Every once in a while I take the time to look at my blog statistics and on some days I notice a spike in visitors. I like to see what brought the visitors to Hoofbeats and Footprints, and there was a new link I hadn’t seen before. This week I was included in a list of “40 Landscape and Nature Photographers to Follow” by Loaded Landscapes.

How they discovered me, that is anyone’s guess but I am more than honored for the inclusion of this post. It just so happens that I had to head up at o-dark thirty back to the dam for my last Bald Eagle Photography class at Conowingo Dam. This time I went before sunrise as I was concerned about getting parking and space on the fence for my group. With the overcast skies I was treated to deeply colored skies before the sun rose.

As a photographer, I strive to get my images as close as I would like it upon capture. Also called “SOOC” or Straight out of Camera. It’s too easy to say “I’ll fix it in post-processing” but wouldn’t it be better just to take a few more minutes to pay attention to things like camera settings and composition before you take the shot?

When photographing sunrises I’ve been known to use Shade white balance to bring out the colors, but on this morning, I still had a custom white balance dialed in using the Kelvin option at about 5800 Kelvin. Also, I had placed a circular polarizer filter on my landscape lens and I’m seeing the wonderful virtues of using this on a regular basis. It also helps that it’s now screwed on tight on the lens and I can’t remove it.

After my class I was finally able to take a detour and visit Gunpowder Falls State Park. I hadn’t visited it since the one time I hiked through the area with my hiking club. But somehow I remembered that there were old buildings and perhaps even a covered bridge.

Using the circular polarizer filter, I reduced the glare on the water of Little Gunpowder Falls River. Post processing included a pass through Nik Color Efex pro and adding a variety of filters for the final result.

I then followed the trail to Jericho Road Covered Bridge which was built over 150 years ago. There are only six remaining covered bridges in Maryland and four of those still hold traffic. This bridge received a full restoration which was completed in Spring 2016.

This was such a pleasant surprise as now I can say I’ve seen four of the six covered bridges left in Maryland. I think a new quest has been set.