I do love the parkway in the spring. Thanks for looking!
I feel like the video really tells a good story of how the property is laid out:
Below you can see the photos we captured both with the drone and on the ground.
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]]>If you like log homes and need the logs: https://www.twincreeksloghomes.com/
I started out with some drone shots before making a walk around the property.
The house is sitting up on a hill so the drone really comes in handy here.
After flying the drone starting walking around all the cool places.
I shot the deck before moving inside.
The house is really sweet! I just love log cabins! I'm not gonna lie, I love any house deep in the forest with a creek nearby... but if it's also a log cabin then it is extra awesome!
I had a great time shooting this log home... I hope you enjoyed looking. Thank you.
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A few years ago, I had some fun at Mabry Mill shooting the lightning bugs. This year, with so much real estate photography keeping my busy, I haven't had a whole lot of time for what I like to call 'recreational photography". So just to keep my photography life interesting I headed down the Mabry Mill last month to shoot the lightning bugs.
I only ended up making three photos, since each one took 30 minutes to an hour to make. I set the built in intervalometer on my Nikon D750 and just sat back and watched em fly around.
Lightning bugs like the edge of a forest and water. Mabry Mill's lawns and water are a great place for viewing lightning bugs. This first photo was taken at the back side of the main lawn looking back toward the Mill.
My next spot was down next to the Mill. The lightning bugs were really popping by this time! Standing there watching them fly all around was just great and much needed(spring is just crazy busy for me and it was much needed).
I light painted the structure in one exposure and let the bugs fly in a bunch of others.
My last shot was taken from across the pond. I used one very long exposure for my base exposure and then let the camera take photos for a half an hour or so before heading home.
Thanks for looking, scroll down to check out some other photos of lightning bugs that I have taken at the Mabry Mill.
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I have to say flying with a toddler is tough, and I pretty much constantly felt bad for people around us, but we made it through.
Once we got to Billings we had an all day drive ahead of us. We stopped in Bozeman to grab essentials like peanut butter and jelly, and stayed in Butte one night to break up the drive.
Just south of Flathead lake, you are given a beautiful view of the Mission Mountains near St. Ignatius. Today we only had a partial view as the clouds were staying low. We stopped for a quick photo before continuing on.
About an hour south of Eureka, you really get a bunch of nice mountain views.
Once we made it to Eureka we went for walk around the block where my Grandmother lives. It was below zero but Charles was a trooper!
The next morning I woke up super early and went out for some full moon photography. I bought a Panasonic Lumix LX10 just for this trip and wanted to see how it would perform.
Below, you can see a couple rocks covered in snow and a frozen Lake Koocanusa in the distance.
I made it to the Koocanusa Bridge well before morning twilight. The moon and stars were still shining bright!
Looking back from the opposite side of the bridge now, you can see the lights of a plow truck across the lake. Side note, I was blown away by the logging traffic out here! Even at 4:30am it seemed that one would pass by every 20 minutes or so.
From a about the same spot as the above photo, just looking away from the bridge, you can see some awesome fog rolling along the lake.
Below you can see the edge of the ice on Lake Koocanusa.
As the sun started to come up, I started to make my way back across the bridge. Here you can see the Canadian Rockies in the distance.
As I made it back to Eureka, I stopped to take a photo from where I was earlier. I got a text telling my my kid was awake so I headed home to hang out!
Later that day, we went to the historical park in Eureka. I took a few photos of the buildings and flew the drone for a few moments.
After checking out the Historical Park, we went to take a look at the bridge. My Grandad told me to drive towards the Canadian border and see if I saw any Bighorn Sheep. We didn't see any sheep but we did see a bunch of elk up on the hill!
THEN we went back to the bridge.
There isn't much traffic on the bridge so...
Charles isn't sure about snow and freezing temps.
The next morning before leaving for Monarch, I got up early again to see what I could see sunrise-wise. Nothing much came of it but I'm always glad to get out.
After that we were off! I must say the highway below Glacier National Park is beautiful. But since we were in a hurry to get to my brothers cabin in Monarch, we pretty much went non-stop. On the easter side of the Rocky Mountains, we were driving through a seemingly endless abyss of drifting snow.
But we made it! I didn't take many photos here, cuz you know, family time. My brothers cabin has quite a view!
After a short stay in Monarch, we headed to Lewistown where my brother lives. The weather was pretty cold and snowy, so we went up to Judith Mountain via my brothers ATV.
The wind at the top was CRAZY and Charles kept saying 'COOOOOLD!'
Once we made it back into the ATV, I used my Insta360 ONE X to take a group photo. I am still getting to know this camera but have enjoyed it so far!
After a couple more days of hanging out with friends and family, it was time to head on out. Hopefully someday I'll call this place home again.
Thanks for looking.
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This time we photographed a cool 2BR house on Glade Road in Blacksburg VA. The weather was dreary as can be! I am still working on getting better at sky replacements but am finding them to be very useful on days like this.
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Another cool house to photograph was one listed by Anne-Collins Albimino.(That link will take you to her Long and Foster Website)
This one is located up on a hill in Blacksburg VA, so the drone was in order. The skies were nothing but dreary and the winds were insane but I did the best I could with the Mavic Air. All it took was a couple sky replacements:)
Anne-Collins also had me make a short video of the property, which you can see below.
Thanks for stopping by!
That morning, before the storm really started to dump down on us, I went for a stroll to downtown Radford. Even though I went downtown before it started to accumulate, it was really coming down hard!
After the snow had settled the next day, I took the drone up to get a look at the neighborhood.
Can you see me? I'm standing in the middle of my street near the lower left... I'm just a tiny dot from 400ft away.
The next morning, I took my drone out again in the frigid hour just before dawn. The scenes were really beautiful for sure, even if my fingers were frozen.
Below some anti-crepuscular rays can be seen above a foggy and frosty New River.
Here you can seen Interstate 81 crossing the New River.
After a short flight near I81, I went towards the foggy area near Radford to fly again.
Before heading back home, I snapped one shot with my LG v30:
Thanks for looking!
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I know my blog game has been weak lately, as I have been mostly tied up with real estate photography, which I don't tend to blog about. Maybe that'll change, either way I need to give this site more attention!
The trees down on Little Indian Creek were simply awesome! All of these photos were shot with my trusty Canon m6 and 11-22.
Before leaving I flew the drone up and took a look around...
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Either way, I have been able to take some nice photos from the New River Valley. I have been flying quite a bit from Bisset Park in Radford.
I have also been doing a few flights from the Riverview Park on Radford's west end.
We also made it up to Barneys Wall by way of the Cascades. The Mavic Air is perfect for this kind of thing!
Thanks for looking!
]]>The boy and me hiked the Grindstone Trail from near the base of the mountain. The first 2 miles were a casual, hilly stroll through the forest. The last mile, the views really come around and they are awesome! You can seemingly see forever.
Pilot Mountain stands just outside of the Blue Ridge Mountains, much taller than the surrounding piedmont. The views are incredible.
After hiking three miles, you arrive at the parking lot, and the trail to the big view. Below, you can see Hanging Rock State Park(the farthest mountains in the distance to the left)
For some context, here is a shot from the Moore's Wall Loop Trail in Hanging Rock State Park. You can see Pilot Mountain in the distance to the left.
For EVEN MORE context, here is a photo taken from Buffalo Mountain, well within the Blue Ridge Mountains/Plateau. You can see Pilot Mountain shooting up from even here!
The overlook at the top is a great place to have a snack before heading back down the mountain.
Thanks for looking!
And here is a drone shot taken just down the road from Pilot Mountain.
I hike light these days since I carry the boy, so these photos were taken with my smartphone and an Aukey Polarizer. The raw files were edited in Lightroom Mobile.(what a time to be alive!)
We first went up the Wolf Rock/Cedar Rock trails. The Cedar Rock trail gives an awesome view of Stone Mountain from across the valley.
The Wolf Rock view isn't as dramatic but the lack of other people is very serene.
We took a pit stop at the homestead at the base of the mountain before heading up!
We were with only a handful of other visitors today.
There are a BOATLOAD of stairs on one side of the mountain, and since the boy seems to constantly try and climb the stairs at home(which is against the rules), I let him have a taste of his own medicine! Unfortunately, he actually enjoyed the 40 or so stairs I let him climb.
The blooms are starting to come about!
The view from the top is totally awesome! It's a great place to enjoy the view and have a snack.
Thanks for looking!
This is the view after the last turn as you head up to the top.
Benches at the top of the mountain. A great place to sit and enjoy the view.
The next few photos are from the DJI Mavic Air. I am quite impressed at the image quality that this little machine provides!
Click here to view my entire Cascades Gallery
There was just a light dusting of snow during my first trip.
During my second outing a decent snow storm had passed through the area the night before. It was just tapering off when I got to the trailhead. Hopefully the photos below look at least a little better than the smartphone photos above!!
Thanks for looking!
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View my full Rocky Knob Gallery Here.
My favorite photos came from just after sunset. Walking around on the balds, there are many nice compositions for both wide and telephoto compositions.
After sundown we headed up to the Rocky Knob shelter for some lightpainting.
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Recently I had just about the perfect day. I got to spend the day with the wife and child - driving on snowy mountain roads, hiking snowy mountain trails, and overlooking snowy Virginia from High Rocks near Wytheville, VA. We even finished out our day with some hot chocolate... Good Stuff!
You may be used to better image quality from this blog... I gotta be honest, I only brought my LG V30 and Phantom 4 with me.
The day started out with my boy telling me(without words) that he would like to go enjoy the snow...
We hit the road for Big Survey Wildlife Management Area near Wytheville, VA. The Subaru handled the winter roads like nothing was out of the ordinary! When we got to the trail head, I asked my wife politely if she would feed the boy so I could fly the drone...
Below you can see the trail meandering through the forest and up the mountain. We were the first on the trail today, blazing through fresh snow!
