On Sunday April 27th I joined a Road Scholar photography workshop in the Poconos.  We stayed at the Shawnee Inn and Golf Resort located near  the border of New York State and Pennsylvania.  The instructor Len Rue Jr. is an excellent photographer and lecturer.  We had a terrific group of 18 people and I'm pretty sure everyone  had a lot of fun. We were all very enthusiastic and  enjoyed the facilities and beautiful resort.   The food at the Inn was very good and the beds were so comfortable  The only  minor issue was  that  the hotel basement where we had our meetings and meals  was very  cold.   It turns out that the hotel turned the heat off the week before.  I have no idea why they would do that when the temperatures had not yet warmed up.  Still we all managed to survive - we just had to wear lots of layers for the meetings.  

This was a view of the river behind out hotel.  It was a very misty morning.  We actually had a day and half where the rain did not stop.  Still we had fun- we ended up having extra lectures with Len and hanging out together and looking at people's photos.

Another  picture taken on the hotel grounds on a misty morning.

The  weather on our first day of our workshop was actually very nice.   This was my favourite waterfall shot of the day.  I actually didn't take too many shots given the lighting conditions.  I think this area would be stunning in the fall.

After shooting waterfalls in the morning we moved on to photograph the Grey Towers National Historic Site, also known as the Gifford Pinchot House.   This mansion is the ancestral home of Gifford Pinchot, first director of the United States Forest Service and twice elected governor of Pennsylvania.  The house was built in the style of a French chateau since Pinchot's family had French origins.  

I got interested in taking some shots of the windows.  Originally built the house contained 43 rooms.  Unfortunately there were no tours when we were there.  

I liked the window shots in black and white and sepia tones.

I saw this beautiful old tree with really interesting roots.

One last shot before we left the area.  In 1963 the family donated the estate and the surrounding 102 acres to the Forest Service.  It is the only U.S. National Historic Site managed by that agency.  Three years later the Department of the Interior designated it as a  National Historic Landmark.  

On Tuesday morning we went to vista Childs State Forest Park located in Pennsylvania.  There were three different waterfalls that you could hike to and we hiked to all  of them.  The National Park Service had recently upgraded the trails so it was a pleasure to use the trails.  I decided to hike all of the way down first and then start the uphill climb.  This photo was taken of the lower water falls.  

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The land was formerly owned by George W. Childs, a noted philanthropist and the land was deeded to the state in 1912 by his widow and originally opened as a state park.

This shot was taken on the hike back up to the top.

Here are some abstract waterfall shots.  These are the actual colours of the waterfall, just brought out in my software program.

Another  waterfall shot taken on the way up.  

We ended up stopping at another location on the way back to the hotel.  The area is full of waterfalls.  

On Wednesday it rained all day (actually started to rain on the Tuesday just as we got back to the Inn) so I didn't even get outside.  However, in the evening we had a lecture from a local naturalist who brought some of his friends with him to talk about.  People volunteered to hold some of the non-poisonous snakes including a boa but I decided that I would prefer to photograph them.  

This little guy looks like he is smiling.  Rick was an excellent lecturer who taught us a lot about different amphibians, turtles and snakes.  

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 Some of us were lying on the floor taking pictures of a Rattlesnake and a Copperhead snake.   I wouldn't want to get any closer than I was.  

On Thursday the weather cleared up for us and reached the 70's (25 C).  However, the morning was cloudy and misty which made for better waterfall shots.

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We stopped off at a roadside scene to take a few shots of the mountains in the mist.

 Unfortunately for me this was the last location I was able to photograph on the Thursday.  When we got to the next stop I could not get my camera to work so this was the end of my shooting on the trip.  I did have a spare camera with me but of course it was at the hotel which was nowhere close to where we were.  Still I had fun doing some hiking  and socializing for the rest of the day.  The weather turned sunny and warm by mid-morning so we were able to enjoy an outdoor picnic lunch.    I didn't get as much photography in as I would have liked however now I have an excuse to come back to this beautiful area- perhaps during the fall.  On a good note I took my camera into  Nikon to be fixed and because this is the third issue with it in the first year, they are going to replace the camera with a new one.  I think they just got tired of seeing me- even the receptionist recognized me.  

20140502_Poconos_0001 This shot of the Shawnee Inn was taken early  in the morning on the day I left.  On the last morning  we had a critique of everyone's photos which was lots of fun as there were many great shots.  Getting to this area and getting home was not the easiest trip.  I left the hotel around 10.45 for the nearby bus station.  I caught the 11.10 bus to New York City (the Port Authority) which took about 1 1/2 hours.  I then had a short wait for the express  bus to the Newark Airport.  I was regretting that I didn't have time to spend in NYC- at least I got to see a little of it coming in on the bus.   I had about two hours to relax in the Porter airlines lounge (free wi-fi, soft drinks, coffee, tea and cookies) before catching my 1 1/2 hour flight to Toronto.  From the Island airport in Toronto  it was a quick ferry ride to the mainland where I caught a bus to Union Station.  The only hard part was carrying all of my luggage up and down various sets of stairs (but I did get some help) to get to the subway trains.  I arrived at the house around 7 PM in time for our weekly Friday night bridge game. I should mention that I then had a full two days of photography seminars on the weekend plus a bridge game on Saturday night.    Life was much less hectic  but not nearly as much fun as when I was still working!