Zoo at 12mm

Recently I visited the Cleveland MetroParks Zoo to take some photos, usually when I go to the Zoo, I carry a backpack full of lenses. Not this time, this time I took one lens my 12-24mm and set it at 12mm and left it there. Why would I take a 12mm lens to the zoo? Well, I wanted to be a little more creative, by setting the lens to 12mm I paid more attention to what I was viewing in the viewfinder and unlike with a zoom I actually had to move closer or farther away to frame my shot. I also crouched down and pointed the camera up and down while framing my image. This is actually a good way to learn about the different focal length lenses you carry and how they see the world. It was also great just to walk around with my camera and lens and not lug a heavy backpack around. Try it sometime, it's a lot of fun.



To see more of zoo photos go here: Zoo at 12mm

My Adventures on the Daffodil Trail

Well I got up bright and early this morning and headed to the Daffodil Trail in the Furnace Run MetroPark I got to the park a little before 7am and was the only one there. Right near the parking lot and picnic tables I viewed the first of many daffodils along the trail.

After taking a few photos of the daffodils near the parking lot, I ventured on down the trail an came upon this sign.

The loop trail is about .6 miles long and is a pretty easy hike, as you hike down the trail you run into patches of daffodils, there were a lot of daffodils but it looked like in another week there would be a lot more.

I like to have fun when I'm out taking photos so I took my usual goofy shots, like my "Ant Eye View" photos

Here's another fish eye view




Here are a few more photos:






Here's a link to a Daffodil Trail GPS Photo Map This is pretty cool, click the link then on the map, click on the photos on the right side and you'll see where along the trail I took the photo, when the photo pops up over the green smuggy balloon just click on the thumbnail to go to the gallery.

So, if your looking for a great place to take photos in the spring I highly recommend the Daffodil Trail, get there early though cause when I got done with my hike the parking lot was full.

I'm gonna try and write about all my photo shoot adventures on this blog, if you'd like to keep up to date with my photo adventures just subscribe to the feeds or better yet subscribe via email and you'll be notified when the blog is updated. Just sign up on the right side of this blog.

You may also want to check out my Cool Photos Ops blog, on that blog I'll be posting Cool Places to take photos in Ohio and also listing places where I'm planning to shoot. The blog is a great resource with Weather Maps, sunrise and sunset times and even wind conditions that would be useful when you are going out to shoot macro. To help you get to the locations I also list GPS Coordinates for all of the photo locations and display a Google map so you can get directions to the location from your home address. I also post photos and slideshows so you can see what the location looks like. You can check it out here, and make sure you subcribe to the Cool Photo Ops blog as well to keep up to date with new photo locations.

Cool Photo Ops Blog