I found this beautiful building covered in green at a cemetery in Kent. I’m not sure what the purpose of this building is, whether a mausoleum or not, but i is impressive. Aged and weathered nicely!
I went to the Cuyahoga Valley National Park yesterday to see the bluebells and Everett Cover Bridge.
I have always wanted to be a travel photographer, especially for an organization such as National Geographic. I have always wanted to travel and see distant lands, and do what I love the most; take photos. Well, I have decided to make that happen!
Next year, in 2027, I will be traveling to Japan! It has been a life-long dream of mine to make this trip, and I finally got up the nerve to go ahead with it. I will be taking a private tour of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka with a stop by Mount Fuji along the way. In all, I will spend twelve days in Japan taking photos of everything, from anime and manga to Nintendo World, Temples and Shrines. It is going to be an amazing adventure! I will finally be cutting my teeth as a travel photographer!
I look at other peoples’ work on YouTube and greatly admire not only their photography, but also their force of will to get out there and do what they want to do, and I am doing that for myself. Instead of admiring from a distance and dreaming the big dream, I am motivating myself to do it! And I am so excited!
On another note, last week I posted my second YouTube video about what’s in my camera bag 2026, digital version, featuring my Hasselblad X2D-ii camera. Below is the link for the video:
This week, I decided to start a YouTube Photography Channel! I bought a DJI OSMO Pocket 3 camera an recorded my first video, shown below. My new YouTube channel is “Keri McDonnell Photography,” and can be found here.
I decided to visit the Tinker Creek waterfall today, what with all the rain, it should be swollen water-wise. It did not disappoint. It is a pretty spectacular and powerful waterfall, not as tall at Brandywine, but equally beautiful. Pleased to share a couple photos below:
Rant here, and it’s about Hasselblad lenses, specifically the 20-35mm f/3.2-4.5 E lens. Now this is a relatively new lens that they introduced last year, before they released the new Hasselblad X2D-II camera, and the 35-100mm E lens. One wonders why they didn’t plan their “E” line of lenses better. This 20-35mm lens, which retails at $5,995, DOES NOT PROVIDE FOR CONTINUOUS AUTOFOCUS.
The 20-35mm E lens is a Hasselblad-branded “Exclusive” lens, one of only two models currently. The other Exclusive lens is the 35-100mm f/2.8-4 E lens, just recently introduced. Hasselblad knew for years in its planning that they were going to introduce the Exclusive lens line, how could they not ensure the lenses were all capable of the same thing? I believe this is really short-sighted on Hasselblad’s part, and they lost a $6,000 sale in me today. C’mon Hasselblad, you can do better!
Enjoyed the sunshine yesterday morning and went out to shoot some photos. I went to Canton’s West Lawn Cemetery, and then to Akron’s Glendale Cemetery. Lots of mausoleums and some statues, and one cool little, bitty waterfall! First day in the field with the new Shimoda Urban Explore bag - it is nice!
Yesterday, I picked up my new photo printer. After much YouTube research, I decided to get the Canon imagePrograff Pro-310 photographic printer, a 13-inch professional printer. I had considered getting the Canon Pro-1100 photo printer, a 17-inch printer, but at 75lbs. a bit too big for me at this time. And too expensive; the ink tanks are huge and each one of the twelve needed costs $160 each.
Now I have to learn the ins and outs of photo printing, getting the same rendered photograph on the computer onto paper. Hopefully it won’t be too long of a process for me. I ordered some photo paper in different sizes for testing, and another set of inks as the Pro-310 has small ink tanks. Once I have it figured out, I hope to start making some limited prints; I know which one is going to be the first, but I have no idea how many to make in the first series.
In other news, I ordered a new backpack from a brand that I love, Shimoda. I bought a Shimoda Urban Explore 25-liter backpack. I loved Shimoda’s Action X25 V.2 pack when I had all of the Olympus gear last year. Now, I hope to utilize the Urban Explore with my Hasselblad and Profoto gear. I have a workshop on portrait lighting early in April, and needed more space than my Wandrd sling offers. I’ll try to do a quick review of each in the coming week or so.
I am beginning work on a new, significant photography project. I don’t wish to give out many details at this time because the project is in its formative stages - writing an organizational plan, setting up a Patreon, etc - but I believe that it will be well-received. My hope is that this photography project leads to an eventual gallery show and a book, and much exposure for the subject at-large. There will be a lot of work, but I think that I am ready for the moment. More details to come, including the announcement soon.