Summer Morning Hike at Turkey Creek

An alternate title for this post could be: "Darby, a Water Dog at Long Last." For some time now I have been somewhat ashamed of my Golden Retriever who appeared to be scared of swimming. She loves water and splashing about the local creeks. But she does not like the swimming pool, and refuses to go in it of her own accord. So we thought she was defectective.

But today, I had a chance to go down to Turkey Creek Nature Preserve in Pinson, Alabama, with a couple of friends and Darby. And since the water wasn't running overwhelmingly fast, I decided it was time to put Darby to the test, and she performed beautifully. The video below offers some snippets from our morning, including such items as a footrace between Darby and myself, which I led most of the way, and Darby's swim across gallant Turkey Creek.

All photos and video were shot on my GoPro Hero2 HD camera, which can be found at Amazon.com: GoPro HD HERO2: Outdoor Edition.

Dog Day Afternoons with Darby

Here's a snippet of what life is like for Darby and me while Anna is at work - while the cat is away, the mice are at play. Originally, I set up this time lapse video with my GoPro HD HERO2 camera so that we could find out what Darby does while we're gone and she's left to roam the house, but since that was so incredibly uneventful, there's no need to share it.

Moss Rock Preserve in Hoover, Alabama

Somehow, I have managed to live in the Birmingham area for 8+ years without knowing of the existence of Moss Rock Preserve in Hoover. Well, now that I know, I expect I'll probably be a semi-regular visitor. With several miles of trails and a variety of scenery, Moss Rock Preserve is a pretty nice way to spend a day outdoors. It has the makings of allowing your hike or bouldering to be easy or difficult as you'd like.

Panorama of Boulder Field at Moss Rock Preserve in Hoover, Alabama

Knowing almost nothing about the place, a couple of friends and I went to Friday to visit the preserve. I don't think we really had any particular expectations, and were thus pretty pleased with what we found there.

Ornaments Dangling over Hurricane Creek, Moss Rock Preserve

High Falls at Moss Rock Preserve

The below video is really just us enjoying ourselves. If you're looking for some footage that's just going to knock your socks off, this isn't it; but we did have a good time with our silly foolishness.

All photos shot with Panasonic LX3 and video on GoPro Hero2

Technorati Tags: alabama, birmingham, gopro hero2, moss rock, moss rock preserve, panasonic lx3

Russell Forest Run in Alexander City

This weekend I participated in the Russell Forest Run in Alexander City, Alabama, at the Russell Lands on Lake Martin. There were two races hosted, a 5K and a 10K; I ran the latter. The morning promised to be cold, but about the time the cannon fired (a literal cannon) to kick off the race, the sun had risen high enough to start warming things up a bit.

The literature regarding the race described the course as "challenging," but I just assumed that's because it was a trail run rather than a road course. I was incorrect. The hills on the course were almost unbearable. Rolling hills. Long steady inclines. Creeping inclines that sneak up on you until your quads start screaming. It seemed like on this largely out-and-back course, we were running uphill both ways, in some sort of geographical anomaly.

Best thing I saw all day - Finish

I was particularly excited about this race for several reasons: 1) it was my first race back since my foot injury in November that sidelined me after the Huntsville Half Marathon; 2) it was my first race of this distance - a 10K; and 3) I had my GoPro Hero2 strapped to my head ready to do an awesome time lapse video of the race (this contraption drew more than a few unabashed, gawking stares). The footage started off nicely, but something happened immediately after the starter cannon fired, and the GoPro quit recording. I has very disheartened at the end of the race when I discovered this.

Nevertheless, the first sixteen seconds of video and a few photos from the race can be found in the video below.

My finishing time of 56:53 was significantly slower than the pace I had set out for, but I was happy enough considering how unprepared I was for those hellacious hills.

Technorati Tags: alabama, 10k, alexander city, gopro hero2, lake martin, photos, russell forest run

Camping at Brushy Creek Lake in the Sipsey Wilderness

Nestled deep within Sipsey Wilderness in the Bankhead National Forest lies Brushy Creek Lake. It's one of those remote places that can cause you to forget that you're within a couple hours' drive a several major cities. I headed out there for the first time on Friday afternoon, in search of a camping trip, star trail photos, and perhaps some photographs of the Milky Way.

I got none of that. Our forecasted 30% chance of rain quickly became 100%, upon our arrival. Nevertheless, we set up camp. And the rain set in. This camping trip turned into a glorified picnic, with a few photos and a little bit of video to show for our efforts.

Darby's Ice Capades

So here's how we amuse ourselves on slow afternoons...

...and this is how we entertain Darby in the evening when she's getting very sleepy, but it's not yet bedtime.

A Fultondale Sky, a Time Lapse Video with Hero GoPro2

On January 6, 2012, I tested my GoPro Hero2 for its time lapse capabilities. I pre-set the camera to take 1 photo/sec at 5Mb for a bit more than three hours, resulting in about 9700 photos. Nothing spectacular here, but it is a nice exhibition of the camera's capabilities.

Another post featuring a brilliant sky in Fultondale can be found here, a sunrise I witnessed when out running a few months ago.

The GoPro Hero2 can be purchased at Amazon: GoPro HD HERO2.

Time Lapse on the GoPro Hero2

The other day I set up my GoPro Hero2 to do about a three-hour time lapse series from 2:15pm to 5:15pm. There were a lot of clouds, so it was going to be nice and dramatic around sunset. The camera performed flawlessly taking one 5Mp photo-per-second, for the duration. Then I started working on it and unrecoverably crashed my software with the 9000 photos I wanted it to process. Unfortunately, I didn't compose the shot cleanly enough, as you'll see a good bit of fence within the frame; that 170-degree field of view covers a lot of real estate. Nevertheless, here's what I have to show for my efforts so far; this is only about an hour's worth of photos.

UPDATE: The finished version of the video can now be found here: A Fultondale Sky.

The GoPro Hero2 can be purchased at Amazon: GoPro HD HERO2.

Keep Them Dogies Rollin'...

...Rawhide!                            

...at Play

One of the things I received for Christmas was the newly-released GoPro HERO2 Surf Edition Camera. I got the "Surf Edition" so that I can mount it to my kayak. But between now and the time I get out on the water, I'll have to video what I can find. So for my first video, I captured Blake and Darby at play.