Visiting New England and upstate New York – May 1-10, 2010

Not letting an opportunity go by while attending a two day photography workflow course in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, I decide to make a solo drive after the course. I needed to meet Lynne in Rochester, New York for her grandchild’s 1st Communion, the twins’ 1st birthday and Mother’s Day, so I planned a drive that would take me to Mount Washington, New Hampshire; Lake Placid, New York and finely to Rochester.

The photography classroom course was great as it was almost one-on-one with only three of us. I had met the instructor, Jerry Monkman, when he led a Mount Washington Observatory overnight winter photography trip that I attended. Too bad I can’t say that for the outdoor shoots for sunset and sunrise, as it was a very overcast weekend.

Not being a custom to getting up at 4 a.m., and heading for the Portsmouth’s coast line for the sunrise, I was not in the sharpest mode. I set up my camera and tripod and waited for the sun to come up. After a while, while taking shots of the water hitting the rocks, I turned to Jerry and asked when is the sun coming up? He replied, “It has been up for an hour.”

For those of you who don’t remember the first week in May, it was a hot one, but not for me. At Mount Washington, I stayed at Joe Dodge Lodge, Pinkham Notch and headed up early in the morning hopping to see some sun hitting the mountains.

The trek, 2.4 miles up to HoJo's (the caretaker’s cabin) just above the Hermit Lake Shelters was a snowy one for me. Again, I was plagued by overcast skies and light rain at times.

The drive across to Lake Placid was pleasant as there was no traffic. Since the Lake Champlain Bridge which spanned the state line between Crown Point, New York and Chimney Point, Vermont had been taken down, I used the free ferry service so that broke up the driving.

Again, I was plagued by overcast skies and adding to the grim day, I could see that Lake Placid village had seen better days during the Winter Olympics of 1932 and 1980.

Rochester lived up to its reputation as the weather turned cold and we even had snow flurries for Mother’s Day. We did manage to walk out to the west pier lighthouse at Genesee, Lake Ontario.