Trip Report

A Rainy Spring Drive Over the Blue Ridge Mountains /  by Todd Henson

The glare of headlights

After a dry spell we suddenly received a large amount of rain in a short time, and sitting at home listening to that rain patter on the roof inspired me to sort through and process a number of photographs from April of 2023 when my father and I drove over the Blue Ridge Mountains on Skyline Drive through Shenandoah National Park in the rain.

Springtime rains on the road

Photographing From the Car

The day hadn’t begun raining (in fact, I’d just photographed my first white trillium flowers about an hour before creating these photos), and it didn’t end that way, either. But for parts of the day we had the pleasure of winding down the Blue Ridge Mountains through anything from a light and misty rain to a heavy downpour with gusty winds. Being the passenger that day enabled me to create these photographs.

Lichen, branches, road and rain

I would often watch the windshield wipers and time my exposures for just after they wiped the water off the windshield. This gave me the clearest view. But in some of the photos you can see droplets of water on the windshield. They create a slight blur that, when there are enough droplets, almost gives the photo a slightly more painterly look that I enjoy.

A wet and winding road

Camera Settings

From a technical perspective, it was a bit dark because of the rain and we were in a moving car so I wanted a high enough shutter speed to avoid too much motion blur (except in those instances when I played around with purposefully slowing down the shutter speed). This meant I used a fairly high ISO, between 1250 and 2000. I also used a reasonably wide aperture of f/5.0, which did limit the depth of field but helped give me a shutter speed of anywhere from 1/125th to 1/400th of a second. I was using a 16-80 mm lens (thanks, Alex) in the 44-56 mm range, chosen based on the view from inside the car.

Fleeing the rain towards a hole through the mountain

Post-Processing

I did process these photos a fair bit in Adobe Lightroom, largely dodging and burning (old darkroom terms for brightening and darkening) to highlight some areas and lessen the impact of others. For example, I liked the light greens and browns of spring so I brightened those up enough that they stood out, and I darkened wet branches to help them stand out more. I added a little contrast in some areas that had been reduced by the rain.

Follow the leader through the rain

What do you think of the results? Did I go too far? Would you have gone a little further? Let me know in the comments below.

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Martinsburg Roundhouse and Bunker Hill Train Shows in West Virginia - 2023 /  by Todd Henson

Today I wanted to share some views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia, an historic railroad site and National Historic Landmark. The photos cover two days in 2023, both when the Bunker Hill Train Club held their model railroad train shows within the roundhouse. We visited the show on April 15 and September 30th.

My goal, of course, was to create some photographs of the site and event that some of you might find interesting. And I did create quite a few, so this is a photo-heavy post. On the first trip in April I had no idea what to expect so I brought my 16-80mm lens, a fairly general purpose lens. It was a very good choice for that location. But even at 16mm I found myself very cramped when inside, so when we returned in September I opted for my 6.5mm fisheye, knowing it would add some distortion but hoping I could capture more of the scene.

Outside Views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse

Below are a number of views of the outside of the roundhouse complex. Towards the end you can see there were two roundhouses at the site but in the early 1990s an arsonist destroyed the second of the two and all that remains of it are parts of the walls and the tracks on the ground.

Arriving at the Bunker Hill Trail Show on April 15, 2023, held at the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia.

Walking towards the buildings of the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (April 15, 2023)

One of the buildings at the Martinsburg Roundhouse. Nonni's was serving lunch that day. (April 15, 2023)

A view of the Martinsburg Roundhouse. Inside is the Bunker Hill Train Show. (April 15, 2023)

Walking around the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (April 15, 2023)

A view of one of the side rooms/buildings at the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia. (April 15, 2023)

Outside details of the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (April 15, 2023)

The remains of the second roundhouse at Martinsburg. (April 15, 2023)

Only part of the walls and the ground remain of the second roundhouse in Martinsburg. (April 15, 2023)

Inside Views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse

Inside the roundhouse we get to see views of the Bunker Hill Train Shows and some of the various vendors and visitors. We also get to see some of the core structures of the roundhouse and the adjoining buildings and shops.

A wide view inside the Martinsburg Roundhouse at the Bunker Hill Train Show. This is a wide angle multi-image stitched panorama. Click any photo for a larger view. (April 15, 2023)

A fisheye view of the interior of the Martinsburg Roundhouse while hosting the Bunker Hill Train Show. (September 30, 2023)

A fisheye view of the interior of the Martinsburg Roundhouse showing the actual rotating center. (September 30, 2023)

Another fisheye view inside the roundhouse. (September 30, 2023)

Looking across the rotating center inside the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia. (September 30, 2023)

Another view of the rotating center inside the roundhouse. To get this view I held the camera above my head and angled it down, experimenting until I found the right angle. (September 30, 2023)

Even with the fisheye lens I wasn’t able to capture the entirety of the ceiling inside the Martinsburg Roundhouse. (September 30, 2023)

The domed ceiling was interesting enough to me I photographed it both days, this time with a 16mm (non-fisheye) lens. (April 15, 2023)

