Two weeks ago, I published a post talking about a rather stressful day that I went through and asked how you handled stress laden days. After getting some sleep, I woke up the following day still feeling a little on edge.

Instead of starting off the day like I usually do, I decided to catch a few extra winks and sleep in for an additional hour. After getting up late, I proceeded along lazily with my day. I took care of a handful of things on my computer before stepping away to watch a little television.

By the time afternoon rolled around, I decided to take a little trip with my camera. My wife and I bundled up to battle the cold Pennsylvania weather and took a walk around the Daniel Boone Homestead.

This was the first time I’ve been there in months and had concerns about the trip. With recent State budget cuts, the staff at Daniel Boone Homestead was reported as being laid off until further funding could be acquired. Having a fondness for the historical site, I didn’t want to see it in disarray due to lack of staffing.

It would seem that somewhere along the way, the Homestead was able to acquire funding. When my wife and I arrived, we found a number of cars in the parking lot and a few of the building opened for display.

We spent a little more than an hour walking the grounds and taking photos along the way. I found it to be a much needed break from the norm and very relaxing. Out of all of the photos I took, I think six turned out well. One of those photos has been placed at the head of this article. All photos my my short outing can be found below, in the Flickr Slideshow.

Post from: Walt in PA

A Visit to the Daniel Boone Homestead

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Post from: Walt in PA

Gettysburg Photos

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During the week, last week, I spoke with a fiend of mine about heading down to Gettysburg for re-enactors appreciation weekend. Being a bit of a history buff, he has headed out for the last three years to check it out. I went along for the ride last year and had a good time, so I was looking forward to this year.

One weekend each year, the city of Gettysburg puts on a benefit for the people that educate tourists on the history of the Civil War. The re-enactors hit the streets in period dress and take advantage of free seminars and specials put on throughout the town just for them.

One of the sponsors of the event is Gettysburg Cigar Company. They work with a local tavern and provide cigars and brandy for a crowd of men while they listen to a speaker. The women enjoy a tea party across town.

The speakers name eludes me, but he was the same person to give the speech last year. He portrays a British Observer and lectures for nearly an hour on all that he would have encountered during the Civil War. The man is a talented speaker and had the crowd roaring and clapping on several occasions.

After spending time at the tavern to listen to the speech, we headed over to Gettysburg Cigar Company to have another cigar during their Oliva Event. Gary, the owner of the business, is a great guy. He remembered me from last year and was extremely friendly. The shop is small and easily missed while driving through town. The selection of cigars is limited, but Gary makes wise choices as to what he puts on the limited shelf space. Brands like Tatuaje, Illusione, Ashton, Oliva, Padilla, and Padron are easily found in a variety of facings.

After a few hours of enjoying the cigars, talks with re-enactors, and the beautiful weather, we headed back for home. Just as to be expected, I had a great time and look forward to doing it once again next year.

Post from: Walt in PA

A Day in Gettysburg

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La Flor Dominicana Reserva Especial

CAO LX2

Carlos Torano Virtuoso

Don Ramon Maduro

Bosch Jigsaw – Model JS5

What types of photos would
you like to see more of here on Walt in PA?

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Quick Photo Update

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The other day I was bitten by the photo bug and wanted to create something that said a little something about me. After giving it some thought, I figured what better way to play with my camera and tell about myself than to capture three of my favorite hobbies.

In the photo above, my three favorite hobbies are captured. A book on Photography with a Nikon D40 lens cap, a cigar dossier with an original Oliva Masterblend, and finally, a photo book on firearms with Smith and Wesson M&P.

I was pretty happy with the way the photo turned out and shared it with my twitter followers through the Twitpic service. To my surprise it was one of the most viewed photos that I have shared on this service.

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Three Hobbies

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A little ways back I made mention that I was looking forward to getting back out to the Daniel Boone Homestead, to see how my camera handled outdoors. Due to a string of cold and wet weekends, the trip was postponed on more than one occasion.

A couple of weeks ago I finally got the free time and clear skies to make the trip out. My wife and I had a few things to do later in the afternoon, but we set aside some time in the morning to take a walk around the grounds.

The weather was frigid and majority of the dirt paths around the grounds were covered in ice. We made the best of it anyway and quickly walked the grounds. It wasn’t long before we were finished and back in the warm car.

Sometimes going back to a place to recreate photos can be a lot of fun. This time it was a little boring and unproductive due to the weather. With ice on the ground, I didn’t want to risk dragging my wife and camera back along the horse trails. I used to often walk back on those trails because there is simply lots to see along the creek and in the woods.

With a freezing shutter finger, I managed to snap a few shots in the short time we were there. I enjoyed myself, but I think I may have built the situation up in my head to be more than it actually was. In the end, my wife and I got to do a little walking around a historical site and I came away with a couple of photos that I didn’t have before.

Post from: Walt in PA

Revisiting the Daniel Boone Homestead

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photo credit: tlindenbaum

Over the weekend my nephew celebrated his second birthday. I thought that this was a fantastic opportunity to take my camera along and take a few photos. I wanted to make sure that I took a couple shots of each of my nieces and nephews. I figured that this would result in at least one photo of each child that I was happy with.

Throughout the course of the day I did just as I planned. I snapped a few photos of each child. When I began transferring the photos to my laptop the following day, I couldn’t believe that I snapped more than fifty in all.

Once transferred, I started looking through what I had. Most of the photos were perfectly acceptable, but few seemed to capture the moment. Of the more than fifty photos, ten really stood out to me. I took those ten and did some post production work to them (mostly cropping) and began emailing them out to family members.