Once at the top I took a few quick shots with my smartphone before sending the Phantom up. There were some really high winds near the top, so the flight was short as I didn't want to take too many chances, especially since I was operating the drone well under the recommended minimum temperature.
Thanks for Looking!
]]>One of my favorite trips to the Cascades is in the bag! Check out photos from my recent 5° trip to the Cascades below! My feet were froooooozen by the time we left!
I'll start off with some 'natural light' photos using only high ISO and ambient light from the sky. All photos were taken with my Nikon D750 + 20mm 1.8G.
We did a few that were lightpainted also...
I crawled up into the ice to shine a light from within and then stacked a couple of other exposures to balance the scene.
And here is what I look like:
Check out the below video taken with my drone a few days before this journey:
Below I'd like to share some favorites from winters in the past.
Thanks for looking!
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Photos were taken in Bisset Park on the New River of Radford Virginia. Thanks for looking!
The dogs ain't having it....
The struggle is real!
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I started off with a sunrise at Price Lake on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I tried to let the wife sleep in, so little Charles was bundled up in his carseat right next to me for this series of photos...
On the way back to the rental, I stopped and took a shot of a pretty meadow. It was a nice morning, not nice enough for me to go on a shirtless run, but kudos to that guy!
We headed to Rough Ridge a little later in the day for some sweet views of the Linn Cove Viaduct and Grandfather Mountain.
We made a quick stop at the Wilson Creek bridge before heading up to Beacon Heights.
After a relaxing night by the fire at our rental, I headed out to the Linn Cove Viaduct for some early morning stars and sunrise.
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We made a quick stop at the family house to shoot a shot with the dogs and we were done! Congrats to Catherine and Devin!
First look with Dad...
To avoid bee attacks, avoid wearing bright clothing!
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Lots of photos to get to, so here they are!
Ceremony time!! Seriously, how cool is this venue? There is a bunch of open space and a huuuuge barn to house the reception!
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I must say, this photoshoot made me really motivated to get into shape! That being said I did consume a whole-lotta ice cream while editing this shoot, but you gotta start somewhere!
The shoot was at Anytime Fitness in Radford, VA.
as
Pretty much everything on this shoot was taken with a Tamron 70-200 VC(to help isolate Blake among all the people), but I love the Nikon 28mm 1.8G so much I try to use it any chance I get!
After an hour of shooting in the main workout area, we went into the posing room and I set up a couple flashes.
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As always, thanks for looking!
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After our trek into Wildwood Park, we headed out to the River Course for a few more photos before calling it a day.
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This first image is from the same spot as the first images from the last blog post. Only this time I can during blue hour! I took multiple exposures as traffic cruised by to really add a sense of morning busyness:) I still have more images to edit from this area, and those will appear in the gallery when I get to them.
Over the course of a couple days, I made two different stops on top of the parking garage near Elmwood Park to take some images from the nice high vantage point.
In this first one, I was really up against the clock with some work stuff so this was as far into blue hour as I could shot that morning.(it is 3 exposures to show more traffic).
The next set of images from that same area occur when I had a little more time to watch the sun rise further! Below you can see the reflection of the colored clouds in the windows of the buildings.
This next photo is a vertical panorama that allows me to include the cool clouds above the buildings.
Moments later the sun was up and casting nice warm light on the downtown buildings.
A day or two later, the moon was set to rise over the downtown area just before sunset. Unfortunately, there were some clouds on the horizon that prevented me from seeing the moon right away as it broke the horizon(I had to stand on a busy bridge for about 30 minutes longer than I wanted to:).
This photo was taken as I made my way back to the car... Thanks for looking.
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I went up to a parking garage as the sky was starting to get that rich blue color. The orange lights on top of the garage really made for some nice contrasting colors.
As the sky started to lighten, I moved from a pedestrian bridge(my vantage point for the above photo) to a real bridge that holds cars! You can see the pedestrian bridge in the distance in the photo below. It is the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Bridge, and has a statue of at one end.
Just after I set up my tripod, a train came through.
I very much enjoy the results of the photos with the train. I waited until the sun broke the horizon before walking back to the car.
In between the car and the bridge I was on, I snapped a few more images...
A couple days later, I went up to the Mill Mountain overlook to shoot the city as a whole during blue hour. I was hopeful for a nice sunrise, but clouds are all I got!
This first one is from the 3rd floor of one of the parking garages.
This next one is from the same level but a little later into the evening.
As it was time for me to go into the hospital, I took a couple more photos from the bridge and roadside.
Thanks for looking!
]]>If you are a builder, developer, or real estate agent needing photography services in the New River Valley, click here to view my real estate page, or click here to contact me.
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My first hiking video is from the Cascades in Pembroke Virginia. I went on a week day and didn't see a soul the entire time! Hiking videos may look cool, but depending on how much you shoot, you have to hike each spot twice!(you gotta go back and get your camera!)
This video was shot using the Phantom 4 and Canon EOS M3.
My next video is from the Keffer Oak area on the Appalachian trail outside of Blacksburg Virginia(I think this is closer to Newport). This time I had a buddy to walk through the shots! While my first video was shot on a tripod, this video was all handheld and I used the Warp Stabilizer tool in Adobe Premier Pro. This video was taken with a combination of both ground-based and aerial video with the Phantom 4 as well as the EOS M3.
I had planned on flying the drone around Mount Rogers Recreation Area a couple weeks ago, but when I got there the wind was crazy and the visibility was not much! Oh well, I took the Canon m3 up through the hemlocks to shoot the fast moving fog, and even had a couple hikers walk through the frame! All of the videos are stationary(sorry) but still tell a pretty cool story of the conditions.
I spent New Years Eve out at Camp Dickenson near Fries, Virginia(my wife and I are good friends with the camp director and his wife). On New Years Day, we took our drones out and flew around the camp property. The New River running through this area is very scenic! I hope to come back and do it again when there is some color on the trees!
Thanks for looking!
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Earlier in the day, I went up for daytime photographs, and the rain had literally just started to clear when I got there.
With the rain gone, I was able to thow up the drone and take some aerials, which are really important on a property this huge!
I ended up doing a few day hikes, and ended up at Sharp Top three times in one week! It is a nice short hike with plenty of stairs to get your heart rate up!
The second trip up there, I had nice partly cloudy skies with nice light and a great sunset from Buzzard's Roost, which is a nice outcropping of rocks below the summit of Sharp Top.
The above image is a seven photo panorama shot with my 28-300VR. The below image was taken with my Irix 15mm
The Sunday after Thanksgiving my friend and I went for a post-sunset hike up to to Sharp Top. Sharp Top can be INCREDIBLY busy during the day, but at night you can have the place all to yourself. We did some light painting to really make the rocks stand out.
The wind on top of Sharp Top was craaaazy cold! But the view was more than worth it! Lots of stars even though there were a few clouds.
On the third day I went to Sharp Top(which was the second day, but for the sake of showing you good photos first, we'll go with it) I didn't take many photos, but instead took video using a Zhiyun Smooth C gimbal to stabilize my LG V10. I am just starting to play with the video side of things, and I am trying new tools associated with that.
Here is a video that I took with my LG V10 on the hike up. REMEMBER, this is the first time I've taken video while walking around! I did find the gimbal's joystick to be super easy to get nice pan shots.
Pretty bad, huh? Oh well...
Here are a few photos taken from the Blue Ridge Parkway only a few miles away from Peaks of Otter. I caught the tail end of the fall color here.
I also made it up to Flat Top mountain recently(it is a less traveled peak in Peaks of Otter). The wind was really howling and the visibility was pretty much nil when I got to the top, but there were many cool foggy scenes to be had...
The last few photos are from my drone. I did not fly it over the Blue Ridge Parkway(as that is illegal), but I flew it over the Jefferson National Forest near Buchanon and on the opposite side of the parkway from Buchanon.
Below, you can see Sharp Top in the distance(I think).
Here is a short video from the Jefferson National Forest that I took with my drone. I was parked on the side of the highway and flew from there. It was tough to keep it in line of sight since I had to fly behind trees!
Thanks for looking!
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I was absolutely DESTROYED by bugs. I thought they wouldn't be out in such force this late in the year, but boy was I wrong! Jakob was rock solid even as I was freaking out swatting bugs the whole time.
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...to the photos!
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To see the full Grandfather Mountain Gallery, click here.
When I signed in at the Profile Trail parking lot, all of the campsites were empty, but when I got up to the Attic Window campsite, there was a pack on the wooden platform! Turns out the guy who owned the pack was named Aaron, and he is a pastor in Deep Gap who decided to do the same thing as me! He came up on the Daniel Boone Scout Trail(or the Cragway Trail, I can't remember) on the other side of the mountain and that is why we both thought the site was empty. He was hamocking and I took the platform. We talked gear and God and all that stuff!
First we made our way over to MacRae Peak, not far from Attic Window. Below you can see the Parkway wind around Grandfather Mountain. Aaron kept pointing out which mountains were what and gave me a real good sense of the area.
From MacRae Peak, you can see the famous Mile High Swinging Bridge.
After dinner, we could see some really nice shadows on the mountains from an open spot near the campsite(literally a few feet from the tent platform)
I would be lying if I told you I wasn't a little disappointed in the color at the time of my visit. Last year I came down in early October and the color was nearly at peak, this year that was still a lot of green.
Once the sun started to go down, we headed up to Attic Window Peak to check out the sunset. I love watching the already blue Blue Ridge Mountains transform to an even more bluer looking blue! Blue.
I do love me some blue earth shadow!
We hung out for a bit for the moon to come out. The bright moon makes for almost daylight like photos!
After a night of temps that were just about the coldest possible for me and my quilt, I was ready for that warm sun to rise up!
After a quick bite to eat, Aaron and I started making our way down the mountain. When the Profile Trail met up with the Grandfather Trail, we parted ways, hopefully to hike together again.
Down the mountain I went... and while to Profile Trail has few mountain views, it is named after being able to see the 'profile' of the grandfather.
Thanks for looking.
