Shoot the Hills 2011

I just got back from a weekend long trip to Hocking Hills, Ohio. It was the 4th time I've been to the region and it seems each time I go back there I fall in love with it a little deeper and discover new things to photograph. My reason for going this year was for the Shoot the Hills photography competition, which was a contest that ran for 24 hours and photographers from all over were able to participate, compete, and hopefully gain recognition for the photos they took in a days time. To say the least, competition was TOUGH this year! I was one of the youngest DSLR participants and went up against photographers that have been doing this stuff the entire time I've been alive.... and then some. I didn't win anything this year. Except for deeper knowledge and a huge drive to better myself when it comes to nature photography - all types.

And also, I built a mini shopping list of things that I neeeeeeeed:

*An umbrella (I actually don't own one at all! I like the rain and never saw a purpose for it... until now. Would have saved me from cradeling my camera like a baby underneath my coat while I got soaked from the pouring rain trying to get last shots before the contest ended)
*Rain boots!
*Bigger memory card
*new laptop


So - Let's dive into the trip a little more. I was the captain steering the ship with the mindset of a passenger simply wanting to enjoy a short boat ride to sea kinda thing. It felt as though we crash landed a few times but got back up and steered right into the storm. The flooded tents, pouring rain, just above freezing temperatures, technical difficulties with equipment, almost running out of gas on the side of the road (thank you random gas station!!!)..... it was a mixed range of emotions all weekend long for me. Frustrating, exciting, adventurous, overwhelming, stressful, releiving, and heart-warming all at the same time. I'm still not sure if I can call the trip a complete success for me because I walked away from the contest feeling like a complete failure due to simple mistakes that could have been corrected if I just slowed down. Oh well though. There is always next year!

So I'm going to upload the pictures I took in the 24 hour period based off the times of these photos around they were taken. Thought of no way easier than just breaking it down all in one blog by time :)

SKADOOSH


....

12:00pm

1:00pm

2:00pm

3:00pm

4:00pm

5:00pm

6:00pm

8:00pm

While I was trying to upload the photos from the day to edit and such, that's when it started POURING rain! Even our tents all got flooded :( So there was nothing taken until morning. Which was still raining -_-

8:00am
9:00am

10:00am

11:00am


12:00pm

It was a nice change of pace this year to start off with a trip doing something I've done a few times before but with new people this year. These people have become really good friends of mine in the past year :) I'm happy to know them. So, even though I didn't walk away with epic awesomeness, the trip I have to say was still very memorable and totally worth it.

-Brooke