waterfall – Things That Keep You Dreaming

Letters from an Analogue Traveler…

Originally written on mollykatephoto.com:

http://www.mollykatephoto.com/Travel-Journal/Analogue-Letters/White-Mountains-Falling-Waters

Dear Analogue World,

Once upon a time (ok about 6 months ago), there was a period where I did not own a digital camera, except for perhaps my iPhone, but let’s get serious here, we all know the iPhone can never replace a real camera, film or digital. 🙂 Soooo, the only camera I had was an automatic Canon Rebel 35mm film camera. I was living in a super cheap apartment at the time, so I could afford the total of $21 or so dollars it cost to buy and develop one roll of film, and that’s the low end of the spectrum with cheap film!

Now it seems, through some mysterious force (which knocked my tripod over and broke my only fuji lens, there was no wind!), karma? (but I was so good this year! Santa thought so….), I am once again left with only a film camera, my trusty Canon Rebel auto 35mm, until my Fuji is fixed, an expensive bill I am NOT looking forward to paying (bye bye new Fuji lens, sigh). A recent addition to the party is a family Pentax K1000, which was my mothers, entrusted to me to keep…I really have to find where I put that now

I can’t stop shooting because even without a working digital camera, I still feel the magnetic pull to get outside and shoot, and I dearly love film, just not the cost $$$. My 2nd CPA test is coming up in a couple of weeks and I’ve been going mad sitting inside all the time studying! I caved and spent money I should not have on several rolls of Ektar 100 (I’m really excited to shoot with this!!) and Acros BW which was recommended to me at the store, and being the sucker I am, I decided to try it. 🙂

I was so excited, I wanted to share some summer shots that I took with Lomography 35mm color film up in the White Mountains. This was on the Falling Waters trail up Mt. Lafayette, which is PERFECT if you absolutely love waterfalls. There are waterfalls galore. Ever have trouble fighting off other photographers for the perfect spot underneath a glorious flow of water? Come to this trail! Waterfalls for everyone! This would be a great place to go on a photowalk! hmmm ideas popping into head…

AND if you keep trekking up the mountain, you will reach Mt. Lafayette and the ridge trail, which is spectacular as well. It is quite definitely my favorite place I have hiked. EVER. We went mid-day but I want, no need, to come back here for a sunset/sunrise shoot. The air is crisp and fresh, the trails are numerous and exciting, and the views are unparalleled in New Hampshire, possibly even the Northeast. Let’s face it Vermonters, New Hampshire will always be superior. hehe (just kidding!)

Well, I cannot wait to share my Ektar and Acros results with you real soon!

Manually Yours,

Molly Kate

Sculpted by Nature

Water is Fascinating. Beautiful. Reflective. Deadly. Saving. It can take the form of a vast ocean miles wide or a tiny tide pool that stretches only a few inches. It can change the face of this earth as it has incredibly done over the years. It can sculpt art. In this case, it can sculpt rocks into art. These beautiful curves you see above in the bottom of the photograph are natural water-made. This place is called the Sculptured Rocks (New Hampshire) and this shot only captures a small piece of it. To get to the bigger sculptured rocks required more time than I had to shoot so that only leaves me to put it on my list of locations to return to! 🙂

Have you spotted the polar bear yet? If not, take a second look at the photo above! 🙂

The Sculptured Rocks are right near Newfound Lake, which is one of the most beautiful Lakes I’ve seen. My mom would spend her summers here as a kid, and I can see why my grandfather chose this lake to come to. It’s a calm place, but I am talking about it of course in the winter/off-season when I went to see it a few weeks ago. There is a stillness to the water that clears all of the noise away and you slip into a sense of peace. Mountains, or rather large hills, surround the Lake, also creating a sense of smallness standing on the shores. We also had quite the sunset that day…

Fearsome Flow

Best Waterfalls of New Hampshire

Waterfall #1: Location: Top Secret 😉

Ha! Just kidding, what kind of travel blogographer won’t tell people where she goes? Anyways – It’s Garwin Falls, in Wilton, NH!!

In one weekend, I visited two amazing waterfalls in New Hampshire. To me, waterfalls are calming, peaceful, and often strike a sense of wonder in me. Water is the source of life and I think about how much we depend on it to survive. Heck our body is mostly water! When I was a kid, I used to think those drawings of how much water we were made of were actually real. The ones where they draw the water coming up to your chest….yeah…It’s weird to think as a kid we believe certain things until we are told what we are supposed to believe/what is real…

Anyways, its hard to think that something we depend on so much to survive is also polluted so much by us. And we don’t give a second thought to it most of the time. We live on water, yet we are slowly dirtying our life source with our garbage, fuel, chemicals, and many other things. I’m certainly guilty of that! BUT I try to be better and if everyone would just TRY, think where we would be…

This is another really cool spot on this same location. As you walk down the path before you get to the falls, you will see a dam-cement structure. It has been visited by colorful graffiti artists many many times by the looks of it. My mother almost left me here because I took so long shooting it 🙂 Hmm, thinking how nice it would be to Jedi-mind trick someone into being less bored while waiting for me to take photos 😉

Waterfall #2: Gleason Falls

This lovely old bridge and falls were so amazing because of the spots of sunlight coming through the thick tree cover. It’s more dramatic in person, as everything always is! These falls are also SO forceful. Its amazing how much water comes under this bridge per second. It looks tame now because I used a long exposure technique to get this shot below, but in person, its a sight to behold! The power of these things are so hard to capture!