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After bushwhacking through the forests near Maybry Mill, we headed up to the big open spaces of Rocky Knob.
The Blue Ridge Parkway is such an awesome place to take photos! Thanks for looking!
Recently I have been working with Stateson Homes, a builder of some very nice homes in the New River Valley. They have neighborhoods in Blacksburg, Christiansburg, and Radford that are all top notch!
The first few photos are from the Cambria Crossing Model home in Christiansburg Virginia.
This next home is from Heron's Landing, a really nice neighborhood near the Pete Dye River Course in Radford Virginia.
Below are a few drone photos taken from over the Pete Dye River Course. The neighborhood you see on the right of the course is Heron's Landing.
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I'll start with a few images from the super awesome Channels of Virginia! This place is located near Abingdon Virginia. It is a pretty unimpressive 3.5 mile hike up to the top, but once you get to the top of Clinch Mountain it gets AWESOME! There are HUUUUUGE rocks that form channels you can walk on top of and in between.
I made a couple stops up on Dragons Tooth, once during the day and once well before sunrise after a hike in the dark! The first trip I made up there I took my new Irix Firefly 15mm and was really able to get nice compositions of the rocks on top.
A few days after that trip I hit the trail early to make it up to Dragon's Tooth by sunrise. I did not get the color I was hoping for but was able to capture some nice foggy scenes.
Recently, my wife and I went to Hanging Rock State Park near Marion VA and hiked up to Molly's Knob.
After our hike we went for a paddle on Hungry Mother Lake.
I also made it up to the Tinker Cliffs overlook which is WELL worth the hike! I have a plan to haul some water and a hammock and stay the night up on top of the cliffs soon!
Finally, Here is a panorama taken from my Phantom 3 of Radford Virginia at Sundown.
Thanks for looking! I will try to post more soon!
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The video quality that comes from the Phantom is just great. It is a little weak on still photography, but still good enough for most applications.
I have been learning the different moves that the Phantom does, and have posted a few of those videos below..
The first video I took was of a train trestle that crosses the New River by Bisset Park in Radford, VA(where I live). I got a little lucky with the train coming by!
The next two videos are from Claytor Lake. I looooove hanging out at Dehaven Park, it is a free picnic/swimming area/boat ramp on the not-so-popular side of the lake. There is a dock for fishing, pine trees for shade and hammocking, a big public boat ramp, and a grassy area with easy access to the water. Plus, on a weekday, it's not very crowded so flying a drone doesn't bother too many people!
The next two videos are of a couple dams near my house. First is the Claytor Dam, and the second is the Little River Dam. The first few times I flew over the dams, I was using a tablet that wasn't connected to the internet. The most recent time I flew, I used my internet-connected phone and as soon as I neared one of the dams it started warning me about flying near power plants! Oops!
The next video is of Big Survey Wildlife Management Area. I had planned to hike to High Rocks and fly the drone from there, but by the time I could make the drive all the way down to Wytheville, I would not have had any time on High Rocks! So I walked down the closed service road and flew from there. I had a hard time keeping line of sight(which is nerve wracking) but was able to get some nice video of Big Survey and Whytheville in the distance.
In the next video, I again went to the train trestle that crosses the new river. There wasn't much of a sunrise on this foggy morning, but I had fun flying around the geese that frequent the area. Most of them didn't seem too bothered:)
Finally, my last video is of the Cascades in Pembroke. We hiked up the Cascades trail very late in the afternoon/evening to avoid any crowds. While I was up there, only one group showed up, and I did ask them if the drone would bother them and they said no, so off we went! The gps does not work very well in the ravine of the Cascades so the drone does not hold steady, I almost flew it into the trees at one point! Oh well, we survived.
Thanks for looking!
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I'll leave the words short and get right to the photos. Thanks for looking...
:)
This thing has been an absolute blast to fly! I went with a DJI Phantom 3 professional. It's a little nerve-racking because it can EASILY get out of sight, but for the most part it is a breeze to fly around.
I still have limited experience with it but do have some nice stills to show(even though still photography is kinda the weak point of the drone, the video quality is much better).
The first two were taken in nearly the same spot on the same day, one facing the Claytor Dam away from the sun, and the other facing the sun looking downstream towards the I-81 bridge.
Next are two shots of Claytor Lake taken on the same day. I was flying the drone from Dehaven Park. The first photo is a 3 shot vertical panorama of Dehaven Park, the second is of the Claytor Lake waterfront from a bit further away. There had been a rainstorm that left some pretty clouds on the horizon. For these two photos I was using the Polar Pro Polarizing filter.
The final set of images comes from the beautiful Cascades in Pembroke Virginia. I made my way up there almost at sunset so I wouldn't be bothering anybody! A couple guys came up as I was changing the battery, but when I asked them if the drone would bother them, they said Go for it! The GPS doesn't lock on down in the valley, so the drone will drift and is more difficult to fly! I had it a little too close to trees on a few different occasions!
Thanks for looking and stay tuned for more!
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Click here for my entire Grayson Highlands State Park and Mount Rogers Gallery
I really like getting up here during early June for the Rhododendron bloom every year. This particular area is pretty incredible. Many Appalachian Trail thru-hikers claim that this is one of their favorite sections of the trail.
This year, the rainy weather has really held back the bloom. I think the bloom will probably peak about a week after our visit. That said we still got to take in a nice view of trailside rhododendrons.
On our way up to Wilburn Ridge we crossed paths with a group of local ponies and a few playful foals.
We set up camp on the first peak of Wilburn Ridge. There is a nice view all around and a small dip in the center protects the tent from most of the wind. I snapped this photo as dinner was cooking.
The sunset that night was as good as it gets pretty much. Lots of great light, beautiful blues and pinks... and I got to hang out with the wife!
Below, you can see the ponies milling about below our campsite.
Watching a lone pony make its way across the meadow...
Ashley watched the sunset from the Wilburn Ridge spur trail while I ran around taking photos.
A few AT hikers hike by a tent on the Appalachian Trail below where we camped.
A panorama of our tent in the Appalachian Mountains.
Looking up at the second peak of Wilburn Ridge(the highest peak with the hugest views)
After soaking in as much 'red light' as a guy could handle, we hunkered down for a fairly windy night up on the ridge. My wife got to turn the big 3-0 in a tent and I got to tag along. Pretty good day in my book.
We were even nice enough to let our fearless yorkie stay in the tent:) Thanks for looking.
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And a shot with dad to finish it off... thanks for looking:)
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To view my entire Cascades Gallery Click any image or here.
On Sunday, even though the parking lot was pretty full, we really didn't come across very many people, the 2 mile trail really lets people spread out!
During my second trip, there were only a couple cars in the parking lot, and I only saw two groups of people during my trip(none at the falls itself). Rain isn't the most pleasant hiking weather, but solitude at a normally busy area is very nice.
I spent most of the day photographing Little Stony Creek and the trail that leads to the falls.
There was a BUNCH of water flowing due to recent rains!
The falls gives us a pretty awesome composition with some smaller runoffs in the foreground. I've shot this spot a bunch of times and I never get bored of it!
The way up to the Cascades was slow going... I was stopping every 5 minutes to photograph the river. After this last shot, I sat in the rain and enjoyed the falls for a while, then booked it home. Thanks for looking.
We were going to split up the hike into two days, but since it was set to rain pretty hard on Sunday, we opted to hike the entire 15 mile section in one day. This wasn't an incredible feat, but wore me out for sure! Carrying a D750+28-300+20mm+tripod was pretty rough!(especially considering I didn't use the 20mm or the tripod).
I tailed behind for pretty much the entire trip, just shooting away and hurrying to catch up when I fell behind.
Up high on the balds, very little spring color had come out. But just a little lower in elevation, the blooms were really starting to take over!
The pretty section below is very near the 2nd AT shelter. It's a big barn that can house lots of tired hikers. Once you get up out of the trees a bit, you get a nice view of it and the surrounding mountains(just a few photos down)
We took a break at the top of the hill, where I shot these stark looking trees against a cloudy sky.
At the top of the mountain we were on, we could see a mountain in the distance, and we weren't sure if our trail was gonna take us over it or not...
Well, sure enough, we were going over it! This is hump mountain. Below, you can see Lori(middle) holding on to her hat. The wind was really powerful!
You can see two hikers that were ahead of us making the climb up Hump Mountain.
It really was daunting, but it wasn't as hard as it looked. It was pretty gradual, just looooong.
I was really enjoying the views looking back down Hump Mountain. I kept falling farther and farther behind the group though, so I kept double timing it to catch up!
How cool it would be to have a house in the mountians...
Towards the top of Hump Mountain, there are some rock outcroppings that make a nice foreground.
...as well as patches of little wildflowers.
Here is Lori taking a breather in front of a really nice view.
Hike over this little fence and you are about to start heading downhill again. This is looking back on what we had hiked.
The hikers in front of us were keeping a pretty good pace! They had huge packs on and we didn't catch up to them.
Coming down Hump Mountain, everyone's spirits were high(unfortunately we had like 5 more miles of downhill left)
The views up on Hump Mountain and other balds in the Roan Mountain area are incredible. My camera does very little in showing how great it is.
This is the Doll Flats area right before you cross back into Tennessee. This is the last photo I took. We were all exhausted and had the Pedalin' Pig for dinner(it was great!)
Thanks for looking!
All I can really say is that Shelley and John are AWESOME! I just moved to Radford, which is where they live, so maybe I'll be lucky and my wife and I will get invited over for dinner sometime....
After a bit at the Mabry Mill, we headed up the Blue Ridge Parkway a few miles to Rocky Knob. Rocky Knob has some sweet mountain views, and unfortunately, some really intense winds! The air was COOOOLD up there but we made sure to give it our best shot.
Thanks for looking!
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I've been out and about enjoying some nice spring weather on a few walks and hikes so far this spring. One of my favorite things to see is the blooming of the Duchman's Breeches along the new river trail. Small white buds cast a bit of a carpet on the forest floor.
