Non-Disney vacation...

It's been a while since I've posted - we took our 'last' WDW trip in October of 2008 for a year. ; We usually get AP's for a year, then take a year off. ; We go back again this October. ;

This year, we took our first real family vacation - two weeks, 3500 miles, 13 states plus the District of Columbia. ; We traveled all the way from Northeast Florida to the coast of Maine, making stops along the way in DC, Gettysburg/Hershey, Louden NH, then on to Maine. ; The trip back we made quite the detour and ventured onto the Blue Ridge Parkway for a few hours. ;

I took almost 9 GB of pictures with my D80 - not all of which are good, but for now I'm not thinning it out any. ;

Here are some of the toys we bought for (and immediatly after) the trip:

Asus Eee PC 10.1" netbook - to store pictures when cards get full, and to maintain contact with work and family. ;

Flip Video UltraHD mini HD video recorder. ; Neat toy, takes pretty good video for $200!

HP MediaSmart home server. ; When we got home, we realized that the HDD on our home computer was full, so we needed a place to store all of our pictures and video! ; This server has a single 750GB HDD, and room for three more drives. ; I also have an external backup drive that I plug into that, and then I cut DVD's with all of our pictures for data backup (I do this for a living, too...I'm a bit of a backup freak).

All of that said, here are some of the pictures I'm most proud of...

Arlington National Cemetary - Looking up at Robert E. Lee's home:


U.S.M.C. Sunset Parade - at the Marine Corps Memorial. ; Awesome to see:


Gettysburg - from Little Round Top:

and


Bailey Island, ME - coast here sure is different from our beaches in Florida!


And Orr's Island, ME


I have more...but I think this is enough for now!!

Kevin

 

Thanks! ; I won't say it was a hard shot to get (it wasn't), but that place can be so overwhelming!

 

Im ; assuming the cemetary wasn't there when he lived there. Reminds me of House Hunters.. "Well atleast they'll never build there!"

 

and if roger had not stated it i would have, i still have my grandfather's autographed full set of catton's definitive history of the blue and gray

 

; Close enough to the way I learned it not to argue! ;
BTW, I was very proud of my almost 12 year old son while at Arilington. ; We were standing watching the Changing of the Guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldior, and without prompting he remembered to remove his hat and hold it over his heart. ; The next evening, at Sunset Parade - held at the Marine Corps Memorial also at Arlington - he remembered, again without prompting, to remove his hat and hold it over his heart while Taps was played. ; Overall he was very respectful. ; Amazing.

There was another time a couple of days later, when at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, that I found a new marker near the statues of the soldiors that stand guard over the Memorial. ; It it dedicated to those who died after the war from their wounds. ; My father died in 2003 from Agent Orange poisioning - after fighting it for almost 20 years. ; I was unable to speak - tears running down my face after reading that marker. ; Nate stood next to me, and just said " That's for Grandpa, isn't it?"

Amazing. ; He gets it.

Now I'm off my proud dad soapbox...

 

Thank you!
I have an 8x10 print of that one in my portfolio, after I played with the raw image in Photoshop. ; Pushed for color, contrast, and briteness. ; I'm pretty proud of it! ; (even a blind squirrell can find a nut once in a while!) ;

 

Ok...a few more to share:

This is another from Gettysburg, but more artistic than the others:


Gettysburg is an AMAZING place. ; Just to see the battlefield, walk on it, tour it (which you do by car - we bought a book and CD to play in the car while on the tour), experience it...wow. ; So many Americans died there, yet, after the war, both sides came together and build the many monuments there.

My father-in-law and his neighbors in New Hampshire own collectively the large tract of land behind them in an effort to keep the rural feel of the neighborhood. ; We took a walk behind their house one evening...and this is what we saw:

This was a small stream, which a family of beavers have dammed off and created a small pond. ; This is taken about 15 feet from the dam itself. ; We don't get to see stuff like this in Florida - at least not unless we are armed to the teeth against snakes and alligators!

This Ox pulling ring is dedicated to my wife's Great Grandfather in the town of Monmouth, ME:


These last two were taken on the Blue Ridge parkway on our way home:



Thanks for checking these out. ; Now I can't wait to get back to WDW (October 22nd!)

 

Excellent!!

 

Nice work Kevin! ; I especially like that shot of the Lee House. ; Its hard to get a good shot of that in the summer with all of the haze and smog in the city.

Thanks for covering for me Roger! ; ;D ; The only thing I'll add is that Lee was offered the command of the Union Army, but declined due to his loyalty to home state of Virginia.

 

Very nice...thanks for sharing. It really makes me want to go see it for myself.

 

Great shots Kevin. Sounds like that was a Wonderful Trip.

 

Thanks everyone for your replies! ; I posted these for critique - I think my family and co-workers have had more than enough of them, and they aren't interested in photography as art, either.

For those of you who have never had the chance to visit some of these wonderful places, I encourage you to go. ; As a student of American History (Poli-sci was my major the first time I attempted college - I ended up 17 years later with a degree in Information Systems!), D.C. and Gettysburg were highlights of the trip. ;

Next trip is already in the plans...Jacksonville Florida to Anaheim, CA, via San Antonio, TX, the Grand Canyon, San Diego, and of course, the House that Walt Built - the grail - Disneyland itself!

 

Yeah, the Alamo is part of the plan, also. ; Good to know about not shooting in the building.

Quick story (might help someone...)...
In the National Archives, I wanted pictures of the Declaration of Independence, but no flash allowed...so, I put in my 50mm 1.8, and turned off my flash. ; I started to take my first pictuer, and was stopped by the guard...the D80 uses a light to measure for autofocus - BIG mistake! ; So, I turned off my autofocus, and attempted a shot the way I learned on 35mm film...totally manual.

Notice there are no pictures from the archives posted...there's a lesson in there somewhere!!

 

Yes, they are very picky about that. ; Ever since they hung the Declaration in front of a window in the Patent Office Building and let it fade for 35 years, they are rather sensitive about light. ; I took a couple pictures of it in June... I'll try to remember to post them tonight. ;

I'm not that familiar with the D80, but you might want to check in the manual for AF Assist. ; Usually, you can disable the light in one of the menus without turning off the entire AF system.