This shot above is such a dear little bridge, I couldn’t help myself. AND its right down the road from Gleason Falls! talk about two birds and one stone 😉 I jumped out of the car and had about three minutes to shoot this location. Being pressed for time sure does make you think, do I have everything right?, before you press that shutter button for the long exposure and hear from behind you, “Hey, come-on we gotta go!”

That’s all for now, folks! Look for my next awesome NH location story coming next week!

The City of Endless Walks

Ok, so I have FINALLY gotten around to writing about my recent vacation days spent in Quebec City!!

It’s charming, romantic, and good for the heart. I also call it the city of endless walks, because that is all we did here!

I also call it, The City of Endless Eating 🙂 because that is allll we did here as well haha

There are so many great places to eat. Restaurant 1640, right across the road from the Chateau Frontenac, is excellent. Their beef stew aka Boeuf Bourguignon will melt in your mouth! Hands down, best beef stew I’ve ever had, besides my mother’s of course 😉

Le Lapin Saute is one of the most well known restaurants in the city, but whatever you do, do not get the Tout Lapin, Tout Canard dish! Unless you absolutely love every preparation of rabbit and duck, duck liver, foie gras, and shredded rabbit jelly stuff 🙂 I would suggest the french onion soup instead haha All I’m going to say is that we really really did not like the odd preparations of duck and rabbit! That was the only thing. Other than that, the service was awesome, the restaurant is on the lowest level, you can take the Funiculaire down, which is the elevator-like trolley that brings you down to another level of shops and restaurants. If you go really late, like we did, there might be a ton of wild cats roaming around looking for scraps. There were a bunch of wild kittens that were running around the empty tables next to us, they were so cute, I wanted to take them all home with me!

Somebody got annoyed with my slow non-stop photo taking and decided to try to send me a message by blocking my shot! I think he improves it 😉

If you are like me and have a bread obcession, Paillards is the place to go! They have amazing bread as well as lots of other goodies, but there is nothing like an outside picnic with a baguette and some delicious brie cheese spread on it (which you can obtain at a local Charcuterie or market on Rue St. Jean) I would suggest the coconut goat cheese or brie. mmmmmmmmmm. 🙂

And of course, you have all of your sweet shops 🙂 Les Bons Bons!

This is the Artist’s alleyway. You can browse some great local art here! This is right next to the 1640 Restaurant across from the Chateau Frontenac.

Speaking of the Frontenac, this is probably to most recognizable landmark of Quebec City. It is impressive and massively grand. There is a lovely walking path/boardwalk that wraps around from the old Citadel and comes out at the Frontenac. Along the path, you can enjoy amazing views of the St. Lawrence river as well as the outside of the Citadel. It makes you feel really small since the fort itself is so massive. The entrance to the Citadel is right before the gates to Old Quebec and it is definitely worth checking out if you are into the history behind the city or if you just want to look at some really cool canons.

The rest are some random pictures from my time here. I will say that three days in Quebec City is plenty to explore the area. If you love to eat, walk, and bask in the romantic old city atmosphere and surroundings, this is a great place to visit.

An interesting sculpture at night…

A view of the tippity top of the Frontenac from the street leading to our hotel. We stayed at Hotel Arcadia which was nice; It’s right inside the Old City walls and it is not too expensive! They have a jacuzzi at the top of the Hotel with some pretty awesome views of the rooftop level.

Our last night in Quebec, we actually headed out of the city to catch some of the landscape sights to see. I was so excited to shoot something other than cityscapes and street shots on the vacation! By the way, this is literally 15min of driving total out of the city, so you really don’t need to book another hotel in this area, it could be an awesome day trip.

Enter Montmorency Falls: A very popular attraction near Quebec City. We finally came here after a couple hours of driving further north to visit more falls only to find out they wanted a $20-$25 entrance fee for each place! I’ve never been asked to pay so much just to go see a damn waterfall! Well, we didn’t pay (since we were running low on budget and the price is just plain ridiculous), we just turned around and drove away. We thought about just hiking in but they had fences around the place! It made me appreciate the access that we have in America to see natural wonders without paying that much. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be happy to pay or give a $5 donation for the upkeep and whatnot – but +20? No thanks Quebec!

Well, that’s all I have to say about Quebec City 🙂 Hope some of you get there someday, It’s a lovely place to visit. However, I’m going to be honest and say that I will probably never come back here again haha. Montreal I might, that was really fun. Not that Quebec City wasn’t fun, it just gets old real quick. But that’s just me! A combo of the crazy taxes they have, how expensive everything is, the language barrier (it seemed no one we talked to really knew good English or cared that much to speak English), prices to get into seeing waterfalls, and more left no desire to come back. Now, I’m not hating on Quebec. I think it is fantastic to visit once. But I’m not making an ad for the place and it’s just not somewhere I would repeat 🙂

Memories from Montreal

I decided to make my way north for a (too) short one week vacation away from numbers and excel spreadsheets and computers. Our first stop: Montreal! (The Old Port) Next Stop: Six Flags and the Casino! 🙂

I’m not exactly sure why this guy was wearing a creepy mask in the middle of the street but it definitely caught my attention so I snapped away!

This was a scene that still makes me wonder what was going on? This singular woman in the white dress with her bike and this group of girls in athletic wear. I have no idea what was going on or why they were positioned like this, which is probably why I like this photo so much, because I can’t figure it out!

Curiosity killed the wanderer? I want to play! If you walk along St. Catherine’s (Rue Ste-Catherine), you come to a pedestrian only part of the road where they have all of these really cool almost life-sized chess games you can play. Unfortunately, they were all occupied…