Benjamin Smith

New Hampshire

The beginning of October saw the second iteration of my annual fall vacation to New England. Last year was Acadia National Park. This year was the White Mountain region of New Hampshire. Like before, most of my photos live in the White Mountain National Forest gallery. Also like before, Squarespace doesn’t think native support forContinue reading “New Hampshire”

Labor Day in Shenandoah

I spent two nights in Shenandoah National Park this over Labor Day Weekend. Matthew’s Arm continues to be a solid campground that’s easy to get first-come first-served sites. After setting up my hammock, I set off down Matthew’s Arm trail towards Overall Run Falls. I’ve done this hike before and remember it being brutal. LaborContinue reading “Labor Day in Shenandoah”

Milky Way Photo Editing

This post is a breakdown of how I typically edit Milky Way photos. I will typically follow this Lonely Spec tutorial but tend to skip it if I get satisfactory results on my own. .cr2 raw file The first thing I do is exposure, so adjusting overall exposure, highlights, shadows, and contrast via the sliders.Continue reading “Milky Way Photo Editing”

More Quarantine Pizza

April saw my love of pizza fire up and May has kept that fire going. I have kept using the classic New York Style dough from Serious Eats. It continues to be incredibly consistent and bakes well. I tend to vary the flour between all AP, 50/50 AP and 00 flour, and all 00 flourContinue reading “More Quarantine Pizza”

Quarantine Pizza

I went into this week craving pizza and since I was working from home I could do whatever timings I wanted. The theory was to make a single sauce and try out different dough recipes. I kinda followed that but ended up just making some damn good pizza. Saturday, 4/13 Make sourdough dough from TheContinue reading “Quarantine Pizza”

Sourdough Timelapse

Social distancing and the shut down of all the outdoor parks have made entertaining myself a little more challenging lately. So here’s a timelapse of my sourdough levain rising from 9-5 last Sunday. See if you can spot where my camera battery diet. This was a mix of 20g starter, 100g AP flour, and 100gContinue reading “Sourdough Timelapse”

Hiking Old Rag

I hiked Old Rag on Sunday. I have been anxious about this hike because there is so much build up online about how tough it is and how exhausted you’ll be. I was worried about not being able to finish it or getting too tired through and struggling. Long story short, the hike was fantastic.Continue reading “Hiking Old Rag”

Harper’s Ferry – Loudoun Heights

Friday saw a lovely day hike of the Virginia side of Harper’s Ferry. The Loudoun Heights Lollipop has been on my list of hikes for a while and I finally got tired of waiting on friends to come along. Hiking on a Friday was wonderful, I saw a total of 6 people on the hike.Continue reading “Harper’s Ferry – Loudoun Heights”

First King Cake of 2020

This post is a continuation of last year’s, where I developed a new recipe. I followed my suggestion of more commercial yeast by doubling to 1/2 teaspoon. This dough creates a light fluffy, perfectly textured bread. It is slightly eggy and sweet and just melts away in your mouth without being the sugar bomb likeContinue reading “First King Cake of 2020”

Hiking Raven Rocks

Saturday saw another group hike with some outdoor-minded co-workers and my apartment friends. We met up at the Raven Rocks trailhead at 8AM and were back by noon. This hike has been on my list since I moved here, and it wasn’t nearly as challenging as I expected. The hike follows the portion of theContinue reading “Hiking Raven Rocks”