My closest focusing lens is the Nikon 20mm 1.8G. I really do love what this lens lets me do! Along with taking wide angle landscapes and night photos, the close focusing really lets me fill the frame with small flowers(plus the D750's tilt screen keeps me from getting too dirty by letting me shoot without laying down:)
Near this section of the trail is the Foster Falls State Park area. There are some nice flowering trees there in the spring. I made a little time to go down there early one morning.
Leaving Foster Falls, I noticed some really nice light and ominous clouds while driving by the cemetery in the area. There are many old gravestones. There are some composition limitations here with overhead power lines and other items that can distract from a photo, so all of these are composed similarly.
Finishing this post are a couple photos of flowers along the New River. The image on the bottom is Bloodroot, which is really beautiful, the top one I am not sure.
Thanks for looking!
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This last weekend my wife and some friends were attending a conference in Gatlinburg Tennessee called Divine Rhythm. While I didn't attend the conference, and really don't care much for Gatlinburg Tennessee, I really like being near Great Smoky Mountains National Park!(not to mention I have a cool wife and cool friends to hang out with also)
The only reason I really don't dig Gatlinburg is the fact that it is basically a carnival with a bazillion people in it! One thing that can also bum people out is the large crowds that converge on the Smokies every year. During winter there are FAR less people to share with, and almost nobody out at night.
The first morning I was there, I left the hotel at around 4am to make my way up to Newfound Gap for sunrise. This early start would give me plenty of time to shoot some moonlit, starry scenes.
I sat at this spot and shivered until a car finally came by early in the morning.
I would occasionally see headlights down in the valley and start preparing for a car to come around the bend, and find myself waiting a LONG time since I guess I didn't realize just how far they away they actually were.
No car lights...
There are many cool tunnels in the park.
After taking the below image, my tired eyes got the best of me and I took a nap for a while and waited for the sun to start rising.
After my nap, I shot the moon behind some trees in a rich blue morning sky.
After this I went up to Newfound Gap overlook and watched the sunrise. I had such a quiet morning up until this point, and as soon as I got out of the car, the quiet stopped! Some kid was running around and yelling while his dad chased after him yelling... yada yada yada... it was still nice to be there:)
Just before the sun hit the horizon, a few girls came and watched the sunrise from the ledge of the overlook.
After just a few moments of watching the sun come up, I hightailed it back to Gatlinburg to have breakfast with my wife and friends.
To give a little perspective on the contrast between the National Park and Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge, here are a couple phone snaps from just outside the Paula Deen Restaurant in Pigeon Forge. You get to watch a musical water fountain show while you wait for your table:)
The next morning, I went to Cades Cove and jumped on my bicycle. Cades Cove is a BUSY place during the day. There are all kinds of people driving through here. But at 4am, with a big bright moon and ton of stars, I had the place all to myself(as far as I could tell).
This tree isn't far from the entrance just to the left of the path.
The next two photos are from pretty much exactly the same spot, just looking in opposite directions.
I just love those big moonlit trees! The breeze caused me to have to time the photos just right and get a little lucky for sharp branches.
A little further down the trail is the old Methodist Church and cemetery. I've been here before at night so I didn't spend much time here.
The below photo was taken just before I made it to the dirt road shortcut that leads to the Peter Cable Cabin. The deer were milling around right near the fence until I cruised up. Fortunately they stayed still during my exposure(also, shout out to the Milky Way and Venus for making a faint appearance just above the deer).
After getting onto the dirt road, I felt the need for a selfie!
At this point, the sky was starting to brighten up, so it was time for me to get the show on the road and get to the Peter Cable Cabin! I made with plenty of time to have a little fun before sunrise.
A little lightpainting...
Some clouds moved in just right and let the sky light up really nicely.
There were a couple deer in the field behind the old homestead. One of them hung out and looked at me while I walked closer.
Cades Cove has a bunch of old homesteads, cemeteries, churches, and a sweet mill! A person could spend a long time doing the entire loop, but I cut this one short for time purposes. By the time I was almost back to the parking lot, there were already a bunch of cars on the road in the Cove(they close it to cars at night).
I did have a little time to kill after breakfast, so instead of sitting in the car for an hour, I went up to the tower in Gatlinburg. For $10 a big elevator takes you up to a huge lookout deck with telescopes!
Below, the big mountain in the distance is Mt. Leconte. It is where Ashley and I hiked up to Mt Leconte Lodge last fall.(click here for that post) Seeing it from here really gives some nice perspective on just how awesome of a hike that was!
While I was taking photos from up on the tower, I gotta text from the wife telling me the conference had ended and she was ready to go. I hopped in the elevator and took off. See you again soon, Tennessee.
Thanks for looking.
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Actually. a few days before the GREAT STORM OF 2016, we got a little dusting of snow, which prompted me to take the dog to the New River Trail and enjoy the snow(in a few days the snow would be too deep for my fearless Yorkie)
I was armed with only an LG v10 smartphone, and I gotta say, it does the job well enough for dog walks!
Then, last Friday, the snow really started to come down. It was awesome! We got a few inches that day, and I had the New River Trail to myself, even though someone had been there before me.
I slid down the hillside into the river for a different angle. The water was just a little deeper than my boots were tall. I got wet feet on a cold day... Bummer!
On Saturday, we got A LOT of snow! So much that I was unable to get anywhere to take photos(I got my Subaru Crosstrek stuck twice trying). However, on Sunday, I made sure to wake up nice and early and shoot a few photos under the full moon before the sun came up. I headed to the Foster Falls area(I go here a lot). There are a few scenic farms, barns and fields that are nice to photograph.
The thing that is frustrating about getting a ton of snow, is that the plows pile it up on the side of the roads making it really hard to park anywhere. Fortunately, the road to Foster Falls state park doesn't get much traffic so I was able to just park on the road for the morning(not a single car drove by)
By now, the sun was starting to come up! I could see the approaching dawn on the horizon. I am not sure but I think that really bright 'star' is the planet Venus.
Below, the moon sets behind an old snow covered tractor.
The sun was starting to warm up the sky really nicely...
Then looking west, the moon was setting in some nice earth shadow as the red band of sunlight approached! By now my hands were all but frozen, but the scene in front of me was worth standing out in the cold for!
I get to cross this bridge everyday on my way to work. I always enjoy peaking over the edge and looking down at the new river. Normally, the interstate make a TON of noise that you can hear even from a distance. This morning however, with all the snow and ice, caused very few people to be out and about, even just a tiny fraction of tractor-trailers were out this morning compared to a normal day. It was nice and quiet.
I hope to get out again before the big melt. Stay safe and enjoy the snow. Thanks for looking!
]]>Michael is the director at Camp Dickenson, which hosts week long camps for kids during the summer. There is a very pretty farmhouse on the property, and that is where we shot today.
Check out Camp Dickenson's website here.
I'll start with a few that he actually sat down for! Michael(the dad) and I sure had a lot of fun setting up this train! So much so that we almost cancelled the shoot and just watched the train go round and round...
After a little screwing around with the train, we burned off a little steam running around outside.
We got him to sit for very short periods of time...
There are some nice Christmas Decorations inside the farmhouse, but by now little Jude-Michael was getting restless!
One last shot just screwing around on the stairs...
Thanks for looking!
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I had the fortune to take Loren's photographs near the cool red covered bridge in near Newport in Giles County, Virginia. I started us out near a covered bench.
And now for the dog...
Now to put those rain boots to work!
After a quick change, we headed out of the water and up on to dry land!
Bringing back the dog....
As the light was fading, and fading fast it was, we did one more wardrobe change and brought out an heirloom that belonged to Loren's Grandfather(if I remember correctly)
And with that we were done and happy about it! Thanks for looking!
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At the beginning of my blog posts is normally where I will post my favorite photo of the trip. This time around, I had a hard time selecting one, as I like many from my recent voyage to the Great Dismal Swamp. Read on for more...
It is just over 5 hours of driving to get to the boat landing at the Great Dismal Swamp from my home near Galax, Virginia. It took every inch of my being not only talk myself into making the drive, but to keep driving as I made my way. For some reason I kinda just wanted to stay home and be near the wife(you married men who love your wives know what I'm talking about), but I had spent time preparing, and this would be my last long distance photo trip for a while(this is my busy work season), so I might as well go and enjoy myself.
As always, I get to the places I am going at the last second, and today was no different. I showed up about an hour before sunset, which meant that by the time I paddled the 3.5 miles or so to the campsite, it would be pitch black. The same thing happened the last time I came! This trip, there was pretty thick cloud cover(I could hear helicopters flying somewhat low overhead but could not see them) and that made the dark of night seem to come on even sooner than expected.
In the photo below, taken as I was about to pack up the following day, you can see I set up my tent near the tram. The tram is a cable driven platform that runs along a short set of rails to help people move their boat from the feeder ditch to Lake Drummond. To the extreme right of the photo, you can see the lock, which keeps a proper lake level.
The tram was out of service since they are doing some construction at the lock(those photos further down). This wasn't a big deal since I normally just pull my kayak over the grass.
I was feeling a bit restless in the middle of the night. Part of it was that I have a really bad sleeping bag, and the other part was that I was curious if the weather forecast would hold true, that the sky was supposed to clear. I rolled out of the tent around midnight and was really happy to see stars! I decided to take a little trip out to the lake for some night sky photography.
You basically point your kayak at the center of the 'v' made by the black trees on the side and the starry sky in the center. I try to use my headlamp as little as possible to keep my eyes dilated. About halfway out to the lake, I was startled by a HUGE SPLASH not but a few feet from the boat! The closest thing I can think of it sounding like was a beaver tail slap, but I don't even know if there are any beavers living in the swamp(which means the only other thing it could be was Bigfoot throwing a rock in at me!). Either way, it scared me pretty good!(and I'm really glad he missed)
Once I got out to the lake, it was like I was kayaking in another world! The stars were reflecting so beautifully off of the water it was simply wonderful. I would park my boat near trees or stumps to start setting up the camera, as the wind was really pushing me towards the edges of the lake.
