wind. 
In the first photo above, I really just love how on these beaches, the trees and other forest plants grow so close to the water.  The trees even seem to be reaching out and growing towards the water.  The way the light reflects off the water sitting on the sand was so beautiful to me. The next few photos are the ones of the lake and the beach.  I love water and the way it photographs.  Even murky lake water on a grey, stormy day can look so crisp and clean.  I love when waves splash up on things. 
It’s hard to believe we have such pretty beaches hiding in the corner of PA.
Click the photos to see them full screen, they look much better that way.

 
Like I said earlier, a cool thing about the beaches in the park is that plants grow right on and next to them.  Normally beaches just have a few grasses or palm trees but these are full of odd looking plants and trees.

 Lastly, and also repeatedly, I love water, and water drops, and pictures of them.  So here's some more photos of them, along with a few other random photos.


Wednesday, January 25, 2012

Compass Walk & Urban Nature


So today for class we had to follow a compass and a list of directions given in degrees and paces.  Obviously, this is not something I was used to.  Once a got a hang of using the compass, it was easier but I was nervous because it seemed like I was going the wrong way more often than not.  I think it would be somewhat easier to do this in the woods instead of the city because the city has buildings and sidewalks and you have to follow them, even if your arrow is pointing somewhere else on the compass.  My compass also liked to point to random directions and call them north.  I’m not sure if that was a result of lots of metal in the city or a crappy Walmart compass, but I fared okay.  I enjoyed the walk and seeing some parts of the city I don’t normally see.   I really dislike the city in the winter but there were a lot of beautiful little things to be found if you actually look for them.  The city of Pittsburgh does always seem to amaze me, even if I hate the cold, grey winter.  It seems like there’s always some other little place to go or thing to see popping up that I’ve never noticed.  I’ve been to a lot of the places we went before, Point State Park, across the bridge to PNC Park and down near the water over there, but seems like I just keep finding new things to see in this city.