Adventures in Hiking + Black Friday Specials

Black Friday Deals from Topaz, Macphun, and More!

A few of my favorite software companies have started promoting their Black Friday deals early! (Scroll down to get to the bit about hiking.)

Luminar by Macphun

Macphun’s brand new all-in-one photo editor, Luminar is available starting at $49 for existing Macphun customers ($59 for new customers)! Read my in-depth Luminar Review here.

The Black Friday special comes with the following bonus material:

• Africa with Athena Video by Athena Carey ($60 value)
• Cameras in the Wild ebook by Contrastly ($29 value)
• Making the Image ebook by Dan Bailey ($25 value)
• Luminar Presets Pack ($25 value)

Offer available through December 1, 2016.

Aurora HDR 2017

Aurora HDR 2017 is available for $89 (regularly $99) with upgrade pricing starting at $49! Curious which HDR software is best for you? Read my article comparing Aurora HDR 2017 to Photomatix Pro here.

The Black Friday special also comes with the following bonus material:

• The Essentials of Street Photography & The New York Photographers Travel Guide by James Maher ($25 value)
• 20 Minute Video Training from Trey Ratcliff ($20 value)
• Holiday Preset Pack ($25 value)

Offer available through December 1, 2016.

Topaz Complete Collection

Topaz Labs is offering 50% off of their Complete Collection (over $1k value)! Simply enter coupon code BLACKFRIDAY16 at checkout.

If you’ve purchased a few of Topaz’s plug-ins in the past, this is a great way to get your hands on their entire suite of software and plugins. The purchase price for existing customers will be adjusted based on the software/plugins you already own.

Offer available through November 30, 2016.

Adobe Creative Cloud

Adobe is offering a 20% discount on Creative Cloud Memberships!

Offer available through November 25, 2016

Hike is a Four Letter Word

Hike is a word that conjures up the forced family marches of my childhood.

There is one hike in particular that my family still gets a good laugh out of. We were up in Canada at Lake Louise. I think I was around 13 years old. My parents thought it would be a grand idea to hike up to a teahouse overlooking the lake.

All I remember is that it was STRAIGHT up a mountain and took forever. Folks on their way down would tell us that the tea house was just around the corner and then laugh!! (It was NOT just around the corner.) The carrot at the end of the stick (for me) was the tea house where I imagined a reward like English high tea with with scones and finger sandwiches.

The tea house was a grand disappointment. No English high tea, no scones. I think I may have had a stale mass-produced muffin. Ick. Furthermore, the view was meh…at least I thought so back then. It was probably stunning but I was scone-less and exhausted.

On our way down the mountain, we amused ourselves by telling other hikers that the tea house was just around the corner. LOL

Hiking Crabtree Falls

With stories like the one above, you might be shocked that I suggested to my husband that we check out Crabtree Falls while we were up in the Blue Ridge Mountains last week for our anniversary. (I certainly surprised myself.)

It was another grueling climb…and this time I schlepped all of my camera gear. We only made it to the top of the lower falls, but the view was beautiful. The things worth doing take effort, right?

This is my favorite photo of the day, taken near the bottom of the mountain.

It was captured with my tripod mounted Canon 6D and 16-35mm lens (0.8 seconds at f/22, ISO 100). There was just enough shade that when I closed down the aperture to f/22 I was able to get a slow enough shutter speed to smooth out the water without having to dig out my ND Filters.

I captured a few other photos further up the mountain, but this is my favorite. The farther I climbed, the more exhausted I got, and the less time and effort I took to set up and properly compose my shots. Oh well.  Next time. (next time? sigh….YES. NEXT TIME.)

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which means that I may receive a commission if you click on one of the product links and make a purchase. I only share products that I believe will be valuable to my readers (most of which I personally use and love). All opinions are my own.