I paddled out a little ways towards the lone tree seen in the first couple photos.
I was getting a little chilly after being out on the lake for a little bit(i was still wearing shorts!) and I was yawning quite a bit so I headed back to catch some Zs before sunrise.
By the time my alarm went off, the temperature had really dropped a bit. It wasn't freezing cold by any means, but chilly humid air can make you shiver in the shade! It was kinda hard for me to get out of the tent and into the boat, but I only came here to take photos, and I would be pretty stupid to sleep in! So at just after 5 I hit the water again and made my way out to Lake Drummond again.
In my first photo you can see a few stars still shining in the morning light.
The below photo was taken after the stars went away, but before the sky was really starting to change, so black and white it is!
It wasn't long before the mostly clear sky showed me some really awesome earth shadow! The reflection off of the lake made double awesome!
I was basically padding on a supersaturated sheet of glass, it was almost unreal.
Below, you can see the tail end of the earth shadow.
There is a large, beautiful tree not far from the entrance to the lake that really held my attention. I waited for quite a while as the sun rose over the trees to light up the top of this particular cypress.
Man, I just love that tree! I started to make my way back down the feeder ditch towards the camping area. By now the sun was high up and lighting up the trees nicely(I am kinda surprised at how long the green stays on near the coast!)
Looking back at the entrance to the lake...
I shot a few photos of the camping area, tram, and construction area. I shot these last few photos with a rented Panasonic LX100, which is a pretty sweet point and shoot camera with a 4/3 sensor. I have been toying around with the idea of using a premium compact or a mirrorless 4/3 or APSC camera for some things, but it looks like for now I will continue using the D750+28-300VR, as I feel it is still the best compromise of reach and image quality. That said, I really did enjoy the LX100, it has a nice bright lens, but is just a touch too small for me, and the power zoom left a little to be desired.
By the time I made it back to the camping area, the workers doing construction had showed up.
The sun shining in on the trees in the feeder ditch made from some nice reflective scenes.
To give you a little perspective, here is a photo I took of my camera setup in the water. The 'spider'(where the legs come together at the top) was usuualy 6-12 inches out of the water. There were times where the spider would drop all the way down to the water level. I would mash the tripod down into the mud at the lake bottom and make sure it was completely solid before mounting my camera.
Here is the tripod with wooden dowels attached to the legs using hose clamps. Without extending the center column, it stands around 6.5ft tall, and since the lake is pretty much consistently 6 feet deep, it works!
A couple quick notes...
If you look at the photo with my tripod in the water, you can see that I am using an arca-type plate on my tripod. I started using this because it allowed me to use a Peak Design Proplate to carry my camera on my backpack during my trip into the Bob Marshall Wilderness in Montana. If I had been smart I would have switched back to my Giottos quick-connect plate, which requires no turning of knobs to lock in place(you just click it in). At night and in the early morning hours it was sometimes hard to get the camera to slide into the plate correctly before screwing it down(mostly because I was on a boat that wanted to float away!) Even when I had tied my boat to the tripod I found it sorta unnerving getting the plate to lock in.
It takes about an hour and ten minutes of paddling to get to the campsite.
Here is where you park:
You head south(or left) from the boat landing and turn into the feeder ditch at Arbuckle Landing. The Feeder ditch has a big sign near it, so you really can't miss it.
There is no fee to camp. There are flush toilets, many picnic tables, a few screened in buildings, and BBQ pits. From what I could see, there was no drinkable water so plan accordingly. There is power to the facility, so there are lights that are on, you know, should you arrive after dark:)
Thanks for looking.
Feel free to ask any questions using the 'contact me' link at the top of the page.
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Fortunately for me, I had an army of moms and grandparents behind me to draw the attention of the children!
We had partly sunny conditions for most of the day, but as soon as I showed up to take photos, the sun came out BIG TIME! I took a few photos out on the dock but then we retreated to the shade for a little better light.
To wrap it up we tried our best to get everyone looking at me at the same time....
Thanks for looking!
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After just a few photos near the beach, we moved towards the old red building on the other side of the marina.
There really are a lot of great places to take photos here, and Sara made it so easy!
Just a few steps from the picnic table above is this little dock with two 'arms'. this is nice because it gives me one to stand on and one for her to sit on!
Just a few steps from the dock, we headed over to the waters edge near the gazebo. There was just a touch of light coming in through the trees so we used that as best we could.
We were heading up back to the parking lot for an outfit change when I got distracted by this big willow tree.
After finally getting the outfit changed, we shot a few on the back porch of the big red building.
The light really started to come in nicely, so I had her change BACK into her dress to really help these last photos pop!
And thats a wrap to one awesome photo shoot! Thanks for looking!
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That photo was taken towards the end of our session. To begin, we went downstairs and without moving too many of the chairs around, found a spot for Dana to sit in one of the halls.
Moving just a ways down the hall now...
I then had Dana go upstairs while I stayed down below.
Now, fully upstairs, we found a window with some nice light coming in...
As we walked through the lobby to one of our next spots, we stopped at this huge wall for a moment.
I REALLY like the next set of photos. This spot is sweet(and a nice reason for me to pull out the 20mm 1.8:).
Aren't chandeliers sweet?
We milled around a bit in a really pretty hallway on the way to our next spot..
The next set of photos were really fun. The lounge area has a really cool 'ambiance' to it(and yet ANOTHER reason to pull out the 20!)
When we showed up, they told us 'NO STAIR PHOTOS" so we had to take this one before we left.
Thanks for looking!
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The above picture is the view from Clifftops on top of Mt. Leconte. I watched this beautiful scene with my wife and a handful of others after having a huge dinner at Mt. Leconte Lodge.
We only got to spend a couple nights in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and I really feel like we made the most of it!
We started off by having a sweet dinner in Bryson City, then heading up to Clingmans Dome to check out the stars.
The fog up on the tower would completely shroud us in darkness for a few moments, only to brighten up a short while later. Here I caught beginning of a meteor. This was a good night for me in seeing meteors(I saw some HUGE ones!), but only capture this guy.
Obligatory selfie of the wife and I. A three second shutter speed, and a really REALLY dim light to brighten us up. The Nikon 20mm 1.8G can really see in the dark!
I really like the below image of the rocks and trees near the parking lot. You can see the Andromeda Galaxy shining brightly in the center.
The next morning, I almost stayed in bed and didn't go out for sunrise. Looking back, I am glad I did, but the pictures were meh.. oh well, at least the Sumac trees are looking cool.
...and I think hemlocks make any scene worth looking at.
As soon as the sun came up, I bounced! I got back to the hotel, ate some pretty horrible breakfast, and the wife and I headed up to Gatlinburg to grab a few things before the hike. I unfortunately left some of my clothes at home on the couch, and could make do with everything except the underwear I packed! We headed to the NOC and $30 later I was good to go!
The hike we picked was the Trillium Gap trail. It is 6.7 miles to the Mt. Leconte Lodge. The cool thing about hiking to Mt. Leconte is not having to pack any tent or sleeping gear! Somehow, my wife still made my pack heavy though... crazy how that works.
Some of the higher elevations had patches of nice color.
These badass llamas are responsible for supplying the lodge.
Once at the lodge, we didn't have much time to chill before dinner. We got checked into our room, thought about how we should never have hiked almost 7 miles up a mountain while also thinking about how AWESOME dinner was gonna taste!
My camera isn't "travel friendly" (d750+28-300VR), so I didn't bring it into the dining hall. But you just gotta believe me, it was great food. Mashed potatoes, roast beef, some gross peach thing, green beans, and a cookie!
After dinner, my wife and I, joined by many lodge guests, went up to the Clifftops to watch the sunset. It is only a .2 mile walk up to the top and well worth it!
Like all other Smoky Mountain scenes, the fog would roll in and out, temporarily taking away our view, only to give it back again. Below, a couple of really cool guys enjoy some wine as the fog comes in.
After hanging out and shooting the breeze with some other folks in the lodge office, I let Ashley go to sleep while I milled about the lodge taking photos. There was quite a bit of fog, but some stars still shined through.
The lodge on the right was where Ashley and I slept. You can see a big wave of fog coming in on the right.
At these really high ISOs, only a little bit of light from a flashlight makes it look like a UFO has landed!
The next morning we headed out for Myrtle Point to watch the sunrise. It is a little farther than clifftops at about 2 miles round trip. The wind was HOWLING, which made it difficult to include much foreground because of all the moving foliage. After taking the below photo, I shot pretty much everything else in the telephoto range.
After the sunrise, we were ready to get back to the lodge and pound some breakfast! As we made our way out of the lodge, I snapped a few photos of the area.
And here is the parting shot of my beautiful wife as we made our way down the trail. This was well worth the money spent!
Thanks for looking!
The biggest challenge really wasn't the rain falling, but the wet ground! When I picked a spot for Olivia to stand, there was no real moving from that spot without a lot of work from her mom and I. The ground was basically mud and we really didn't want to trash the dress BEFORE the wedding!
We started out near some nice yellow blooms...
Olivia's relaxed, natural smile makes her an easy subject to photograph.
After some waddling around, we parked Olivia in front of the mill. The Mabry Mill really is an awesome spot for portraits!
It started to get dark FAST! I had us move to another section of the park that is like a small covered part of the walkway. I bounced a flash of of some of the logs to give a nice warm tone.
Thanks for looking!
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While I was in Montana, I made a somewhat-not-so-quick trip to the Bighorn Canyon for a little kayaking. I always try to get to the Bighorn whenever I'm in Montana, as it is pretty much my favorite place, but I haven't ever kayaked in it before.
If you look at the canyon walls in the above photograph, you can see the moon beginning to cast its light on the Bighorn. This was as far as I would make it into the canyon.
I started out at Barry's Landing just before sunset. I rented a Rokinon 14mm 2.8 to mount on my Nikon D750. When I got home, I realized that the copy of lens that I got was pretty much horrible. It was very soft in the corners even stopped down. Fortunately I also had my 20mm 1.8G with me, which never disappoints.