The interior of one of the rooms/buildings attached to the roundhouse. It was empty on April 14, 2023, but on September 30, 2023 it had some local vendors inside. (April 15, 2023)

At the very end of the previous photo is a door leading to this very dark workroom. This was a fisheye view with attempted perspective corrections in Adobe Lightroom. (September 30, 2023)

Details inside one of the shops at the Martinsburg Roundhouse. This was a fisheye view with attempted perspective corrections in Adobe Lightroom. (September 30, 2023)

Another detail view inside one of the shops at the Martinsburg Roundhouse. This was a fisheye view with attempted perspective corrections in Adobe Lightroom. (September 30, 2023)

Parting View of the Martinsburg Roundhouse

And finally, we part with a wider view taken from outside the fence, though I was reaching my arms over it to hold the camera just inside. It shows the back portion of the area. Across the tracks you can see some of the town of Martinsburg, along with the active railroad station.

A parting view of the back side of the Martinsburg Roundhouse complex. (April 15, 2023)

I hope you’ve enjoyed these views of the Martinsburg Roundhouse in West Virginia and two of the Bunker Hill Train Club’s Train Shows in 2023.

Click here to learn more about the Bunker Hill Train Club.

And click here to learn more about the Martinsburg Roundhouse in the City of Martinsburg, West Virginia.

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A Return to Great Marsh Looking For Tundra Swans /  by Todd Henson

In early February of 2024 my father and I returned to Mason Neck hoping to see the tundra swans that winter over in this area. We’ve been fortunate to see them in previous years, and were able to see them again this year, though at quite a distance.

I’d checked the tide charts before we set out and found high tide coincided with sunrise so we thought there was a good chance of viewing the swans. I thought it might be nice viewing them from the opposite shore we did last time, thinking this would position the sun in a more flattering location. Unfortunately, the day was completely overcast, so rather dark, and the tundra swans chose to group on the far side of the marsh, much closer to the other observation platform. This put them at quite a distance from us.

The Wildlife

Distant tundra swans at Great Marsh

Even at a distance, though, it was great to see and hear the tundra swans. They have a very distinctive sound so we always know when we’ve found them. We were fortunate to watch as two more swans flew in and landed with the rest.

Distant observation platform and tundra swans

Two more tundra swans fly in

There was quite a range of birdlife, and wildlife, beyond the tundra swans. In one scene I attempted to capture tundra swans, a red-winged blackbird, mallard ducks and Canada geese in a single image. I wasn’t able to do this with just one photo, though, because of the shallow depth of field. The low light just wouldn’t allow me a reasonable balance of ISO, aperture and shutter speed, so I decided to try focus stacking by focusing on the near birds for one photo and the far birds for another. But of course the birds were moving, so using the software to auto focus stack didn’t work and I had to manually merge the photos. If you look closely this resulted in a strange bit of out of focus brown grass in the center of the photo between the blackbird and the swans, but it did bring each bird species mostly in focus so you could see them all.

From top to bottom: tundra swans, a red-winged blackbird, a pair of mallard ducks and a pair of Canada geese.

At one point a beaver swam across the water towards its lodge. And later a muskrat swam right towards us. These were the only mammals we saw this time around.

A beaver on the left and a muskrat on the right swimming through the water. The beaver is actually much larger but was at a much greater distance so looks smaller in the photo.

There is a lot of duck hunting in this area, so even though the ducks are safe in this location they still tend to either fly off or swim far away when we arrive at the observation platform. That meant all photos were at a distance, but we still were able to view a range of ducks. The ones in these photos are, I believe, mostly American black ducks. There were the mallards in the photo above. And I saw a pair of hooded merganser and several other species at a greater distance.

A pair of American black ducks. They were sort of swimming together with one following the other, but they didn’t get close enough for a single photo of them both.

Ducks at Great Marsh. I believe most, if not all of these, are American black ducks, though I may be mistaken.

The last interesting scene to show you was a noisy flock of black birds that started out moving through the trees and later moved around the light brown grass in the water. I believe most of these birds were common grackles but I also identified some red-winged blackbirds. It wouldn’t surprise me if there were other species in the mix, such as European starlings, but I wasn’t able to positively identify any more.

A group of black birds flocking at Great Marsh. Most are likely common grackles but I was also able to identify red-winged blackbirds. There might be other species mixed in, as well.

The Challenges

There were a number of challenges to this photo session. With the low light levels and the moving birds I boosted my camera’s light sensitivity way up (to 4000 ISO) so I could get a fast enough shutter speed, but this meant there would be a fair bit of digital noise in the files. Because of the distance there was a slight bit of haze to deal with. And because I don’t photograph with the long lens quite as often I was likely out of practice. All this resulted in photos that aren’t perfectly sharp, though I did the best I could to deal with these issues in post-production in the computer. They work just fine for a blog post but some might not work as well if I were to try to print them in a larger format. I tend to prefer creating imperfect photos than not creating any at all, especially when documenting wildlife. 😊

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