Back to the pemi wilderness!

My twin brother, Jonathan, visited NH for a week. He flew overnight from Seattle, and the next night we decided to head out to the White Mountains, specifically an area we have been bushwhacking and back-country camping each spring and fall for the last several years- the pemigewasset wilderness of the White Mountain National Forest in NH. It is a magnificent area.
Me, Jonathan, and our best friend, Paul arrived at the trail head at 10:30pm Friday. It was a bit of a late start, but we really wanted to spend two nights, since one night always feels too short. We hiked in a little bit and back country camped off the trail. The next morning we bushwhacked to a beautiful spot we found last year, set up camp, explored the nearby rivers and relaxed.

We brought Jake, a tough and adventurous little dog. The first night was nearly a full moon with very little cloud cover, so we slept in the open. But it was so bright it made it hard to fall asleep.

Jonathan, Paul, and Jake exploring one of the branch rivers, during our bushwhack on the second day.

Swimming in the chilly water! Paul took a few photos of me and Jonathan going in the chilly river. A few days before October!
Jonathan striking a pose with the hiking stick he whittled when he was 1o or 11.

I don't think it is very common for little terriers like Jake to like to swim, but he loves it, and he did really well swimming in a river for the first time. I wasn't sure how he would do camping out, but he was great, I wish we had brought him with us years ago.

On Sunday, the walk back on the Lincoln Woods trail. It was cloudy, but the leaves seemed to become more vibrant by the minute. We picked a great time to visit the Whites, close to peak foliage.

Jonathan showing Paul the chaga fungus, a parasitic fungi that grows on live birch trees. Great as a tinder. The fungi's cancer-fighting properties are also being researched.

Group shot by the fire on the second night. The fall is my favorite time of year to camp and explore the white mountains. Nice chilly nights, great for sleeping and a nice fire, there is no need for mosquito netting at night, it is fantastic.

On the way back we stopped in at The Mountain Wanderer, a map and book store in Lincoln run by Steve Smith. If you want to know something about the white mountains, and he doesn't know it, odds are no one does. He's knows the woods of the whites, on and off trail, like no other. Check out his explorations on his blog here- Mountain Wandering.

I was fortunate to be able to take a couple days off and get up to NH to visit with my twin brother and Paul. Thanks for a great time guys!

Whale watch

As we headed back towards shore a cloud front was starting to roll in.

In mid-September Jacqui and I went on a whale watch with Granite State Whale Watch out of Rye NH. The guides were very informative and pleasant to talk with about marine biology, an area of the natural world I know close to nothing about.

The white strip is very visible in this photo. Apparently they can swim up to 30 mph.

It was beautiful early-fall day, a clear blue sky that stretched forever over the ocean. The trip lasted over 5 hours and we fortunate enough to see a blue shark, a pod of about 50 atlantic white-sided dolphins, which swam all around the boat, extremely fast, close enough to hear them expel air. We were also lucky enough to see an endangered species of whale known as the northern sei whale (I believe that is correct), we also had some great views of a fin whale. Overall it was a wonderful time, and I look forward to doing it again sometime next year.

Passing the Isle of shoals as we head back to shore.


I didn't take very many photos, I was mostly just trying to not miss anything and just experience the trip. But Jacqui took a few more and has some good ones here.

fireflies- incredible photos by german photog.

Check out this link, you'll definitely enjoy it-

"If you glow down to the woods today..."


It is a great example of some creative photography with long exposures! Thanks for sending that Jacqui!

Two senators- archive photos

Two former senators, one would become the next president, whereas the other had a serious fall from grace.
I was browsing through some of my old archived photos on an external hard drive and came upon some of them, so here are a few.
In one of my first blog posts (click here) I wrote about some of the opportunities I had while working for the student paper at the University of New Hampshire.

JordanJessopPhotography.com

While it is still very much a work-in-progress, I have been updating my personal photography website- Jordan Jessop Photography. Have a look and please feel free to offer feedback, use the fancy new contact page!

Star Trails

I was finally able to get out and experiment with making star trails, this is the best result so far. Next time I need to increase the f/stop even more to decrease noise a bit. I angled the lens toward the north star, orienting it in the top left corner. The shutter was open for about 30 minutes. Some light pollution is visible in the image, especially towards the lower right corner. This was taken in Mont Vernon NH, a small town in a rural area, but apparently still too close to the city lights of Manchester. When I get back to Springfield NH I plan on taking advantage of any clear nights to experiment further with this, the night sky up there is quite nice. I am not sure that this is feasible it is to do star trails in Millbrook, NY, where there is quite a bit of light pollution, but I will try when get a chance. I used a fixed 50mm lens on this shot, set at f/5.0, ISO 100, exposed for 26.3 minutes. I can't wait to try again.
Please offer any advice or insight on star trails!

Hopkinton Fair- NH