As I was getting to the boat landing, a doe mule deer and a couple fawns were crossing the road. This one turned back to look at me before ducking under the fence.
In no time I was on the water. I really like the wide perspective of the 14mm lens here. It kinda shrinks the walls in the distance for sure though...
There are many little off-shoots to the canyon that one can explore.
I was kinda 'chasing' the sunset a little bit. It was fading fast for sure! I was paddling hard to get to spots with light on the canyon walls.
It wasn't long before the sun was gone and blue hour had arrived.
Fortunately I found a spot to get out of the kayak and shoot a few shots as the daylight turned to moonlight.
The Big Dipper was very prominent in the sky, especially since the moon washes out most of the stars.
After a little more paddling, I found a spot where the moon light was really coming in nicely on the walls of the canyon..
I used my paddle to sort of hold my boat in place while I took some photos. By now the moon was starting to get high enough to light up the water.
A little further down, I really liked this scene with the protruding rock with the Big Dipper in the scene. The only problem was trying to find a spot to shoot! I found a very small section of rock sticking out that was just big enough for my and my tripod. I had to really keep watch on the boat as I didn't have a good spot for it to come out of the water.
If you look just past the boat, you can really see just how much of this canyon is sheer walls. I was fortunate to have a spot to get out that still gave me a decent composition for the above photo.
I stopped one more time before heading back. I was about 1am by now, and I still had quite a ways to paddle before getting to the boat landing.
It felt like it took forever getting back to the boat landing. This place is just so big, it can seem that distant cliff walls or canyon corners remain eternally far away as you paddle towards them!
This was a crazy fun trip! Next time I would like to arrive a little earlier and get all the way to Devil Canyon. I had to meet a friend for coffee in Billings at 7:30 am, so I was a little time constrained(but still having fun)
As I was leaving the canyon, these guys were crossing the road. ... Thanks for looking!
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I was absolutely ecstatic when I pulled into the parking lot to Mabry Mill in preparation for some lightning bug photography. As any south-eastern dweller knows, now is the time of year when the nights really come alive with blinking yellow lights. I have made a couple of attempts in recent days to shoot fireflies in other areas, only to arrive and find out that the place I wanted to shoot didn't have a whole lot of lightning bugs in the area(and some of those places required a night bike ride to get to!)
CLICK HERE OR ON ANY IMAGE TO BE TAKEN TO THE MABRY MILL GALLERY. From there, you can browse all my images and purchase prints.
After getting over my initial excitement of knowing that a pre-visualisation would most likely come true, I grabbed my camera and headed in. On my way to set up for the first shot, I was unnerved by a loud rumbling sound from over by the mill. Since it was dark out I really couldn't see what was happening. I quickly realized that the mill was periodically building up water, and then letting it all splash down while spinning really fast and loudly for a few moments(this happened continually throughout the night)
I started off using the main path as a leading line. I started with a couple exposures for lightpainting, then let the camera shoot continuously for 20 minutes or so to capture lightning bugs. I use the Nikkor 20mm 1.8G lens. I have to say that it is perfect for this type of photography. It's high light transmission allows even the faintest of lightning bugs to show up.
I then moved up towards the mill, crossed the fence, and set up the camera in a spot where the trees were hiding the sky. I really wanted to minimize the stars for these photos. I again started out with lightpainting the fence and mill, then letting the camera run. During one of the exposures, a car drove by. You can see the light from that car on the trees behind the mill. I really like how it looked when added in, so I kept it!
Again with similar set up, instead this time opting for more sky. This time I had a BOATLOAD of lightning bugs flying by! And since the wind was still, I was able to merge all of the exposures with stars and the treetops still look crisp.
I moved up to the back of the mill to shoot the next exposure. There weren't quite as many bugs cruising around, but it still made for a nice image I believe. By now my head was starting to periodically 'bob' from fatigue.
I was asleep for a lot of this last image's duration. Fortunately the wind stayed still the whole time! As I was finishing processing this image, I was a little perplexed as to why the reflections of the startrails had little 'breaks' in them. From what I can gather, the regular splashing of large amounts of water into the pool caused the water to ripple temporarily, then soon return back to its smooth and reflective state. There is one break in the strartrails in the sky, but that is caused by me removing two back-to-back images because of a passing car.
I gotta say I am super happy with how these turned out. Night photography is a real sleep and time consumer, and getting good results makes it all worth it.
Thanks for looking!
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This was a REALLY pretty end to a REALLY rainy day! On the way out to Whitetop, I made a couple quick stops along the New River and Wilson Creek near Mouth of Wilson.
This spot where Wilson Creek enters the New River really got my attention. I like how the muddy water of Wilson Creek flows into the New River.
Just a little ways up the road, there is an old dam and mill structure on Wilson Creek. I stopped here and walked around a little bit. I really like the contrasting colors of the Indian Paintbrush and the muddy water.
By this time I was completely soaked from the rain, so I figured I would just walk about in the water.
I noticed these guys avoiding the fast water, so I crawled up to the top of the old mill structure and, using the tilt-screen on the d750 was able to reach over the ledge and snap a photo of the ducklings.
I left the mill and stopped to take photo of a pretty stretch of the road, when I saw the sign of despair...
I finally made it up to Whitetop! I was so excited to see the view!... oh... guess I'll just sit here for a while and wait for the fog to pass.
Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long. Unfortunately, I missed the peak of the wildflowers by a few days.
The transition from fog to somewhat fog to only a little fog was purely awesome to watch. I spent just a few minutes at this little turn about before heading further up and walking down the hill a bit.
Last time I came up here, they had just done a controlled burn(at least that's what it looked like) Here is a photo of those conditions...
It was really nice to see all the green that had come back!
I love the 28-300's ability to shoot a wide image like the one above, and then zoom waaaaay in and shoot telephoto, without losing any image quality. The photo below is a tight shot of the fog on the right hand side of the above image.
As soon as the sun went down, I was again surrounded by another batch of thick fog, and I was out...
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Click here to go straight to the Hanging Rock Gallery.
Last weekend my wife and I joined some friends for a couple nights of camping at Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina. We had some fun hanging our around the campfire, rowing a boat on the lake, and hiking around to a couple different spots in the park.
The photos started on the first morning. I awoke at 5am and was planning on driving down from the campground to the Hanging Rock trailhead. As soon as I woke up, I realized that I would be walking. The campsite was SUPER quiet. I just couldn't start a car and potentially wake up a bunch of people.
The road was nicely moonlit so the first part of my walk didn't require a flashlight, but as soon as I got to the trailhead and into more dense forest, I needed to turn on the headlamp. As soon as I turned on the lamp I was welcomed by many sets of glowing eyes looking back at me from the trees! Some deer must have been out for an early breakfast. Also, as I walked along I notices many reflective 'sparkles' on the forest floor, which turned out reflections from the eyes of spiders! but I digress...
The Sunrise from Hanging Rock was pretty nice.. This first photo is probable my favorite of the set, it is a panorama using the Nikon 20mm(images shot vertically).
I only had a brief few moments of color, so I started to climb around and look for the blooming rhododendrons. Looking for these awesome plants didn't take long, they are EVERYWHERE. Below you can see them dot the cliff side.
The rhododendrons at the bottom of the image in the above photo are the same as below. Seeing a bloom that big, I thought it was well worth the scramble down to check 'em out.
As I crawled back through the bush to get back to the main trail, I couldn't help but admire all the rhododendrons. It is simply lovely.
This is a panorama of a spot on the trail where you can see one of the rock overlooks hanging over. It's a cool spot that lets you know you are close!
We had clear skies all night, and as soon as the sun was supposed to come up, we got hit with a bunch of fog for a while.
After my morning hike, and a little breakfast, it was time to hike a bit with the wife and friends.
We hit up Window Falls, Hidden Falls, and Upper Cascades. The three falls are located on two very short hikes.
After a little boating and tanning, we headed up to Moore's Knob for sunset. We got up there kinda early, so fortunately everyone was ok with hanging out for a while and watching it go down.
This is another panorama. I thought I was going to have to use multiple exposures, but the Nikon D750's dynamic range is pretty awesome. The photos I used to create this panorama were REALLY dark in the foreground before processing.
I just love all these sweet foreground rocks!
20mm is all I had for this trip, and here is a nice... wide photo of this patient group of sunset watchers.
On the last night of the trip, I decided to take a few shots of us around the campfire. I told everyone to hold super still, and we put together these scenes. On the last two photos, Doug thought creatively and decided to throw a rock in the fire right before the photo. Sure looks cool if you ask me:)
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When stopped down, this lens performs really well all the way to the extreme corners. And for a super fast, super wide angle, that is saying something!
On to the good stuff... On the way to Stone Mountain, I cruised by this pretty church that had its trees in full bloom.
At the entrance to Stone Mountain(and pretty much everywhere else), there are some really nice low hanging Flowering Dogwoods. I shot a few images here before heading up the mountain.
When I first got up on the rock face, the clouds, while pretty cool to look at, didn't do much for the photos. Then, just as I was trying to figure out the live-view on the D750, my bagged rolled over and my lens hood rolled out and down the mountain! I had literally JUST taken delivery on the 20mm 1.8 and before I knew it I was without a lens hood! I tried to shimmy down and get it, but it stopped on a REALLY steep and slick part of the rock face. I may try to return and retrieve it on a drier day, but for now, the mountain keeps the lens hood.
The next few images are from the top of Stone Mountain as I made my way through the upper portion of the loop trail.
From up at this vantage point, you can really see the green starting to come in at the lower elevations.
I did get a nice shot of some cool clouds on top. But cool clouds like this usually mean rain, and when it rains, I always wish I had a lens hood!
Once I got down to the base of the mountain, I spotted a patch of nice blooms, as well as some ferns getting ready to uncurl. These blooms were REALLY small. The close focus capabilities of the 20mm 1.8G really came in handy!
