Shane & Jerome's Engagement Photos

Yesterday we did a first shoot of Shane and Jerome's engagement photos!  Yay! Due to a long wait time at Burgatory, we were in a rush for the sun, but we managed to get some really great ones! I'm a pictures person, not a word person, so here they are!

Mt. Davis Make-up Post

Due to a frustrating combination of anxiety and acid reflux – I missed another trip.  This time I missed the one to Mt. Davis – Pennsylvania’s highest point.  I’m somewhat disappointed in missing another trip – although I’ve lived in PA my whole life, I haven’t traveled it much!  This is my post to make-up for the missed trip.  These images were taken as a second set of “urban nature” photos, though they don’t really seem like it.  They were all taken in Point State Park.  The images don’t really have much “urban” to them, except for their close proximity to downtown Pittsburgh.  The day was grey and rainy (as usual, If I need to take pictures, the sun usually flees!), but I think they came out alright.  We’ve been so fortunate with weather that spring seems to have sprung a tad early. There was a lot of green, and trees and plants with blossoms and buds on them.  There was even a lot of bee’s buzzing around!  These were shot the 3^rd of April, so I was surprised that there were so many bugs out – it seems too early! Hopefully they don’t freeze in the supposed snowstorm they keep predicting! I wasn’t really aiming for anything important when I shot these, as I was just tagging along with friends who needed these for other assignments.  I was just shooting what seemed to look good.  Hope you enjoy them!

Behind the Scenes at the Pittsburgh Zoo!

This week, our class got a behind the scenes look at the Pittsburgh Zoo.  I was a little wary of this, as I had gone on one my Freshman year for another class.  We did some different things this time, and saw some different animals.  When we first got there, they brought us to one of their education rooms.  Unfortunately, I ended up in the back row and had a hard time getting shots since there were so many of us…and we all love cute animals.  First they brought out a Macaw parrot.  Macaws are beautiful birds and it’s crazy that they can learn basic speech and live so long. The next creature brought out was a baby alligator. He was tiny, I think 2 feet long.  The zoo keeps them until they are 4 feet, then sends them back to wherever they came from.  He was really chill for being an alligator, but you could still see that he looked kind of mean! The last animal they brought out was a Kinkajou. It was so cute!  I wish I would have gotten a picture of it.  The walked it around and let us feel its tail.  It grabbed my finger with its tail and I was surprised! I’m used to cat and dog tails that don’t have that capability. From there we headed outside.  We passed a lot of habitats, but since it was so cold, most of the animals were inside.  We stopped at the lion exhibit.  They had just let 2 younger female lions outside for the day.  They came out, running and playing.  As you can see, it's funny how they have their own personalities and look like angry sisters after their play-fight.  After that, we went into the actual lion building.  Inside there were 2 male lions, who we had to avoid because they would try to mark their territory, and an older female, who I believe the keeper said was 22!  She was still pretty intimidating, as you can see from the image.  She was being fed raw horse meat and was apparently afraid we were going to take it from her!

 From the Lion exhibit, we headed over to see the African Painted Dogs.  They also had some interesting personalities.  The one dog seemed like he just wanted to sit alone - even when the rest of his pack was playing.  They look like regular dogs for the most part, but they make some funny squeaking sounds!

 After the dogs, we went to what was probably my favorite part of our behind the scenes visit - the aquarium!  We were able to hold sea turtles!  They take injured or orphaned sea turtles and raise them until they are 2 I think.  As long as they are not horribly injured, they will be re-released into the wild.  This is Clemente.  He's only 1!  The 4th picture is a 2 year old sea turtle who will be released soon!

 After the turtles, I spent some time exploring the aquariums.  I did want to go to the University of Miami and dual major in Marine Biology and Photography... Wish I could still do that!

Makeup Post 2: Cross Creek

This post is to make-up for the trip I missed at Ohiopyle.  For this assignment, I went to Cross Creek for the day.  My family all went with me and we made a fishing trip out of it.  When we got to the main entrance of the park, the place seemed pretty crowded so we went to another entrance my dad knew of.  It was a pretty cool place covering the best of all worlds.  There was water, obviously, along with a wooded area, and a field area.  There was a lot going on and I had a bit of a tougher time focusing on the small things with so much to see, which wasn’t good because I never like them afterwards and they never make the cut during the editing process!  I really enjoyed taking a day off and relaxing while taking some photos of an area that I don’t visit too frequently.  I should really go there more often, as it’s not too far from my house.   I would like to go back to Cross Creek in the summer when everything is lush and green and there isn’t so much brown.  I had a good time photographing a little frog I found, since except for my pets, I don’t get to shoot wild animals since they’re so skittish.  This little guy let me get so up in his face, you’d think he was used to having giant humans put lenses in his face!

The Old House and the Blue Lake

Apologies in advance, because this is probably going to be a pretty lengthy post.  For my independent nature photo assignment, I decided to go back to a spot I visited last year.  It's a small chunk of land owned by my grandparents neighbors.  If you want to check it out on Google maps, the co-ordinates are 40.368397,-80.181672.  On satellite view, on the left of the screen you'll see the abandoned house and barn and to the right, a lovely polluted lake.  This photo from google looks like it was taken early last summer, the way I remember the place.  Sadly, some things have changed since then.  The subjects of the first photos here don't necessarily qualify as nature. At the same time though, they show a house, being abandoned and taken back by nature.  

 Again, to start off, here are a few photos from my project that I did here last year.  It was for my black and white photo class and it's probably my favorite project.  These few were taken digitally, the film ones are best though. (Click to check them out full size please!)

When I first went to this house, some kids had been there and had spray painted some stuff, but for the most part, the place seemed relatively untouched.  It's like it's original owners just up and left.  

Sadly, this time, it looks like someone has looted the house.  All of the old appliances are gone and someone has cut the wiring from the house.  On top of that, the second floor of the house is no longer accessible as the stairs were far to mushy for me to risk going up them.  Here's a few shots from inside the house now. 

Outside the house, there are numerous barns and sheds.  Here's a few shots from those:

Now, the part I was aiming for to take my "nature" photos as was this little blue lake.  I believe old mining has left something (sulfur?) to seep into the little creek and pond.  The creek that feeds into the stream is bright orange.  I guess sulfur because it smells like eggs!  Anyway, the pond it leads into is this peaceful, eerie blue, surrounded by woods.  Or should I say was.  

Side by side, these are photos I took.  One was taken last June, the latter, on Saturday.

This isn't the same angle or anything, but it's taken of and from the same area.  The far side of the pond isn't empty because the trees have no leaves, it's empty because the trees are gone.  The housing plan that was built on the other side apparently hadn't cut down enough woods, so they cleared this all out, bulldozed it, and put down gravel.  It's looking like a nice site for some new houses.  The last time I was here, a family of beavers was living in it.  They're still around, but probably not for long of the contractors have their way.  It's sad to see such a peaceful little place destroyed to make way for a row of cookie cutter houses.  I never really counted myself as the "tree hugger" type, but this really bothers me.  It doesn't even bother me that old mining is polluting the creek.  I think it's awful that that we are destroying these last little pockets of beauty that are tucked around in PA.  The above photo is of the original dam that feeds from the pond.  The rest of these photos are just from the rest of the trip.  It's sad to see such a pretty little place destroyed.  

This photo isn't great, but these little guys were growing straight up out of the dam!