Duplo's blog

Wow... what a vacation... an amazing experience...

Hi all,

and again welcome to a huge, lng and picture heavy duploworld update:D

Now where to start, I have so many things to tell and so much to share...

Perhaps I should start outwith sharing "that little secret"
During the first day I really equipped my self with quite a few new toys...
First of all I grabbed a 31mm Pentax Limited, secondly I grabbed a Pentax *istDS camerabody, an older digital body, a very compact body, to match it I got the ultimate pancake lens: the Pentax DA 40mm limited. measuring only 0.6 inches it is a very compact lens and makes for a package that is no bigger than a regular bridge camera. along side that I got a Hoya R72 IR filter (something I have wanted for some time)... now with that I had a kit like this (plus a good selction of filters):

With that in my bag I felt ready for a good vacation and has toys enough for many years to come...

New York City

A wonderful city and a city that I love to be in, we spend 3 full days here...
Day one was the shopping day we spend the day walking from time square and all the way to Washington square and hada wonderful italian dinner at a small restuarent in Greenwich Villeage.
Here is Miss Duplo on her way down 34th street:

Day two was a trip to Staten Island where the first picture is from and a trip to brooklyn bridge, we managed to find some shelter beneath it just as a round heavy rain poored in, it was a great place to just watch the hectic life of NYC. and made for a very successfull Panning shot too... the only thing actually moving in the picture is the Yellow Cab:

Third day was a day in central park and we had a marvellous day walking there and whatching, the locals seemd quite quite happy about the weather too, these roller skaers were for sure (and pretty darn good skaters too):




















































Washington DC and Baltimore

The above is from the first day in DC and the first real Infrared picture I have captured (and converted to Monchrome)... It adds an unusual effect to an otherwise ordinary scene I think.

Washington is amazing and very different from NYC. but I really like DC as a city especially the area around georgetown is wonderful and a place we made sure to visit, set aside the obligatory walk from lincoln monument to capitol and the equally obligatory visit to the Air and Space museum.

Before entering DC a friend of ours gave us a grand tour of Baltimore, a really wonderful trip Baltimore is actually quite interesting, especially the inner harbour area and this picture I find quite interesting too:


Shenandoah National Park

Without a doubt the most spectacular part of the trip... Shenandoah was stunning. a truly beautiful area, so different from what we see up here in the arctic.
Hills and mountains draped in a thick greean coat of forest.
The national park has been equipped with a 101.5 mile long road running from North to south. and with an extensive net op hiking routes. the drives was amazing several viewpoints along the road made for some spectacular views:
I love the light in this one:

Not to mention this 10 second exposure during a Thunderstorm around dusk:

Or this Infrared picture:

We did two hikes while in the area, the first one was a hike to the Dark hollow falls, a beautiful terrased waterfall not the tallest in Shenandoah, but definitely a very photogenic one:


now one of the really surprising things that came out of the equipment I bought was that miss duplo actually became a quite entusiastic photo snapper... The compact camerabody and the tiny Pancake lenses really provided her a lot of fun I think:













Now Richard I know you will be asking about the car... No we did not go convertible and luckily for us, there was a few situations that called for the 4 wheel drive of this rather nice Suzuki XL7 (it even had a DVD system build in):


Now if you still urge for more about our vacation in the US, then go see the 115 pictures big "USA 2007" album, there is a lot more pictures from our trip, even a picture of a black bear encounter:)

Now I will try reading up on all of you during this week, but you have been very active from what I can see. so please be patient.

Thank you all for looking and do take care:)

Thomas