outdoor photography

A few months ago I purchased a point and shoot camera, the Canon Powershot G7X.  I wanted to be able to quickly take photos of landscapes while I'm out birding without having to carry two DSLRs or switch lenses.  I had very little desire to take video with the camera.  However, it's very easy to do, so lately I've taken some short videos just see if I could make something interesting.  Last week I was up in Maryland, and I took 20 second videos of all the scenes I photographed.  Then I put them together as short movies with background music. I visited Patapsco Valley State Park in Baltimore and Swallow Falls State Park in western Maryland. I love the photos I took of these parks, but when I put together the video footage, I was pleasantly surprised to find that they seemed a bit more interesting. When I returned home, I figured I would visit a waterfall in my home county. It's nothing like what I can visit in Maryland.  It's tiny and not very pict...

Cascade Falls, Avalon Area May 22, 2009 In the year or so before we moved to Florida, I found this wonderful group of cascades in what's called the Avalon of Patapsco State Park just outside of Baltimore, MD.  I visited this area three or four times before moving, and every day was different.  Obviously, the main differences here have to do with the amount of recent rainfall, but I still found it a helpful reminder visit the same place more than once.  "You never step in the same river twice," says Heraclitus.  His philosophy of change may teach photographers a lesson too.  May 22, 2009 This was my favorite day at the Avalon area, I think.  Cascade Falls in particular looked wonderful.  There was enough water to see the cascading water, but not so much that the water overpowered the rocks. Below Cascade Falls, Avalon Area May 22, 2009 Sept 4, 2009 Obviously we hadn't had much rain on this day, so I was somewhat disappointed by so...

Icy Cascade In January of 2009, when I lived in Baltimore, I came across a little cascade in Patapsco State Park.  It was pretty cold, and ice had formed on the rocks, but it wasn't cold enough to freeze the running water in the stream.  I thought the ice formations here were pretty interesting.  I came back to the same cascade in the spring, and I didn't think it was nearly as fun.

Rock Formation along Alberton Rd. Alberton Area [ map ] is a relatively unknown portion of Patapsco Valley State Park [ gallery ], and it's a fairly unique part of the park as well.  This section of the park is actually an old road that once led to an old town called Daniels, MD.  Daniels was a mill town that had its beginnings in the early 19th century, but was abandoned in the late 1960s.  The remnants of the town were later destroyed by Hurricane Agnes in 1972.  The storm flooded the banks of the river, destroyed the town and pushed cars up the hills.  The area was never rebuilt, so the forest grew up around the ruins of buildings and old cars.  In a very real sense, this area is the reversal of the general trend of human interaction with nature.  Here, nature is reclaiming and renewing what man had made and abandoned. Alberton Rd Path I love going to this part of the park.  It reminds me of the resilience and renewing strength of...

Cascade Falls, Avalon Area Patapsco Valley State Park Patapso Valley State Park has many locations around Baltimore.  The McKeldin Area is closest to where I used to live, but over time, the Avalon Area [ gallery ] became my favorite place to go.  There's a nice, wide biking trail there, and several great places to visit along the way to the falls you see above. Railroad Tracks crossing the Patapsco River Because it's best to get there before the park opens, I never went to the main entrance.  I found a place on Ilchester Rd to enter the park [ map ].  There's a place to park under the railroad tracks on Ilchester.  You can explore some nice scenery right here.  In particular, you can walk up to the tracks and photograph the train tunnel and bridge.  You can also access the bike trail from here, and it's easy to find--just look for the little bridge crossing the river.  Walk down this path, and after about a half mile, you'll see a...

McKeldin Falls I used to live in the Baltimore area, and the McKeldin area of Patapsco Valley State Park was pretty much on my way to work.  So I would frequently stop by there, either on Saturdays or on my way home from work.  The park has many attractions, including playgrounds, group camping, picnicking, pavilions and a frisbee golf course, but I usually went there to walk the trail along the Patapsco River.  There's a relatively large falls in the park.  You can drive pretty close to the falls.  Drive all the way to the end of the entrance road.  To your left, you'll see a smaller road that will take you to another parking lot with a trail that will take you down to the falls.  This works well on cloudy days. Rapids at McKeldin Area McKeldin has a beautiful waterfall, but unless its an overcast day, if you want to take pictures of it, you'll want to get there before the park opens.  The main parking lot doesn't open until after ...