Our trip there went without a hitch. We arrived around noon and immediately went for a beer; a stout for me, an IPA for her.

Her 13-hour tour of Camp Crystal Lake had her so anxious.
We decided to relax, and try to unwind at our cabin before the big day.

With just downloaded maps (no service or GPS) it was time to find Camp No-Be-Bo-Sco. We left early, finding the location after a 40 minute ride to NJ.

She made it. I was bummed I couldn’t spend the day with her, but Jason Voorhees isn’t as interesting to me as photography.

The guy directing tour traffic teased me for my disinterest and lack of a ticket. “You can take a picture of the lake before you leave.” Gee, thanks. It seemed like I was like the only person just dropping someone off.

Just Roughin’ It

Exploring in the Poconos is no easy feat. With trees surrounding you, winding roads, and lots of steep hills and bodies of water, you can get worn out.

What am I going to do for 13 hours?, I asked myself.
I didn’t bring a laptop, books, or music, nothing in my daily routine.

Except my camera.

This posed a unique challenge. If I wanted to do anything fun, photography was it.

I took a short nap and woke up around noon. I searched the trails, picked one and set off.

The Right Tool For the Job

I took care to pack light for the trip. I brought only the essentials. My camera bag contained:

• Lumix GH4
• 7Artisans 7.5mm Fisheye Lens f2/8
• Sigma 19mm f/2.8 Lens
• Extra Battery
• Asahi Takumar 135mm f/2.5

I’m still figuring out how to nail the manual focus on the fisheye lens, which is challenging when not at f/8. I played with the minimum focus distance and used the screen with focus peaking to try to be accurate with my shot.

Close enough…

It’s difficult to get as close as I did because my camera was so close to the water that it was almost submerged. Trying to focus manually at this angle and distance was certainly a task.

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A Big Oopsie

The park I chose first was “Hidden Lake.” The name was awesome, and the few reviews stated it was a walk-able trail with lots of amphibians to see. Sounded like my kind of adventure…

As I walked I noticed a lone fisherman on the lake. This set the tone for a peaceful, quiet scene, until my mind wandered and I realized I was in the same fictional forests as Jason Voorhees. I could just picture him rising out of the water and snatching that man right out of the boat.

Luckily it was the middle of the day.
I’m sure the vibe walking at night would be quite ominous.

As I approached the end of one side of the lake I noticed a gorgeous heron flying towards the waters edge. Completely covered in algae and green flora. As I quietly reached inside my camera bag, I pulled out my Asahi Takumar 135mm hoping it would have enough reach for the heron.

As I’m trying to twist the lens onto my GH4, it’s not taking. I’m thinking, oh man, maybe the mounting ring broke. It took a few minutes until I realized…

I brought the wrong lens adapter. The adapter that was on the lens was for my Pentax Q, which I didn’t bring. So, I couldn’t use my long range lens.

I attached the Sigma 19mm with disappointment and took the picture of the heron anyway, because it was a pretty lush scene. Oopsie indeed.

Technical Difficulties

Speaking of the Pentax Q, I found out that Keya’s Q didn’t read her SD card on the tour. She told me that it kept displaying Card Read Failure when she tried to get photos ops. I felt so bad. She had her camera all ready, I even gave her an extra battery, but the damn thing didn’t even allow her one picture. She resorted to her phone.
She made the best of the situation. And ultimately gathered quite a collection of awesome, memorable photographs.

I was proud of her. Here we were both tackling obstacles of our own.

Her view was similar to mine. Eventually I realized we weren’t too far from each other, just separated by a massive wooded area called Stokes State Forest.

I had walked a total of seven miles, from 2-5 PM. I wasn’t really prepared for the hiking, and by the end of it my legs were like Jello. I was totally out of breath. Mistake? Maybe just a little overzealous.

Messing Up, Naturally.

It’s common to make simple mistakes in photography: forgetting the SD card, bringing the wrong lens like me, or not having extra batteries. Simple mistakes. But this next fail just doesn’t add up.

Burnt

After a long day, we decided to eat something. We got home around 10 PM. What was quick and easy that we brought?… crescent rolls and hotdogs. Keya loves this combo, a solid pig in a blanket. Well, I decided I’d grill the hotdogs first, then toss them in the crescent rolls and finish in the oven.

I totally burnt the dogs on the grill.

They tasted OK, but an all beef burnt hotdog isn’t exactly a grand slam. I mean, it was a grill I’d never used., but c’mon, Grilling hotdogs is so simple!

Yet, I burned them.

We got a good nights rest. Keya didn’t seem to mind the burnt dogs and enjoyed her dinner. I was just glad she got something to eat.

Talking, Getting Lost.

We decided to leave early around 10 AM. We’d be home in time for dinner. The drive was pretty straightforward, just head back to Western Pennsylvania. We decided to stop in a little town on the way home called Jim Thorpe.

Only offering a couple of streets, which we circled around to try to find a bathroom, we didn’t get the appeal of the town that people had mentioned. We said forget it and bailed. Onward home.

We chatted up a storm. We enjoy conversation during road trips when we’re not blasting music.

Carried away, I missed the first exit coming back from Jim Thorpe. Damn, it took me 10 miles just to turn around and make a loop back to the right highway. It cost us almost 20 minutes, not too bad.

But further along in the trip, I totally missed the Pittsburgh exit for Hwy 22. This one hurt. We didn’t realize til about 15 exits later that we went too far. With no service or GPS voicing directions it was easy to miss. This detour cost us over half an hour. Finally…

Don’t you hate it when you miss exits and they are super far apart?

We made it to 22, and the long haul through Western PA continued.
We finally arrived around 6 PM. The drive itself was only supposed to take five hours. I felt bad, but we were safe, home, and totally geeked about Keya’s amazing time at Camp Crystal Lake.

The Main Objective:

Get Keya To the Friday the 13th Tour

All the mistakes in between were forgiven.
And the experience continued to forge a beautiful memory.
Thanks to Keya for allowing me to drive her, being patient and understanding with my many miscalculations.
At least I got some pictures and she got that experience!