Winter Hikes

Getting a real winter hike this month is a challenge. The snow cover is only minimal... or so we thought. But the situation in the mountains is different. After a fresh 2+ inches over night, the northern part of the Long Trail proved to be an amazing choice for an outing. Here are a few impressions...

Find the trail marker! The challenges of a winter hike on the Long Trail

Brook along the Long Trail

Same brook, different view

Moss Glen Falls and my Switch to Adobe Lightroom

Moss Glenn Falls (VT 100, Granville)
This is the Moss Glen Falls along VT100 between Warren and Granville (there is another one north of Stowe). I am not sure how often I have taken photos of this place, but this one is (a) taken with my shiny new camera (Canon 5D Mark IV) as well as (b) developed with Adobe Lightroom (and again, a pinch of Topaz Glow).

After many years of using Apple's Aperture (I was one of the first adopters), I finally made the switch to Lightroom. It took a while to convince me, still hoping for Apple to turn the corner and make their "Photos" app into something meaningful after they gave up on Aperture a while ago. I loved the Aperture interface, and had so far not warmed up to Lightroom during initial trials. But after reading Jason Bradley's book and watching Thomas' use of the tool, I gave it a serious second chance and quickly got the hang of it. Long story short: Since August 2016, all my photos are managed and developed by Lightroom. And I believe the quality of results has improved quite a bit with that move.

I still have not decided how to handle my many photos, hidden inside Aperture's database. But I will keep my old Mac Mini at the last OS version that officially supports Aperture for the time being. More on my new computer hardware in a future post.

Cascading Waterfall on New Haven River

Going through my 2014 photos, I discovered this little cascade photo that I took in May along the road from Bristol up to Lincoln along the New Haven River (and post processed the usual way with Topaz Adjust and Simplify). It was just a small tributary to the New Haven River. and I discovered it by chance while trying to take photos of the main river. It one was only a few feet tall and, of course, not marked in any map.

It shows that it is not just the big waterfalls that provide the most beautiful images. You have to explore, and more often than not, you discover little gems like this.