Took a trip to #PilotMountain, and man... I need a reach longer than 50mm. There were turkey buzzards flying everywhere, occasionally one would get rather close, but not close enough for me, and I even caught one with two of them together, but there's not much resolution there.
I have an ef-rf adapter for the #R100, so, maybe I'll get drunk and browse ebay tonight for a cheap ef zoom lens with some decent aperture.
Anyway, here's more editing with #rawtherapee, which I'm getting a better flow for and understanding how it tunes colors and tones, and what more importantly, I want out of the photos. I like punchy colors and sharp contrast, so, that's what you'll get.

As for characters there, an elderly asian man walking with a cane, who was walking way further up the trail than anyone would've guessed, in the most "same as you, I walked" kind of way. He was taking pictures of things with a disposable and talked to me about his cat for 20 minutes.

There was a group of teenagers that I believe I became the spirit-animal of. They began taking shots of everything I photographed, and occasionally asked me to photo them using their phone.

There was a fellow with the new iphone who was testing his zoom. We compared portait shots. I'd call it an even draw, but I lied, his were better.

Anyway, that was this weekend. Soon work will guide my sleep and habits in... about 9 hours. So it goes...

#northcarolina #appalachia #carolina #winstonsalem #kingnc #mountairy
Celebrated Small-Town Photographer Convicted of Secretly Taking Pictures of Women and Minors

He was known as the trusted photographer of Mount Airy, North Carolina.

PetaPixel
A geologist visits Pilot Mountain and talks about how it got its unique structure: https://youtu.be/WPQgGID19HE

#NorthCarolina #MountAiry
You can't walk to the top of this unique mountain peak (a tiny lost world up there?)

YouTube
The family and I headed to Frey's Brewing Company in #MountAiry, #Maryland for drinks and games. I started with the Frey's Winter Devil Rave, an 8.5% ABV imperial stout. My wife enjoyed a sugar free caramel vanilla iced coffee. I followed it up with Smoochin' Roy Rogers, a 7% ABV Irish stout. The kid enjoyed a chocolate muffin. We played Tell Me Without Telling Me for a bit followed by a couple rounds of Shut the Box. We always love stops at Frey's! #ItsAlwaysStoutSeason @beersofmastodon
Maryland Man Arrested for Assaulting Law Enforcement and Other Charges During Jan. 6 Capitol Breach

A Maryland man has been arrested on felony and misdemeanor charges, including for allegedly assaulting law enforcement during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.      

Up on a Pennsylvania housetop, a metal mystery

I used to watch news aggregator sites for weird news almost daily. But it got to be too much – too much BS news from tabloids that really wasn’t news at all. I still love to find those bizarre Fortean gems that leave you wondering what the heck happened here. Most often, the original story is from a local source. If it’s really captivating (and sometimes you just can’t predict that), it gets syndicated and the same story/headline/video goes everywhere. There is a leap that gets made from the event being a curiosity to it being viral clickbait. That typically takes several days from the original reporting to worldwide coverage. This week, one of those things happened.

Mystery metal object on the roof

On 7 February, I saw this story on a Pennsylvania news feed: A family in the Mount Airy area of Philadelphia was shocked to find a 6-foot-long rectangular metal piece on their roof on Tuesday, 6 February. They did not hear it land on the roof, and there was no indication of where it came from.

The first inclination towards a cause of this puzzling object is to assume it fell, such as from a plane. There are several obvious factors against this. The object is light and rusted, there is no paint. Besides that fact that it does not look like it was from a plane, had it fallen from such a height, it would have done far more damage, and there would have been a corresponding aircraft incident. According to news reports, FAA investigators did visit to inspect the object and determined it was not from a plane. There was no conclusion, however, as to where it came from.

According to the weather data, there were some 16-22 mph wind gusts overnight. Could the piece have blown up there? Maybe. Or could someone have tossed it up there? Not impossible. It appears to be made of aluminum, since it’s not very heavy.

Readers always have great fun commenting and speculating on oddball events like this. Of course, as always, someone will suggest an absurd reason, such as “aliens”. I prefer to imagine it was an interdimensional apport from the past. (Just for fun.) Someone knows what happened here and they aren’t saying. So, we may never know; it will remain a strange story. It’s unlikely that, even if more useful information comes out to reveal a mundane source, we won’t hear about it. These stories are almost never resolved in public. If something more comes out from this, I will update this post.

If this was my house, I would have more security cameras in place to watch for trespassers. And I would check around for any old structure missing a part.

More Schuylkill notes appearing outside

Meanwhile, in other weird Pennsylvania news, the Schuylkill Notes appearances seem to have died down. There have not been as many reportedly found in store products but they are still being reported from walking trails where the folded notes are wrapped in plastic or brown paper and clipped to branches. A person walking along the Appalachian trail on Peter’s Mountain north of Harrisburg found many and suggested they were put there recently.

There has been no further information released about the investigation into who is doing this. It is not illegal to leave notes outside like this (unless it may be considered littering). The placement in products on store shelves, which indicates product tampering, is a serious act.

#fallFromTheSky #metal #MountAiry #mystery #mysteryNotes #Pennsylvania #SchuylkillNotes

https://sharonahill.com/?p=8418

From a plane, or something else? Philadelphia family finds mysterious metal object on roof of home

One Philadelphia family is still trying to figure out what strange object ended up on their roof and how it got there.

CBS Philadelphia
Moved 11lbs of candy tonight. Trick or treaters were delightful. So nice. #halloween #mountairy
#porchfest in full effect in #mountairy
Our second stop on Sunday was to #FreysBrewing in #MountAiry, #Maryland. I got myself the Goofy Footed Fighter stout on nitro. She got the sugar free caramel vanilla cold brew. Both were absolutely delicious, and I even find myself craving that cold brew this morning. I'm sure I'll be craving the stout later today as well. We sat out in the sun and just relaxed, as it was a beautiful day on the farm. #ItsAlwaysStoutSeason @beersofmastodon