Jocoby Road in March

Took a great canoe trip on the Little Miami last weekend, putting in at Jacoby Road just south of Yellow Springs (it's been a long long time since I've been up there). Wow, the river up there is pretty clogged up with all kinds of debris, a lot from winter, but it doesn't get maintained up there these days. There had to be 3 or 4 log jams we had to portage around, and a few that we struggled through. Billy actually tipped a gunnel in one of them when he got sideways, but the recovery was swift.

I took the Nikon D70 with a Tamaron 2.8 28-70mm lens I've had sitting around. I've never been real fond of that lens, it's kind of loose and I've never found it to be that sharp, but I'm dying to do more shallow depth of field pictures on the river this year. So I shot almost everything at 2.8. I think I can really enhance a few river pictures if I can blur out the background a little and isolate the subjects (check back later this year and see hows it's working).The D70 actually is a great camera. No it's not a D300 or better, but when your in a canoe with a lot of logjams and dead falls it's probably a better idea. On the subject of 2.8 lenses, I've decided a good 2.8 lens is essential on these trips. I think I need to learn to like this one, because #1, it actually took some good shots and #2, if you're not a professional you could buy a good used canoe for that kind of money. Did I ever say I have this dream of finding another Mad River Independence (Sand this time), just like Lee's. Hmm... Maybe a great deal on Craig's List?

We did a trip up the Stillwater 2 weeks before and Mike Munch actually came with us (whats up with that?) and sat in the front of Billy's Explorer and I didn't even shoot 1 picture. I will admit it's pretty gray at this time of year, but that's part of the challenge is to come up with something interesting in these circumstances. To see Mike Munch out on the river is like going back 10 or 15 years though. He brought his black lab, which is a great dog in a canoe. I wondered who trained it?