Huntsville Botanical Garden - HSV, AL

After two or three prior visits, this place does not get old. Spanning 118 acres off Bob Wallace Avenue, these gardens have a variety of indigenous and foreign plants, trees, annuals, perennials as well as a gorgeous butterfly sanctuary. Unfortunately, the butterfly rooms were closed due to re-population and renovations. I always have Hershey Gardens locally for my macro photography fix. All of the photos below were shot with my medium format Fuji GFX rig, where as I need my Nikon (preferably my Nikon D7200 crop) with my 105mm macro Nikkor lens for butterflies. So this will work out great when I venture to Chocolate Town whenever I please.

Just five minutes off the highway near the US Space and Rocket Center (also an amazing place to check out if you’re in town), these botanical gardens give guests a variety of plant-life, art and hiking trails sure to please everyone. The gardens were founded in 1979. At the beginning of 1980, Huntsville-Madison County Botanical Garden Society gathered amongst their peers and had meetings consistently asking for funding from the city and eventually raised $200,000 with the city matching this to start the acreage on the gardens. Six months later and 35 acres later Huntsville Botanical Gardens were started. Full history here.

As one of Alabama’s most coveted tourist attractions, they do charge admission and offer an awesome gift shop, super clean restrooms and a cafe for refreshments and snacks.

-Mike

Sloss Furnaces - Birmingham, Alabama

I just got back from a week’s long trip to the Huntsville, Alabama area. I ate like a king, watched a lot of hockey, attended a Trash Pandas baseball game and got in some much needed rest and relaxation.

Also, I kept myself occupied with some different adventures starting with Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama about an hour and a half or so from where I was staying.

This was a really fun experience and aside from a creative playground for photography, it was free (donations welcomed, of course). The colors, which were at one point in time rich and vibrant, were weathered and faded. I took creative license to make them pop a little and brighten things up a bit.

Sloss Furnaces was in operation from 1882 - 1971. Using a blast furnace, it produced what is known as, “pig-iron.” This is a crude version of iron used in the production of steel.

It was founded by an industrialist by the name of James Withers Sloss who later sold it in 1886 to investors who renamed the furnaces to Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Company.

A full history can be found on the Sloss Furnaces website.

-Mike

Kiwanis Lake, York Pennsylvania - Egret Central

Today, along with my camera club, I visited Kiwanis Lake around 8:00am. At this time of the year, Egrets local to this area are making their nests and getting ready to get greasy and make babies. The males display a beautiful bright green color around their eyes which turns yellow after they’re done having themselves a time with females.

I brought two pieces of gear with me today- My Nikon D850 and my Nikon Nikkor 200-500mm lens. I left my teleconverter at home as I didn’t think I needed it and my thought process was mostly right. It was tough enough to track at 500mm let alone adding the extra length and calculating the extra math. I’m happy with the decision I made as it was simple and allowed me to focus solely on photographing the birds nesting as well as them in flight without using too much brain power.

-Mike

That Solar Phenomenon That Happened Today...

Today I awoke with with not so high hopes as the local news dude whose name I can’t pronounce, Weather.com and Accu Weather had not been giving very promising weather reports.

On any account- I laid in bed drinking Deer Park Sparkling Lime Water (the most flavorful fizzy water on the market in my opinion). I feared the worst as the prior forecasts had stated mostly cloudy. Maybe the sun would bear its face but at the time it looked unlikely. I had already canceled a trip to Cleveland on account of extreme price gouging (I get it) and the gamble of not having good skies to photograph this phenomenon. So instead of 100% totality, best case scenario where I live it would be 92% and some change.

I’m glad I stuck around my house because I was able to contently photograph what was available to me- which was clouds, trees and oh- the sun did decide to come out.

Moving to my front yard I was able to get more views not blocked by other things like branches and sticks.

This was much more challenging than I thought it would be. However, it played out to be a fun and unique experience.

Images shot with a Nikon D850 and Tamron 150-600mm lens with a 95mm ICE ND Filter. Enjoy!

-Mike

Indian Echo Caverns

Today started around 6:15 AM when my alarm went off. I awoke a bit later after hitting the snooze button, groggy and heavy on the allergies acting up. Nothing was stopping me though from today’s adventure- not even the leftover tuna noodle casserole I made the night before with Lipton onion soup mix, fake parmesan cheese and cream-of-celery soup with a couple cans of the “chicken of the sea.” Tuna… they call it tuna.

Around 7:20 AM I fired up Big Red and departed towards Sheetz to withdrawal money for my admission and obtain caffeine. Final destination: Indian Echo Caverns.