When I was shooting some trail-side ferns, the only person I saw that day came cruising by...
I was pleased to see all the nice blooms at the homestead near the base of Stone Mountain. You can see the towering Stone Mountain to the upper right of the below image.
I moved in for some close up stuff of the trees at the homestead...
I think one of my favorite things about this lens is the shallow depth ability at 20mm. It really is a game changer. While I haven't maximized the potential of the lens, here are a few examples...
Once I got to the parking lot, I was as happy as I could be... I finished and ended my hike with seeing only a park worker.
I grabbed a few more photos of the dogwoods and various blooms as I made my way out of the park.
When I got to this spot by the parks entrance, I wasn't sure where to focus the 50mm 1.8G, so I just shot two...
At this time the rain was starting to come down and I had to get back to the wife. Thanks for looking!
While I was running, I only had an HTC DNA camera phone on me, and since it is a smartphone, its camera is pretty weak. I still took a few photos for reference, but after I was done running I took the dog home and brought back my camera.
Alright.. back to an APS-C sized sensor... When I got back to the trail, I spotted these folks fishing on a jon boat under the i77 bridge very close to the Shot Tower.
Just a little bit further, you really start to run in to all that Dutchman's Breeches. I held out my head lamp and lit up the blooms to make this dark scene.
I love how a shallow depth of field makes all the white points of light in the background.
This stuff grows anywhere and everywhere! I took this last photo of the night in some really low light. The Tamron 17-50's 2.8 really helped out!
The next morning, I headed out for a similar spot on the trail. I first went to the Foster Falls area. On the way, I stopped on the side of the road to shoot this pretty tree sitting in a foggy field with the rising sun behind it. The fog was clearing out quickly, you can see that progress through the three images.
Just a little closer to the New River, and very close to the shot tower, lies this really pretty barn! I get to look down on this barn every morning when I am heading to work(interstate 77 is just behind it).
I then headed off to Foster Falls, where some really pretty blooms are starting to come out.
There is a really pretty area near the boat ramp where the water flattens out just before going through the 'falls'. A goose was cruising through just as I arrived.
I really love this band of fog hanging in the background.
Before heading out I grabbed a few photos of some cool water droplets on the very tips of the leaves. The Tamron's close focusing is good, but this is still a pretty heavy crop.
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The Cascades and Little Stony Creek are an AWESOME place to learn photography! Want to spend a few hours photographing changing light, challenging compositions, and learning how to expose for moving water? Click here for information on my Southwest Virginia Photography Workshops!
Looking to buy a print? Click on any photo to be taken to its place in the gallery where you can purchase prints of different sizes. Or click here to see the whole Cascades gallery.
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Here is a photo of my wife on the Nature Conservancy Trail, which is the trail that takes you from the main Cascades trail up to the upper falls, and even further up to Barneys Wall.
Once we got to the falls, really bright sunlight limited the stuff I could do without a tripod, but I always try!
As we were walking up and down the trail, we kept admiring the color of Little Stony Creek. Vibrant blues and greens really make for nice addition to a river scene. I opted to make another trip up to the falls the following day, and shoot the creek on the hike down.
This was a REALLY early trip! It is getting harder and harder to make somewhat long trips before sunrise now that the sunrises are earlier and earlier. The cascades during the early morning hours of Monday morning can be a really serene place, unlike the packed house of Sunday afternoon. You've probably seen a bunch of photos like this, and for good reason! The trail rocks really frame the falls well.
I spent just a little time at the falls. I don't currently have a superwide lens, which can be really limiting in situations like this. When shooting my full frame canon and a 17mm lens, I could walk right up to the falls and have the whole thing fit. Now, my Pentax with a 17mm lens BARELY lets me have a foreground with any of the falls or otherwise... I hate to admit it, but my Pentax experiment is nearing its end. The lack of a quality superwide is just making too hard for this nature photographer to deal!
There is a BUNCH of water up here. Any time you see the water from the top of the falls almost clear the bottom you are seeing it at 'higher flow than normal'. Lots of little streams that run into the Little Stony flow over the trail.
As I headed back down, I shot a few more photos from near the same spot as before.
As I made my way down the creek, I REALLY started to have fun. Sure, there aren't any blooms yet, but all the water and color from the rapids is just awesome!
I just love this trail along the creek.
It takes a little bushwhacking to get around to some parts of the creek, but the tumbling cascades are well worth the potential scratches and scuffs.
I crawled up to the rocks on the left of the above photo and tried a few different compositions. This is another spot where being limited by focal length really hindered my ability to capture what I wanted.
Just a little ways down the trail, you pass this small waterfall. There is always water flowing here, just a lot right now!
Just below that small waterfall is a pretty big cascade in the creek. The rising sun poked out a bit and gave me a nice sun star.
Just below this spot are some REALLY nice rocks with some great cascades! Over the next several photos, you can really see my progression as I worked my way downstream. The rocks here are so AWESOME!
As the sun got higher and higher, and me working my way downstream meant the cascades were smaller and smaller, I started to take fewer and fewer photos. I really did like how the light was coming on this scene with the steps of the trail.
Here you can see the trail running alongside the Little Stony in the morning sun.
While this last photo surely isn't incredibly by any stretch, there is something kind of neat about it. The Pentax system(and I'm sure many others) have an in-camera multiple exposure setting. This allowed my to take 3 images of the flowing water, and have the camera automatically blend the images based on a certain setting that I choose, and then produce an editable RAW file. It's pretty cool!
I love all these old trees on the Appalachian Trail, especially when the high winds make snow and ice stick right to them! I had the opportunity recently to head up to the frozen, other-worldly landscape of Wilburn Ridge in Grayson Highlands State Park and Mount Rogers Recreation Area.
Both Buffalo Mountain and Wilburn Ridge are GREAT spots to learn photography! They both have unique benefits and challenges. If you'd like to come along and learn photography with me, click here!
If you would like to skip straight to the galleries..
Big Pinnacle and Wilburn Ridge Gallery
Grayson Highlands Ponies Gallery
Buffalo Mountain Nature Preserve Gallery
Really quickly, since the following photos aren't quite enough to merit their own post, here are a few images from a hike up to Buffalo Mountain Nature Preserve.
I had a a little sundog appear shortly, somewhat noticeably on the far right of the image, and more noticeable on the left side.
All in all it was a very pretty sunset given the snowstorm that came through the area recently.
Alright... back to Wilburn Ridge. The snow up here had been under the sun during the previous day, causing it to be really hard on top and soft underneath. These conditions made walking through it somewhat of a slow task... I mean, it's not hard, but it takes about twice as long to get up to the ridge. Combine the snow conditions with the beauty of the area making me stop every 12ft and take a photo, and I ain't gettin' very far!
I started at Massie Gap, as you can see there haven't been very many visitors that have come through here lately. Once I got up higher I did end up following some tracks for a short while on the Appalachian Trail.
The next photo was taken just beyond the old fence. At this point I wasn't sure if I was gonna have a good time or not! The clouds were moving really fast and a REALLY cold wind caused me to find a bush to hide behind so I could put on my hoodie to keep my neck from freezing.
Now that I was all bundled up, I made my way up towards Wilburn Ridge, but first, I spotted the ponies milling about in the field, which was nice because from there you can see Big Pinnacle, and I think Big Pinnacle make a nice backdrop for pony portraits:)
Even though the wind was still pretty strong, it started to clear out the clouds and let some nice sunshine fall on the area.
As I headed up towards the gate(it is where you leave the State Park and enter Mount Rogers) I noticed the famous 'Fabio' heading my way. He sure is a pretty pony.
Once I got up past the gate, I REALLY started to have fun. The sunshine was getting more and more frequent, the clouds started to show some nice blues, and the trees lit up very nicely.
Most of the 'lone' trees up here have a bit of a slant to them. The winds up here are often very strong, causing trees that aren't in a cluster to lean as they grow. This is very apparent in the photo below, where a big tall tree stands by itself in the meadow.
The thing I love about this area, is that if you see it, you can walk to it. These big, open meadows really give you the freedom to just about go anywhere! On the way to a cool hemlock I spotted in the distance, I looked back and took this photo of some old fence posts with Big Pinnacle in the background.
The previously mentioned hemlock.. I shot this tree from a few different angles.
A sundog showed up briefly... you can see it in the center of the frame.
While heading to yet another sweet looking dead tree, a saw this fallen one that had succumbed to the high winds. I guess they can't last forever. In the upper left you can see the hemlock from the few earlier images.
Another dead frozen tree...
As the sun started to go down, I raced around grabbing as many photos as I could.
A quick self portrait prior to starting my way down the mountain... I turned 31 this weekend, and even though I don't feel old, I sure do feel like I might be roughly 1/3 through my life(provided I keep eating my fruits and veggies). To me, a birthday's only significance is to remind me that we only get so much time on the earth, and to get out to places like this as often as possible...
Thanks for looking..
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A few days ago, my better half and I went down to Charleston for a little post-Valentines day fun. We stayed a night in Charleston at a pretty nice hotel called the Ansonborough Inn. It is located pretty close to the bay, and pretty close to my planned photography spot...
The photo I had in my head before I went down there, was a nice crescent moon sitting nicely near the Arthur Ravanel Jr. Bridge the connects Charleston to Mount Pleasant.
I see TONS of sunset photos of this bridge all the time, and for good reason! It really is a pretty bridge, and in the twilight hours it is lit up and really stands out in the scene. I knew that the bridge would not have all of its lights on at the time I was going(pre-dawn) because they turn them off at about 10 p.m. to not disorient the turtles. But even with the lights shut off, it would still be more than visible due to the lights from the city of Charleston.
Planning for my photo was a little bit tricky, requiring me to actually explore a little bit before the morning I would be shooting. This was pretty easy because my wife really likes naps... so once we got checked in, she hit the sack for a while and I took off for some spots I had scoped out on the Photographer's Ephemeris and Google Maps.