In the end I spent a fun afternoon with family and came away with several great shots of my nieces and nephews to frame.

Post from: Walt in PA

Took my camera along to a birthday party

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A week or so ago, I was pacing around the house trying to kill some time. I had a couple of things to take care of later in the afternoon and I had no interest in using television to pass the time. Instead I grabbed my camera and began stalking my prey.

My unsuspecting wife was on the phone with her mother as I snuck through the house. With camera in hand, I sprung from around the corner and snapped away. The first photo was blurry and consisted mostly of the refrigerator behind my subject. The second was focused and a close-up of my wife’s eye. I got off a couple of more photos before my wife began swatting at me and I was forced to retreat.

Having only killed about a minute of my spare time, I headed to my laptop to see what I could do with the photos. Most of them looked as if I sprung up and snapped away at an unsuspecting subject. One, however, I found interesting.

My second photo, of the eye, was the one I wanted to play around with. I imported it into photoshop and began messing around. Not having a whole lot of experience with this piece of software, I headed over to YouTube to brush up on photo editing techniques.

After playing with color tones, blurring the skin slightly, and overlaying layers to create more depth, I had the final result, which I am quite fond of. The above photo is my end result. I must say, I think it turned out pretty good under the circumstances in which it was shot.

What is your favorite website
to learn Photoshop techniques?

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Heres lookin’ at you kid

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Post from: Walt in PA

Update on the Nikon D40

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As you probably know by now, I have a new Nikon D40 and have been waiting for warmer weather in order to get out and snap some photos. Not wanting to venture out in the frigid temperatures, I’ve been snapping photos here and there inside my house (which has been nothing spectacular).

While getting ready for my weekly cigar review on the Stogie Review, I thought it would be an excellent time to take advantage of my new camera. I’ve been trying to incorporate an artistic shot of the cigar being reviewed into my actual review. The photo above is the end result, and I must say, I’m very happy with it.

With this new found excitement, I’m planning on snapping a bunch more cigar photos just for fun. I’ve got a few ashtrays and other props to use with the cigar, so I hope to find something unique and interesting to set as my newest desktop wallpaper.

Post from: Walt in PA

First product photo with my Nikon D40

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Skipping the normal snow routine, I made my way to work. After completing my normal routine of posting a daily discussion topic on Stogie Review, checking my email, and breezing through the previous nights tweets, I checked the weather forecast.

An hour and a half after arriving at work, the sun begins to light up the sky and I draw open my office curtains. To my surprise, it was still snowing. Nothing was accumulating at this point but it was coming down pretty good. When I glanced out the window a few hours later, it was still coming down at a decent rate.

Nine hours after arriving at the office, it was finally time to head home. Just like before, the snow was still coming down. At this point it was beginning to accumulate on the roads, which were not prepped for this unexpected accumulation.

Snow is not all that uncommon for Pennsylvania, but you would have thought that it was the first time anyone on the road had seen it. People were crawling down otherwise busy streets doing less than 5mph. After an agonizing forty-minute drive (roughly five miles), I was finally home. Shortly after bringing in the mail and getting myself something to drink, the snow stopped falling and the sky cleared up.

I took this opportunity to take my new Nikon D40 out for a test drive. I snapped a few pictures from my porch and a few more from behind my house. After about a dozen photos, I climbed the almost vertical hill in my backyard and took a few more. After slipping on the snow twice while on the hill, I called it quits and headed back inside.

This was the first time I had been outside with an SLR in some time. It felt a little awkward at first, but that feeling quickly went away and I was enjoying myself. I’m looking forward to the snow melting and me being able to spend more time in the sunlight to take photos.

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A Berks County Snow Fall

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Among all of the buildings, my favorites were the Daniel Boone House, followed by the Sawmill. One day while I was bored, I called up a friend to see if he felt up to shooting up a couple of rolls of film at the homestead. He agreed and we met up on site. When we got there it was much more crowded than usual. It seems that we arrived on a re-enactment day.

We headed inside the visitors center and paid our admission to get inside the buildings where presentations were made. It turned out to be a great time that was very informational. I’ve always wanted to go back and see it all again but I’ve never paid close enough attention to the schedule to plan it.

With my new Nikon D40 on the way, I’m chomping at the bit to make it back out to the Daniel Boone Homestead to do it all over again.

While I don’t have any photos of the actors handy, I do have a couple of the sawmill that were taken in Black and White. I’ve always liked taking photos of historical sights in this manner, I think it makes the photos a little more real.

Daniel Boone Homestead Sawmill – Front

Daniel Boone Homestead Sawmill – Back

Daniel Boone Homestead Sawmill – Head-On

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Sawmill at the Daniel Boone Homestead

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I struggled to make this decision until I came across a box of photos in my closet. The box consisted of a couple hundred shots that I took with my old SLR. As I dug through the photos, I started off down memory lane. The amazing thing was that most of the photos were easy to place. I have been to some of the places in the photos so many times that I could easily distinguish where they were taken.

I had a lot of fun digging through my box and easily made the decision to go with the Digital SLR, with the intention of getting back into the hobby which I enjoyed so much. I scanned a couple of the pictures that I came across, which can be found below.

Photo taken at Welkinweir

Photo taken at Welkinweir

Photo taken at Welkinweir

Photo taken at French Creek State Park

Photo taken at French Creek State Park

Photo taken at the Daniel Boone Homestead

Photo taken at St. Peters Village

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Box of old photos

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