Summit View - Mt. Moosilauke, NH

The White Mountains of New Hampshire
 as seen from near the summit of Mt. Moosilauke (4802') in Warren, NH

It was a gorgeous day for hiking yesterday (28.09.15) as seen in this panoramic from near the summit of Mt. Moosilauke!

Yesterday I helped lead a fund-raising trip for breast cancer research at Dartmouth Hitchcock Memorial Hospital in Hanover, NH.  The event... called "Climb to Conquer" (moosilauke.reachforthepeaks.org) is a 12km hike up Mt. Moosilauke on the western edge of the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 

This is a panoramic view from near the summit.

Although individual peaks are really tough to distinguish... this view shows most of the major peaks in the White Mountains... from Mt Lafayette and Franconia Ridge in the foreground 11.5 km away to Mt. Washington - about 52 km distant. The width of this scene (as measured on Google Earth) is about 88 km. Talk about an amazing view!  :-)  .  

Photo taken with iPhone5c in panorama mode.

Signs #1

"Follow Your Heart"  :-)  

"Follow Your Heart"

This is the first in a series of new photographs I am working on... "alternative interpretations" of the signs (both literal and figurative) that we see and experience in our lives each day.

In this case it is about following your heart!

Have a great journey! :-)  

To see this and more visit: https://davemengle.smugmug.com/Inspiration/

"Floating Leaf" - Centre County, PA

Floating Leaf - Centre County, PA

This is another one of my favorites from my "Black & White Period".  At the time I was heavily involved in trying to teach myself the "Zone System" (a system of determining exposure and film development) practiced and perfected by Ansel Adams. 

On late-fall a walk through the woods looking for subjects that would lend themselves well to experimenting with these techniques... I saw this leaf floating on the surface of a slow moving stream. 

I was attracted to the various textures and the range of tones... from a few near white grains of sand here and there to the deep blacks along the corners... all forming a frame for the remains of this decaying leaf.

Shot with a Nikon F2 with 55/3.5 Micro-Nikkor on Tri-x film.

Moss & Pine Needles on Forest Floor

Moss & Pine Needles on Forest Floor - Cardigan Mountain, 

This photo is one of a series I did a couple years ago exploring the colors, patterns and textures of the forest floor.

Shoot while hiking on Mt. Cardigan in Orange, NH it features elements of all the above.

My style of photography tends to focus on use of long lenses (a result of my years shooting sports) or looking for the patterns, colors and textures that occur in Nature and "zooming-in" on them to produce a different and visually interesting composition.

Shot using a Nikon Coolpix 8700 camera using close-up mode and a very slight amount of user controlled fill flash.

One of the biggest challenges in making this photo was all the black flies that were trying to eat me alive while I stood still long enough to grab the photo.

Sunset - Mt. Cardigan, NH

Sunset, Mt. Cardigan, NH (Fall 2013)

Sunset - Mt. Cardigan, NH

This photo was made on Mt. Cardigan in Orange, NH.

Shot on the way down from the summit during a full moon hike it is an example of a classic silhouette and near far composition.  The shot would not have worked as just a sunset with nothing in the foreground to add some interest.

This photo was shot using a Nikon 8700 camera using a long exposure and mini-pod.