April Showers Bring May...Hikers?

The weather is just starting to be absolutely PERFECT for hiking adventures! Not too sweaty, super sunny, and crisply breezy. I love traipsing around nature, but love it even more when I have a photo project in mind. Locally, I love Valley Forge Park. Its full of Revolutionary War remnants, memorials and deer. But my most loved hiking spot is in Western New York, at Griffis Sculpture Park http://www.griffispark.org/ which is about an hour drive from my hometown of Buffalo, NY.

The Griffis Family were sculptors, many of their works can be seen around Buffalo. In the late 1960s, the family acquired the land which is now Sculpture Park. Unlike other Sculpture Parks, Griffis isn't just a flat land of gardens. The steel sculptures are incorporated into the landscape. Some are only reachable via intense trails. I can't help but think of Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead when contrasting the sculptures with the landscape. (if you have not read that book, go read it NOW!) The two, so different, nature vs. man, compliment each other so well. It just seems "right".
Selfishly, the park is ideal for photo projects of all kinds. Personally, I like to force my friends and young cousins to hike for hours in the beating sun, then make them change into feminine/ethereal clothing and pose with the sculptures in the beating sun, for a few more hours. If they don't look beautiful, then I leave them there. Well, except for whomever is driving.
Bring a picnic lunch, some sunscreen, lots of water, your camera and some willing models!