Boring I know -but hey this is Ohio.  Nothing like a mountain when you’re looking…  Actually I should have done better -but at the moment I was standing, if you want to call it that, on a 2×3 foot platform 80 feet in the air with 40mph winds threatening to blow everything I owned over the side.  Let’s just say I was thinking a good bit more about holding on than I was about taking the picture.  I did get this.

Oh well, I tried.  Things got a little better when I found Cedar Falls.

Not bad, but it would have been better with less beach.  It does crop to a 4×5 format nicely though.  Notice that overhanging rock -I brought it out of the black by a little flick of light from my sb-800.

This turned out ok too… lucky for me.  Many of them didn’t.  There was this other little issue of falling things -precipitation. Not that I mind really -it helped clear out the swarms of people and my camera doesn’t mind a few drops.  But my lens… for some reason I didn’t notice the drops.

I lost dozens of images to the spots.  Oops.  Guess next time I will pay more attention.

I found this pink trillium in a local park and added a sb-800 with a 3/4 CTO gel to give it just a bit of punch -although if I did it again I probably would lay off the color a bit. I was using a Nikkor 70-300 ED which actually is a pretty smart little lens for doing this sort of thing. It is close focusing and allows for a nice working distance. The downside is when you are working at 300mm and f:5.6 max the slightest breeze kills sharpness. This one is close but not quite sharp. Next time maybe.