Music in the Clouds
October 5, 2014
It was a toss-up, I was going to post another waterfall shot, the first photo below. We went to Castle in the Clouds in New Hampshire today. On the property is Falls of Song, a quick walk from one of the lower parking lots. Now this weekend was a relaxing get away with my wife. Each year I debate on giving her a weekend where I do not take a camera with me. In the end, the camera made the trip and she is fine with it, actually encourages me… it gives her quiet time without me. I got the waterfalls, shops, mountains, plenty of great shots, The ones I missed though bug me, I should have photographed all the insane people we came across, specially the “photographers”. We saw sooo many iPad pros. We saw one stand in the middle of the street, stop a car, told them to wait so other people would not hit her as she photographed pumpkins. Another one fell in the river, I heard a “lesson” on the side of a path that was about exposure to an elderly group, that was full of made up words. Another guy that told the group getting out of his van… “no need for cameras, this is not photo worthy” (it was the waterfall posted below). But my favorites are the last 2, one I got a photo of, one I did not. The second shot of the waterfall has a man in it, by no means a great shot, but I had to take it. He was there in that spot almost 15 minutes. In a very crowded area, with many photographers with tripods trying to get similar shots. Not uncommon, you just move out of the way after a few minutes, if you want to get more, step back in the queue, really just common courtesy. Not this guy, never looked around, took maybe 30 photos without moving his camera. People were pissed, they were waiting longer than me. I had enough and walked up next to him, planted my tripod inches from him, he seemed startled. We made eye contact and I said “I have to work tomorrow, so I am cropping you out of my shot.” I took one shot (the one below), he said he was done, I said so was I and left. Letting all the others get a shot. Now my favorite was in the Castle itself. A man equipped with enough camera equipment to shoot a wedding, 2 full Nikon DSLRs, flashes, battery grips, the works, he meant business. No judgement, I am no better at times, but it was what he did that made him special. He pointed one of them out the open window at the mountain (this is key, mountain – not kid, couple, animal, car, bike… a mountain) and pushed the button. This was a Nikon D700, I have one myself, awesome camera, with a battery grip -which he had, it shoots 8 frames a second, not bad, only downside it is very loud. He pushed the button… for about 5 seconds. Click, click, click, click, click… bang, bang, bang… echoing in the quiet room, about 20-25 shots, never moving. I really thought it was a mistake. I have done it, fix the setting and move on act humbled, because why would you shoot high-speed at a mountain that moves once every ice age. My wife heard it too and looked at me, we just smiled… then he did again, new window, same mountain, 25 more shots in 5 seconds. He turned back the first window and did it again… my wife had to take me out of the room, I just wanted to talk to him, so many questions. Was he shooting full files? That would be about 900 MB of the same mountain in less than a minute. What could he have seen? Was there a bird? Meteor? UFO? Ghost? Nope, I was not allowed to talk to him. I will have to wonder forever. I also got strange looks from some of the iPadders on my choice of photos. The knobs on the tub? Phone? The light hanging? We had different goals. Some day I will take a trip with no camera… as long as I have my iPad.
tr/trp
