One of my favorite places in the whole world is an empty field in upstate New York on the edge of a town called Hudson. There really isn’t much there - some grass, a few trees, a barn off in the distance, an old fence, a new fence, a broken mailbox and a myriad of bugs. I think thats what I like so much about it though. Not the bugs part (they suck) but the part about how that there isn’t much there. There’s no distractions and it’s a good thing not have any distractions once and a while. Lucky for me this place is walking distance from my mother-in-law’s place so I regularly get the oppurtunity to spend some time there.
It’s been several hours now since I saw a halo around the sun for the first time ever and I think it’s safe to say that I’ve become obsessed with this phenomenon now. There’s tons of awesome pictures of them all over the internet and there’s an equal amount of interesting articles about them. Take a look at a couple here, here, and here if you’re interested. I was deathly afraid of pointing my camera directly at the sun for, I think, obvious reasons. The main one being that I was certain such a strong beam of light traveling through several pieces of glass which would then concentrate said beam onto an expensive and delicate sensor would end in an explosion of catastrophic proportions. So I took a slightly different approach and took a photo that included the ground and only a portion of the halo thereby making it appear to be an upside down rainbow. OMG! UPSIDE DOWN RAINBOW! *cries
I think it turned out pretty sweet.
Last week during “The Great Staycation of 2012” I had the opportunity to visit one of New Jersey’s many wonderful farms. Cherry Grove Farms, located in Lawernceville, is situated on 230 acres of certified organic pasture and boy-howdy is it beautiful. I’d say it was actually one of the high points of TGS2012. That and sleeping until 11am. Besides having the usual farmy things laying around (goats, chickens, guys in overalls, etc.) they have a creamery where you can watch them make cheese - some of the most delicious cheeses this side of the Delaware in my opinion. They’re all made from their own cows milk and most of them are raw. If you get a chance to visit, do it and pick up some of the herdsman while you’re there you won’t regret it. They also sell lamb, pig, chicken and a variety of other local products like honey and mustard. And if that’s not enough the people who work there are all super nice and friendly. I could go on but I’ll spare you. It’s an all around great place to visit. Just go already!
A few weeks back I spent the afternoon screwing around with the video features of the 7d. It’s super easy to just pick it up and start recording something but there’s a lot that can be done with this camera and I still need to learn about most of it. I set up with my Canon EF 70-300mm, going between hand holding and using my tripod. My goal here was really just to get something into focus and keep it there but with the sun shining on the LCD screen and my glasses causing all sorts of glare it all proved to be quite difficult at times. I supposed I’ll just keep practicing. Also, I think it’s time for me up upgrade from my crappy plastic tripod to something a bit more solid with a much more fluid head. I found it to be nearly impossible to smoothly pan in any direction. I’m thinking of possibly getting one of these bad boys.
Hope you enjoy the video. That’s Sigur Rós playing in case you’re wondering.
