Ohio trip and new 50mm f/1.4

I recently spent a couple days in Athens, Ohio checking out the photojournalism graduate program with my friend Ryan who happens to be a graduate of their undergraduate program. We left Monday morning at 6 a.m. and got back Wednesday evening at 10:35 p.m., so it was a quick trip.

Of course, three hours before arriving in Athen (it's a 9.5 hour drive), Ryan turned to me to notify me that campus had just put up a notification that they shutting down Tuesday due to the cold. Tuesday was supposed to be my big visit/talk with professors/sit in on classes day.

Needless to say, I went on a little swearing rant. I'd gone through a lot of effort and struggles trying to set up that visit and to have things fall apart 6 hours into my trip was a little frustrating. Fortunately, we had a man on the ground in Athens - Ryan's classmate Joel. I also have a fancy smartphone which I used to dictated a email to the professor I'd been speaking with.

Long story short, I missed out on sitting in on the classes but was still able to talk with a few professors and get a nice tour of the school, as well as Athens.

I took my D800 with my new lens on it to break it in. Didn't come back with anything amazing, but it was nice to break it in.

<insert mediocre images>

Not from Ohio, but it was one of the first photos I took with the 1.4. A-town doing his thang.

The real start of the Ohio photos.

Cold.

School was shutdown due to the cold, so we took a tour of Athens. We decided the best way to spend the cold day was walking around in the snow taking pictures...

Acid mine drainage. Joel could tell you much more about this, but in short, it's water damaged by old mines that have contaminated the ground water. There a lot to say about it. If you're interested, it's worth a Google.

We toured Ryan's old stomping ground where he photographed a project that won him CPOY and an internship with National Geographic. I'd only seen his photos of the place before. It was kinda surreal to be in the actual place.

Ryan warms his cellphone by sticking it in his pants in hopes of reviving the battery that keeps dying due to the cold temperatures.

Still warming it...?

Joel and Ryan, giggling.

Nerding out.

Instagraming... or something at the coffee shop a few hours before we leave town.

Thanks to Joel and his wife Ellee for opening their home to me and being so welcoming. Some of the most generous people I've ever had the fortune of meeting.

And Ryan, thanks for keeping me sane (mostly) through the 18.5 hours we spent on the road.