Dina Haggerty Photography: {The Enchanted Forest}

This past Sunday I had the opportunity to take my new camera out for a test drive. Recently I purchased the Canon 5D Mark III. I am in love! I have been working with two older cameras, a 10D & 20D, for the last ten years and I was frothing at the bit to get new gear. With the acquision of my new camera body, I handed down one of my old bodies to my daughter. She inherited the 10D with an old 28-70 lens that I had with my first film Rebel camera. My daughter is five, so she uses the 10D under supervision. Needless to say she was thrilled! She couldn't wait to get out there and start taking pictures!

So this Sunday, with new cameras in tow, my daughter and I ventured out to my favorite location; a little wooded respite nestled in the middle of a business industrial setting that I like to refer to as "The Enchanted Forest".

Path into the "Enchanted Forest"

It's not really enchanted. Actually it is just a small park between the borough, the train station, and behind my office building. I call it "Enchanted" because I spend my lunch hours walking on the trails listening to Paul O' Dette on my iPhone just daydreaming. I totally zone out and just let my mind wander. By the time my lunch hour is over I am completely "enchanted"; relaxed and ready to start the second half of my busy 9-5.

Tree felled by Hurricane Sandy

Sunday morning was particularly foggy and damp. I was a little disappointed but ventured out nonetheless. Sammi was thrilled at the opportunity and bolted from the parked car like a cooped up Labrador ready for a walk, camera in hand and snapping away at everything like the nature paparazzi!

Photographing a worm. Eww!

We set up her baby dolls on a nearby rock and she photographed them like a family session. She found a bloated worm on the paved path and found wonder in that! She "oohed" and "ahhed" at the holly berries on the trees and found beauty in the dew drops dancing on the fronds of the grass plants. And I had such joy capturing her first real photos through my lens.

We eventually found our way into the woods and along my favorite nature paths. We came across a pile of corn kernels, most likely left out by someone for the deer. (There have been many times I have come around a bend in the trail to come face to muzzle with a doe or young buck.) It turns out that there was a trail of kernels that stemmed from that pile along the stoney path that led deeper into the woods. It was beckoning to be followed! So, my daughter and I made an adventure of it! We followed the trail deep into the recesses of the forest. Sammi turned our adventure into a mystery. I became Mystery Mommy and she Mystery Daughter. Here and there we lost the trail, but with perseverance and photographic skill, we picked it up in no time.

The corn kernels...

Path around the grass plan labyrinth

Picking up the trail.

Sammi believed that the trail led to a mysterious treasure hidden deep in the woods guarded by the magic dragon and blood thirsty wolves. The only thing keeping us safe was our mystical cameras for the ferocious beasts did not like their picture taken.

Photographing the mysterious "witch tree".

Deep into the Enchanted Forest

We followed the trail for what seemed like an hour until we stumbled upon the pile of corn kernels again and realized that we had been going in circles. At that moment a train whistled from the nearby train station and I told her that it was the dragon roaring. He must have the treasure! At this Sammi decided to give up and we removed ourselves from the forested wonderland unscathed. With much dismay the Magic Dragon got to the treasure before we could. Mystery Mom and Mystery Daughter walked away with nothing but a kernel of corn and several images as tokens and proof of our wooded adventure.