Maine Travel Day - Let the Adventure Begin

Posted from Big Al's Adventures: http://www.bigalsadventures.com/maine-travel-day/

Heading Out

Today we started our trek to Maine for a nine-day vacation. Now granted when I go on vacation I am looking to do some photography on top of relaxing.

Maine at this time of year can be even more amazing with the changing of the season. I have already seen tons of beautiful red and yellow leaves on the trees along the road.

We were planning to leave around 7:00am, but as normal, we did not leave till around 8:00am.

It was pretty smooth sailing till we hit Connecticut. There we hit some major traffic due to some construction. They had two lanes go down to one for about a mile.

The best part was the construction zone was only a tiny section of a bridge. The backup was many, many miles long. Though it is funny since last time we went through the same area we had traffic without construction.

Maine Reststop

We did pretty well on gas while heading up here. We made it almost to the hotel but decided to stop to fill up on gas before arriving so in the morning we could just go.

The rest stop we went to was one that we have visited before. They have this big Moose statue by the building that has the restrooms and food services.

I decided that since we were going to be a few minutes I would go take a few pictures of the Moose statue. Again another snag. There was a maintenance guy cleaning the mulch around the Moose statue.

He did say if we wanted to take a picture with the Moose that we could. Since I just wanted to get a picture of it I did. I took three shots, but one had a tanker truck in it so I did closeups of the Moose's head.

We will probably go back at some point to get a better shot of it later this week.

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Moose Statue

Arrival

We finally arrived at our hotel around 4:30pm. By the time we moved everything into the room and got settled it was around 6:00pm.

We decided to head out to get something to eat. We ended up going to Longhorn Steakhouse that was maybe 10 minutes down the road.

I got the Bison Meatballs for an appetizer and the Chicken Parmesan for my meal. Overall not bad at all. The 30-minute wait did drag out to about 45-mintues. Other than that I would give my experience a 4 out of 5 stars.

Bison Meatball

This Week

Here are some of my ideas for this week.

  • Try to make some small video blogs for my YouTube Channel
  • Look for and photograph some Moose and other wildlife
  • Write a post for every day that we are in Maine
  • When we go to Acadia try to get some good astrophotography
  • Take pictures of the changing leaves
  • Have fun

We are on a nine-day trip. Half in one section of Maine the other half in another.

What I Brought

The Gear I Brought

This is some of the gear I have brought along to take photographs.

  • Nikon D800 (Amazon)
  • Nikkor 24-70mm F/2.8 (Amazon)
  • Nikkor 300mm F/4 (Amazon)
  • Rokinon 14mm f/2.8 (Amazon)
  • Sony A7R (Amazon)
  • Sony 50mm f/1.8 (Amazon)
  • Canon 28mm f/2.8
  • GoPro Hero 4 Silver (Amazon)
  • Marrex Geotagger GPS for Nikon (Amazon)
  • K&F Concept Lens Mount Adapter FD-NEX For Canon FD FL Lens to Sony (Amazon)
  • Lens Mount Adapter, K&F Concept Nikon G Mount Lens to Sony E-mount (Amazon)
  • Waterproof Nylon Camera Backpack Bag Case Rucksack Daypack (Amazon)
  • Formatt-Hitech 100mm Resin Travel Filter Kit Elia Locardi Signature Edition (Amazon)
  • MeFoto Roadtrip Travel Tripod Kit commemorative Limited Edition (Red White Blue) (Amazon)
  • Luxebell C200 Aluminium Alloy Skeleton Thick Solid Protective Case Shell with 52mm Uv Filter for GoPro Hero 4 (Amazon)
  • Neewer Shoot Digital Intervalometer Timer Remote Control (Amazon)
  • Think Tank Photo Retrospective 30 Shoulder Bag (Blue Slate) (Amazon)

Plus I have other things like lens cloths, extra batteries, and camera straps.

End

Make sure to check back for the tomorrows adventures!

Source: http://www.bigalsadventures.com/maine-trav...

Luxebell C100 Aluminium Metal Skeleton Review

This is my review on the Luxebell C100 Aluminum Metal Skeleton for GoPro Hero 4 cameras. This is a metal case that can be used to protect the GoPro from being damaged while out of the waterproof housing. This is especially good for when you want to use it to make a video blog or interview since the internal mic is not being muffled by the waterproof housing. Watch the vid for the rest of the review and don’t forget to subscribe! Enjoy!!

Links to the two items shown in the video at Amazon.com:
http://bap.pics/LuxebellGoProAluminiumMetalSkeleton
http://bap.pics/GoProHero4SilverEdition


Review of Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom Lens

This is my first attempt at a gear review. I recently bought a Tamron AF 70-300mm f/4.0-5.6 Di LD Macro Zoom Lens to replace my Nikon 55-300 DX lens.
I bought it due to upgrading to a Nikon D800 FX camera. The DX lens works on it but the results are not as good on that type of body.
So this is a real world testing of the Tamron lens. I have some pictures in the video but here is a link to them on my website so you can see them better due to YouTube compressing them in the video. http://bit.ly/Tamron70-300TestImages

I like the lens so far and its a good "upgrade" from the DX lens if your on a budget. So until I get the money for a better lens this will do for me. I paid under $150 for the lens which I didn't think was to bad. You can check it out here http://bit.ly/Tamron70-300Amazon