Hey Ya'll what's up? Hope you've had a great week. Me? I've just got back from a week long photography trip with my Photography Club the Goldsboro Area Photography Club. This year we went to Pennsylvania. I have never really been there so I was excited to see new stuff. It's called a Fall Colors trip and sometimes we get great colors and sometimes not so much. This was a so so year and only one place we went was popping with color but there was color to be seen if you looked for it. These trips are always fun because you get to spend time with folks that like to take photo's like you and are gear nerds like you. This was no exception we had a ball! This year I had just about all new gear and over all everything worked well although I did have some glitches and really this was the most technical fails that I've had in awhile . Some of it was on me and some was on gear. But first let's talk about what went right because there was a lot more that went right than went wrong.

First let's start with the weather. With the exception of one day the weather was great. It was a little warmer than I would have liked for a fall colors workshop . The weather was in the 60's and 70's most of the time with the exception of one day when it was in the 80's. So weather good Check. The itinerary was good we had to re-arrange stuff because of the day that got rained out but we did solid work with the itinerary . Food, the food was great I don't think we went anywhere that we didn't like the food. My only problem with the food is that there was too much I could never finish my food. The workshop participants were awesome and we had fun cutting up and cracking jokes the whole week. My little Leica D-Lux 8 was awesome. I used it in Philadelphia and it was small lightweight and gave me great images. Nothing but pleased with it. My Sony A6700 was my workhorse and it worked well for photography as well as video. It gave me super sharp images with rich deep colors. My Backpack worked well except it seemed like all of the shirts or outerwear was slick so when I went to grab a lens out and I slung it around to use the side entry it would slide down my arm. But that's totally on me not the bag. But it was the right size and I hiked a good hard trail and it was working well. My purse or Shoulder bag that I had for years was exceptional as always and I used it on the Philadelphia day where we walked over 17000 steps and over 8.5 miles. It was the perfect size to do everything we did. My newly acquired DJI Osmo Nano was exceptional. It was flawless and the video I got out of it was fantastic. The virsatallity of it being so small I could hook it to my chest and no one noticed it very much. The magnetic mount came in handy for unique POV. I was able to keep the battery charged up with a small external battery that charged it fast and efficiently. I was very pleased with how it worked and did its job. My new MacBook Pro with M5 chip worked great and the battery lasted a long time. Over all from clothes to gear worked very well for the most part. Now what didn't work well.

This is a link to Max's Kitchen Gear Talk " Fall Trip What went right and what went wrong" video. Here I discuss what happened on the trip. It's on my youtube channel would appreciate if you like and subscribe. Doesn't cost a penny and really helps the channel get to other folks like you.

Now some of what didn't work well was my fault and some was gear. The first challenge I had was with Astro photography and trying to focus on a star. If you remember I've had this problem in the past and it got me again. I was very frustrated and just couldn't get my camera focused. I know it's a setting somewhere and not the camera I just haven't figured it out yet. But I will. I tried not to let that get me down but the next morning after the night shots that didn't work I had an external solid state drive (SSD)  fail. It was the one that I backed up all my SD cards from my Sony and Leica all of my Video. It was a complete failure.The Photo's and Video that I took with my Sony I still had the original SD cards because I changed out cards every day. The video from my phone I still had because I downloaded them to another drive that then I used to put on the SSD that failed. So I still had the video from the phone. But the video that I took with the DJI Nano for the first three days I lost. I was downloading the video to the SSD drive then I would reformat my SD card and start a new day. That was my big mistake. If I had done what I do with photography I would still have the video. If I had changed out every day then no video would have been lost. But I didn't. So all the video that I took with the Nano was gone. And there was a lot. I was devastated . I tried everything that I could do to revive the SSD but it was DOA. The morning it failed it let me download some files on it and I tried to watch one of the videos and nothing. So I restarted my computer and tried again and it didn't even recognize the SSD drive. I felt so bad that I din't bring any video cameras with me to Philadelphia that day just my Leica. That might have been a good thing because I really got some great shots in Philly. But no video. So in the future I will be carrying enough SD cards to cover every day of shooting so I don't loose anything if a drive goes bad again. So the equipment failed but so did I for not keeping the SD cards for everyday and just reformatting the one card. That won't happen again.

But overall it was a super trip with good friends to neat places I would have never gone without them.  It was not a total loss I did get some video footage from a couple of photo buddies and I just got through editing the clubs fall trip video. It turned out pretty well if I do say so myself. So not a total loss. 

Here is a link to the 2026 Fall Colors Workshop Video. Please like and Subscribe it brings more people to the channel like you.

Any time you get to spend with friends on an adventure is a good one. If you're not a member of a camera club and you're interested in photography , Join one! It's a great way to meet like minded folks and you make friends for life.  Well that's enough for me for now on to the next adventure! Until next week " Get out and Shoot!" 

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link

If you want to check out my YouTube Channel you can see it here Max Stansell Photography Please like and subscribe. It helps the channel get to more folks like you.