I had not visited (and I feel old saying this) Indian Echo Caverns for 30 whole years. Yep. Last time I was there I was probably in third grade on a field trip with Sporting Hill Elementary School! Such a geezer I am becoming!

Call time was 8am for the West Shore Photography Club. Our fearless leader, Joe, gave us multiple focus stacking demonstrations and we met our guides Karen and Mike. Massive thanks to both of them for being our guides and lending their knowledge of the cavern.

Additional thanks to the WSPC leaders Elaine, Mary, Joe and Mike for putting this amazing trip together.

-Mike

Eastern State Penitentiary

Finally, after years of dying to visit this place I got a chance. I met up with a few of the folks from the camera club, some of whom knew this place very well. I opted not to take a guided or audio tour, rather just focus on exploration and taking my time photographing all I could. I live close enough to and frequent Philly enough that I will find some time to carve out to take one of the tours since I love learning history. Their Halloween events look pretty neat as well.

I did miss a few spots in the prison (aside from what was closed off) but overall was able to capture most of what I set out to get. I considered this trip a massive success and was happy with my results as well as everyone else’s from my club.

This prison is located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. For more information on this historic landmark, you can visit their website here.

-Mike

Harrisburg, Pennsylvania State Capitol Complex

Annually, my camera club gets together to photograph the interior (and exterior if we please) of the state capitol complex in Harrisburg, PA. Generally, we get to adventure into rooms normally not open to public tours which gives us more opportunities to explore this architecturally amazing building. The craftsmanship through out is spectacular and gives you a massive appreciation for the amount of integrity builders once had when designing and constructing these buildings. While modern architecture definitely can be stunning, nothing in my opinion, beats these old facilities. Around every corner and space there is an opportunity for creative photography. And just across the street is Jackson House. Meaning, after a couple hours of shooting, a fantastic hoagie is just a few minutes away. Their burgers are most likely the best around, too.

-Mike

Heishman Mill, Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Early this morning I met with my camera club at an old Mill in Carlisle, PA called Heishman Mill. As part of the National Register of Historic Places, the Heishman Mill has a rich history dating back to the beginning of the 19th century. For more historical information, please visit their website.

I was extremely impressed with the owner as he was responding to my tags on my Facebook page almost instantly excitedly filling in bits and pieces of history to each image I posted. To me that shows drive and initiative and a very proud owner who wants to keep this place preserved and offer it up as a historical part of PA for everyone to see.

-Mike

Longwood Gardens Christmas Lights

This evening (actually, like 9pm at night) I visited Longwood Gardens in Kennett Square, PA. I’ve visited these gardens in the past but had never had the opportunity to explore them during Christmas with all of the lights. What an amazing job they do. Not a square inch left untouched with lights or decorations. I can’t wait to re-visit again next year, although this place is phenomenal any time of the year.

“Pro tip” if visiting during the holiday season: Buy tickets early and opt for a later entry time as it seemed as if they let less and less people in the later you sign up. Although there were a lot of people when I visited, it was not overwhelmingly packed.

-Mike

Shepherdstown, West Virginia

Today I met some friends in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. We spent the day exploring the various shops, doing a little Christmas shopping and walking their British Golden Retrievers around the town. It’s a quaint, vibrant small town along the Potomac River boarding Maryland.

After getting some good exercise in we had lunch and my buddy gave me some smoked meats he smoked on his new smoker. I’m a huge BBQ/Smoker guy so this was quite the treat!

We had lunch and I departed back home as I had to play host this evening.

I would say my least favorite spot was this coffee shop called Lost Dog. It was nothing special. It was nothing to write home about. It served as a coffee shop and generic gift store on the main drag. The gifts…very lame and generic. The tea barely had a scent and seemed stale. The coffee was mediocre at best, so I won’t link them. They had “I’m better than you” attitude condescending vibe. They didn’t feel inclusive or tolerant at all. Didn’t really feel like a marketplace of ideas existed with the owners/employees.

However, THIS place was amazing. The staff was engaging, excited for outsiders to visit and served us quickly and provided some PHENOMENAL pastries, coffee and desserts. They were accommodating with the dogs and their customers were so warm and inviting to us “outsiders.” I highly and when i say highly I mean HIGHLY check these folks out if you’re in or around this town. They can be found on the web here. The woman who served me picked my brain about the Eagles and how she should place her online bets. I hope whatever I told her was fruitful! GO BIRDS!

The general store was awesome as well. Again, if you visit, please check this spot out! They really do have some cool stuff to buy! Great spot to buy gifts and little trinkets for your home.

-Mike