Up early in the morning, walk outside and the full moon is visible in a patch of open sky. Any degree of open sky has been rare in these parts recently, so I thought I would try for a shot I've been thinking about for some time.
The Catawba River runs just to the north and east of Rock Hill South Carolina which is only about 30 miles from where I live. So throw a camera in the bag, grab a tripod and off we go into the night. I had never been to this location so I guessed on what to take. The A77 along with the Tokina 11-16 in the bag. Might as tell take the Sony 16-50 just in case, and now I'm in the habit of taking the Nex-6 with the Zeiss 35/2 most everywhere I go. I also took my big Silk tripod since this would certainly big a long exposure trip.
RiverWalk is 2.25 miles long, with a smooth paved path the whole way. There is a train bridge at the far end. So out and back it's 4.5 miles, but an easy walk. The best locations I found were within a half mile of the trail head. Since the fog was rolling in I decided to go all the way to the end.
Big mistake. Don't set out on a 4 mile hike with 10 lbs of camera gear in a bag. Especially when the humidity is 100%. Your arms will feel like they're ready to pull out of their sockets by the time you get back. For that distance, take only what you need and take it in a daypack. My original plan was to just shoot near the trail head, and for that my gear was fine. But the thing is, you keeping thinking there might be a better shot just a few hundred yards ahead. At least I got my aerobics in for the day.
Aside from my poor planning the bigger disappointment was that the sun didn't come up. The shot above, taken at 5:17am was as close as it got. Actual sunrise was due at 6:47, but by 6:00 this is what the conditions were like.
For some reason, at the time I thought the bush in the foreground would help, but clearly is does not. Instead of all that extra camera gear I didn't need, a machete would have been far more useful.
The foggy conditions could have made for a great shot, but I just didn't get it.
If you click to see this image larger, you can just make out the train bridge in the far distance.
RiverWalk is a great photo location, I will be back now that I have a more reasonable checklist.
- Buy a machete.
- Only take the camera gear you will use in a day pack.
- Take a light weight tripod.
- An energy bar and Gatorade will come in handy if you get trekking madness.
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