Dolly Sods Wilderness, West Virginia

A few years ago I went on a vacation to West Virginia and one of the places I explored was the Dolly Sods Wilderness. Here's a description of Dolly Sods from Wikipedia:

Dolly Sods is the highest plateau of its type east of the Mississippi River with altitude ranging from around 4,000 feet (1,200 m) at the top of a mountain ridge on the Allegheny Front to about 2,700 feet (820 m) at the outlet of Red Creek. The highest point in this immediate area is Mount Porte Crayon, at 4,770 feet (1,454 m), in Flatrock-Roaring Plains.

To get to Dolly  Sods I had to travel up a narrow 1 and a half lane road, it got pretty scary at times and I prayed no one was coming down as I was going up, since there wasn't much room to pull over. Once you get up there you travel along Forest Road 75


The view from Dolly Sods is great and there are a lot of trails to explore, since I was there by myself, I stuck close to the road.



It is also very windy at Dolly Sods and you'll see all the trees branches pointing to the east


One interesting fact is they used Dolly Sods during WWII for training and they warn you live bombs could still exist in the area.



I Could of been Killed!!!

Click any of the above photos to go to the gallery.

Click here to see a Dolly Sods Slide Show

Click here to learn more about Dolly Sods on Wikipedia


 

Chippewa Lake Park Photos

It's sad to see a lot of America's old amusements parks being torn down, over the years we've lost Euclid Beach Park, Geauga Lake Park and Chippewa Lake Park. Here are some photos of Chippewa Lake Park. I hope they bring back fond memories for you.



Ferris Wheel - Chippewa Lake Park





Click the photo to go to a Chippewa Lake Photo Gallery

Click this link to see a Chippewa Lake Slide Show

The Mansfield Reformatory X

Here's something eerie, did you know that when light shines through the windows of four different rooms at the Mansfield Reformatory that an X is formed on the floor in the hallway!!!! Scary Stuff!!!!

Click any of the photos to go to the Mansfield Reformatory Photo Gallery

















To see a slide show go here: Mansfield Reformatory Slide Show

Photographing the Monster Jam

I photographed something new this weekend, the Monster Jam at Quicken Loans Arena. The Cleveland Photographic Society arranged for it's members to photograph the event. We were given Media Passes and were able to go down on the arena floor and get some up close shots of the Monster Trucks. We had the floor to ourselves for a little while but before we knew it, swarms of kids and their parents joined us on the floor to meet the drivers and get their autographs. During the show, thanks to our Media Passes we were allowed to roam around the Arena and get photos from various vantage points as long as we didn't get in anyone's way.

Before the show started the lighting wasn't very bright and I was worried about how I was going to get some good photos of the trucks in action, but once the show started they turned up the lights, I still had to crank the ISO up to 800 to get a high enough shutter speed to get sharp photos of the moving trucks. A Shutter speed of 1/250 seemed to do the trick. I experimented with slower shutter speeds between 1/100 to 1/250 to try and get tires blurred and the trucks sharp. If I used too slow of a speed the trucks became unsharp, somewhere around 1/125 to 1/160 of a second gave me the effect I was looking for. Sure a lot of shots didn't come out, but that's the fun of photography, trying different stuff and see what works and what doesn't work, that's how you learn.


Click the photo to go to the gallery
To see a slide show go here: Monster Jam Slide Show