Saturday was a lovely fall day.  Mel and I went for a day hike up to the summit of Westkill Mountain in the Catskill Mountains.  We left early in the morning as it was almost a 2 hour drive.  When we left there was a thick fog covering downtown Albany.  By the time we got to the trailhead the fog was gone.

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I am back from last week’s road trip to Dallas.  In an earlier post I talked about the first night where we drove from Albany to Buffalo.  The next day was our longest drive of the trip.  Our trip was from Buffalo to Louisville, Kentucky.  It took us around 8.5 hours with a quick stop for lunch.  We still had enough time to enjoy dinner at a nice Cuban restaurant and head downtown.  We went to an area called 4th Street Live.  In case you couldn’t figure it out, it’s on 4th St. in the city. (more…)

Mel and I enjoyed a great day down in Woodstock, New York.  We started off the day with a hike to the summit of Overlook Mountain.  This is very fun hike, it’s about 5 miles round trip so it’s not too long.  It’s also not very difficult, basically fire roads almost all the way up.  At the summit there is a working fire tower which you are allowed to climb to the top.  You can enjoy terrific views from the summit as you are above all the trees.

Check out my previous post which shows a video I put together.  Below are some pictures from the day.  I will post more of when we were walking around town.

View the full gallery.

I am back from my road trip to Dallas, stay tuned for a final write-up on that.  I had a great time driving down with my brother and helping him get settled in his new place.  I finished editing this video before I left but didn’t have a chance to post it before I left.  This was the first video I put together where I planned out the shots I wanted and roughed up a storyboard before I started shooting.

I had a great time filming and thoroughly enjoyed the hike.  The views from the top of the firetower were spectacular.  The firetower on Overlook Mountain is one of the few remaining firetowers left in the Catskills Mountains where hikers are still allowed to claim to the top.  From the top you have a great 360 degree view of other Mountain tops, Albany and can look in the general direction of New York City.

Overlook Mountain Hike 9-6-09 from Michael Holtzman on Vimeo.
Click the link above to watch in High Def.

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My road trip to Texas started today after work.  Around 3:00 today I realized that I wasn’t going to get everything done that I wanted to for the day.  Actually I realized that around 10:00 but I tried to convince myself it could happen. 

I did take a break after lunch to open a package I was expecting.  It contained my new Canon 50mm F1.2 lens.  I will write a post after spending some time with the lens but after mounting it on my Canon 5D Mark II, all I can say is WOW.  This lens/body combination just feels right in your hands.  The weight seems perfectly balanced.  (more…)

I know I have posted in about a month, it has been a busy summer.  Weddings, work, enjoying the nice weather once the month of rain was over has gotten in the way of posting some new content.  Never fear, I have some new projects and ideas planned which I will be sure to post about here.

Some of you  probably know that my brother is moving down to Texas  to accept a promotion at his company.  The time has finally come, he will be leaving in a week.  Instead of letting him drive down straight through I decided to turn it into a little road trip and make the drive down with him.

I haven’t been to this part of the country so I figured I would make the most it.  We are planning on extending the trip by a day or two so we have some time to stop and enjoy sites along the way. (more…)