An Afternoon in Ft. Hunter
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The Capital Region Photography Meetup group held a field trip to, of all places, the Schoharie Crossing, a mere 7 minutes from my house.  That's almost unheard of.  Usually I have to travel an hour or more to join one of their field trips. 

Now....I've been to the Schoharie Crossing and the surrounding areas many, many times, and right now it's not very attractive because it's just past the peak of Fall color, so I was really wondering what in the world these people were going to photograph.

But I went anyway, cause spending time outdoors for any reason is better than sitting on my couch all day.  Well, because I was the only one who knew the area, I became the tour guide.  They all had a great time...this location is completely new to them, so they were inspired.  And then I got inspired.

We went to the boat launch, where it just so happened there was a fishing tournament taking place, so there were a good number of boats in the water (photo op) and when we got there the boats began coming in with their catches (photo op).  The fella in this first pic saw me with the camera and joyfully asked if I wanted to take his picture (photo op).  When I said yes, he posed...and he even followed my prompting to move over a little so I could get a better shot.  He said if I posted the pic, I should be sure to caption it "the Fishing Hairdresser".  Yup, he's a hairdresser by trade.  So funny. 

I saw a tractor in the recently plowed field on the other side of the parking lot (photo op) and did my best to get something interesting.

This is the old aqueduct (falling to wrack and ruin, sadly) with one of the fishing boats nearby. 

(photo op)

We then went to the Yankee Hill Canal location were we started fooling around with alternative shooting (more photo ops):  using a slow shutter speed while zooming, moving the camera, and panning.  The other folks enjoyed it.  This is one of my favorites that I took.

 And then there was an old, old, very large tree with this gnarly bark (yup, you guessed it, another photo op).  Couldn't resist it.

We ended the day by going to the Garden Bug where the folks had a great time photographing the pumpkins and gourds and purchasing pies and gifts from the great gift shop there.  It was a really good afternoon.