It was a great day for skiing. Unfortunately, I don’t ski anymore. I was never very good, and after breaking my spine last year (not from skiing) it seemed like a bad idea to return to this activity. Shelly and my sons enjoy it a lot and are much better than I ever was. We spent the weekend at Holiday Valley. Our group consisted of Shelly, Eddie (my youngest son), and my sister-in-law’s family (including her, her husband, and their 3 teenage children). While I no longer enjoy the sport, it does give me great pleasure to help my family participate in it. So, I came along, handled the hotel arrangements, acted as a chauffeur, and looked for a nearby area to hike once they were on the slopes.

I found Allegany State Park not 10 miles outwith. Yes, that would be perfect for my time in the mountains! I brough my “lightweight” technical outfit, which consists of the Actus, 5 lenses, and some filters in my svelte Cityscape 71 backpack. It really is a lot lighter and smaller than my “full” outfit. In the magic 5 I included my new/used Fujinon CM-W 125mm f5.6 lens with high hopes for trying it out. I’ve been looking for this somewhat unusual lens for about 2 years now. Most of the used ones I have found were in Japan, since Fujinon view camera lenses had very poor distribution in the USA. Ironically, I was just in Japan last week and went looking for this lens at a couple of nearby shops. I had no luck. Upon returning home a clean 125mm lens suddenly appeared on eBay at a fantastic price, locally. It was fate, and I clicked the “buy” button.

The area of the park I visited was beautiful albeit on a grey ,overcast day with light snow on the ground rather than the beautiful white blanket I had hoped for. I captured just one photograph near a marsh. A group of trees had caught my eye with a bit of light in the sky behind. This was the first light I had seen break through the dull, monotone grey. As I walked around, looking for the right composition the light continued to improve. I planted my tripod and set up the Actus. Yes, the Fuji 125 would be the right focal length for this composition! To the untrained eye this scene would not have garnered attention. The photo took some massaging. I moved far to the right of where I spotted the original scene to diminish the appearance of a manmade wooden pole in the water. I intentionally underexposed to darken the bank and reduce the distraction of the brush. This dark exposure also made the sky appear more dramatic. f8 provided all the sharpness I needed. To give it the finishing touch I handheld a Lee sepia grad at an angle, just over the upper, left corner of the lens and the sky popped with the appearance of dramatic sunset storm light. 

After taking the photo I continued to saunter around enjoying my time with mother nature. I visited a nearby lake and knelt down to feel the icy rocks while I closed my eyes and listed to the sound of the water. I was refreshed, renewed, and happy. I returned to the ski resort for dinner and conversation with my family to hear about their way of enjoying the mountains, knowing it was different from my own but yielded the same result… a happy soul.