Here is what I was working with before I went down there... I started by using the Photographers Ephemeris to get a general idea of where I should be when the moon was set to rise. The light blue line is moonrise, and the light yellow is sunrise.
After deciding on a place to go, I used Google maps to see where I may be able to get access to the place where I would shoot. The two screen shots below are close-ups of the upper left of the above image. In the first photo, it looks like a car or something is blocking the access to the dirt road. I realize that this is not real time, but i was kind of concerned that this area may be private and they try to keep people out.
The second image is of an access point that is pretty much in an alley. I figured that if this was the place I chose to go in, I would be going in of foot, leaving the car in the alley.
To research a little further, I pulled up the closest spot that Google Maps Street view let me look at for the second image...
The area looked easily accessible. So when I finally had the chance to come down and look at the area, I parked up near where the red car is in the above image. I was able to get out into the fields real easy, only having to cross one locked fence(the legality of things is really never a factor in my decision making... bad, i know). But once I got out onto the field, I saw where I could drive in and park on top of a small hill. The road in the first image was more accessible than I thought! This was a real relief because the alley in the above photo is riddled with trash and seems to be a not-so-safe area to leave a car.
After getting a good scope on where I would be the following morning, I headed back, grabbed the wife, took her out to Vickery's in Mount Pleasant for dinner, went to bed, woke up really early, headed out to my scene and shot away...
I was really concerned that I would be coming home with nothing, because just as I got there the moon disappeared into the clouds, and the darkness made it so I couldn't tell if/when the moon would reappear. Fortunately it came in and out of view, and the clouds added a nice glow to the moon.
The combination of white balances was frustrating, especially for a guy like me who likes to use Photoshop as little as possible! The light being cast on the bridge was an orange-ish color, while the street lights on the bridge where bright white. Add in a sky that is supposed to be dark blue and you've got yourself a challenge...
I opted to keep the orange light on bridge and the blue sky correct and somewhat sacrifice the color of the street lights. I did play around with the white balance on different exposures, never really falling in love with any of them, but liking them all...
Due to some trees, I was really stuck in one spot on top of a small hill, which really limited my compositions. But, that is ok since I really only wanted one shot anyways:) Thanks for looking!
February in the southeast can either be super awesome, or super lame. So far this year it's been LAME! Mostly because we have been pretty much snow free(except for far western Virginia), and I just got over one of the worst colds I have experienced in the last decade or so(seriously I forgot what they even felt like).
Even though I have been sick and fatigued the last few days, I still tried to make the most of it, getting out and shooting as much as I could.
I bundled up, and went to the Hiwasee Trestle on the New River Trail. I mounted the 10-Stop B+W filter to my K3, stradled my tripod over the railing of the bridge, and tried a few exposures. It was a little tricky making sure I got the whole scene exposed properly, but since it was a fairly low contrast scene, it didn't prove to be too difficult.
This time around, I was drawn to the mount where they used to run power/telephone/whatever lines along the bridge. There was a stream of bubbles flowing through this scene, but they must not have been bright enough to shine through the 10 stop filter. I had hoped for some long wispy lines, and maybe a 6 stop filter would have allowed me that, but a 6 stop is a filter I do not have:)
If you follow my blog, you may be familiar with my 'Why the moon doesn't matter' post from last year(click the link to go back to that awesome day). I was on this bridge when I met two of the most interesting people I have came in contact with. And since I took the time to have a conversation with them, I now get to say "it's good to see you again". The guy in the below photo is the one who takes down people's names and home states/countries. He was walked over 37k miles! He says he will keep walking as long the Lord lets him. It was nice chatting with such a nice guy on such a grey day!
He is kinda like me in a sense... stopping occasionally to just look around:)
After this little outing, my cold had my nose running and my bones shivering! It was time to pack it in for the day.
Real quick, would you look at the size of these dog prints in comparison to the fearless Yorkie? They are HUGE!
The next day, I started my afternoon by heading up to Rocky Knob for a few. I was in search of some cool looking lichen! I know that is kinda far to go just for that, but it's one of my favorite places that I haven't been to in a while. While I was walking up to the rocks at the top of Rocky Knob, I spotted some nice moss with these little whatevers growing out of it.
I only got one decent image of the little lichen trees. I don't have a macro lens for this setup, so I resorted to using my DA* 60-250. It has an 'ok' minimum focusing distance for a 250mm.
I have some better images in my archives at home. I will update this page with those images soon.
As the sun started to drop, I headed for Groundhog Mountain. Going by Groundhog Mountain on the Blue Ridge Parkway is my way of taking the scenic route home.. Instead of just jumping on 58 near Meadows of Dan, I go all the way to Fancy Gap and get on 52/i77.
Real quick, Groundhog Mountain is a great place to practice photography subjects like metering, hyperfocal distance, and dealing with composition challenges. If you would like to learn more about these subjects and are ever near Groundhog Mountain, check out my Photography Workshops!
These photos were slightly previsualized... I had the idea of having this tower standing against a sea of moving clouds, but I didn't have it exactly put together until I got there:) I mounted the got my focus and polarizer set, then mounted the 10-stop B+W filter to get some nice motion. By now the sun had dropped a ways and was lighting up the tower with really nice light.
I took one without the ND filter just for good measure... The amount of warming that the 10 stop adds is really noticeable when comparing the two images.
This rail fence is such a nice addition to the scene.
While the tower was still lit up by the setting sun, I moved a bit closer to the tower and took another long exposure.(this one is probably my favorite from the day). This tower was built by men who never really stopped playing with Lincoln Logs.
I took one more photo as the sun went out of site, and then headed home. By now I was freezing from being in the wind for so long! That nasty cold made a wuss out of me!
Below are a few of my favorite Groundhog Mountain images from previous visits. Thanks for looking!
I spent a little time in Grayson Highlands State Park last weekend while my 'ball 'n chain' was out of town. I started out by heading down into the Wilson Creek Trail and then went up to Big Pinnacle for sunset.
Interested in learning photography in awesome places like Grayson Highlands State Park? I offer individual and small group photography workshops! Click here for more information!
Back to the hike...
The trail to Wilson Creek is well shaded, so there was a good amount of snow to walk through. Some small plant caught my eye...
I don't know if those are baby trees or what, but I really enjoy getting down on the ground and looking around at the 'tiny' forests on the ground.
Once I got down to Wilson Creek, I was in an icy wonderland! There were lots of cool ice formations along the creek.
The Pentax 60-250 DA* makes really nice images, I haven't been happier with a lens...
About halfway up the trail, there was a small pool that had not frozen over. This allowed for some really nice reflections of these icicles. These kinds of shots really let you play around with your polarizer and find the exact amount of reflection that you want.
By the time I got to the actual waterfall, one of my tripod legs had come a little loose, causing some serious frustration and me cursing ever buying it! Once I got back to the car and tightened it up it was all good again but those little things can piss a guy off really quick!(I need to just start carrying a hex key with me:)
Here is a photo of some ice formations on the edge of Wilson Creek Falls. After trying the polarizer in a few different positions, I opted to let all the reflections show. Removing the reflections really eliminated the detail in the ice, and allowing them to show made it look just right.
After a nice stroll through the Wilson Creek Trail, I went up to a wind swept Big Pinnacle! The trail up to Big Pinnacle was beyond fun. The snow was actually pretty deep(all things considered).
When I got to the top of Big Pinnacle, I was really pleased to see the snow on the distant hillsides, it really breaks up all the dull grey that winter brings to the southeast.
Turning back towards Wilburn Ridge now, I really liked the detail in the foreground rocks combined with the soft clouds above the snow-covered Wilburn Ridge.
I'm not sure which orientation I like better. I guess a panorama would have been just right... Next time!
The wind up here was cold and strong! When I mounted the telephoto to photograph the distant mountains, I was tucked behind the biggest rock I could find while still having a view. Out in the distance you can see the ski hills in North Carolina.
Taking in one last mountain view before heading down to Massie Gap...
Want to join me next time? I offer individual and small group photography workshops in awesome places like this! Click here for more info!
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Don't wanna waste all your time reading this and head straight to the gallery? Click here for the Morris Island Gallery, and then Click here for all the South Carolina Galleries, or, you can click on any photo to be taken to its place in the gallery.
I was 'this close' to heading to Roan Mountain for a couple days, but the warm-ish weather of the mountains really lead me away. It would have been an awesome winter scene, had it not been in the mid-40s for the highs.
I was in a rush to plan something new, and I decided on spending the night on Morris Island. It's located near the city of Charleston and Folley Island in South Carolina's lowcountry. Morris Island is a pretty cool place, and using local blogs and The Photographers Ephemeris, I attempted to pre-visualize some photos from the island. There is a pretty awesome lighthouse off of the coast a little ways, which is really an awesome addition to any scene!
I was kind of nervous to set out to Morris, mostly because it is somewhat hard to find any up to date info from people's recent visits. It is a popular island for kayakers and boaters, but mostly in the summer. I also felt that even though camping is 'not permitted', the DNR(Department of Natural Resources, or cops) would be scarce. That said, I was really itching to try something new!
Here is how to get there...
First, I am about as lame as possible when it comes to bringing food. I could have brought my camp stove and some really tasty goodies, but in my haste to get ready for the trip, here is what I ate during my stay: Note, mix it up a little with both PB&Jelly AND PB&Honey sandwiches. The honey variety sure makes a great breakfast!
Here is a map of the journey. You follow Folly River out to Morris Island.
It's a bit of a haul... not only to drive there from my house, but then to kayak to Morris. I got to the Folly Beach boat landing right around 3pm, and made it to Morris Island just before sundown. This sorta left me with zero contingency time. Had I needed to head back for any reason, I would have been doing so in the dark, and I heard that after dark all the sharks come out and eat any kayakers on the water so I decided to stay.
I was a little concerned with where to put my tent on this side of Morris Island. The areas above the high tide line sure looked like they had recently been under water, and nothing on the south end of the island has very high elevation. I found a spot right on the corner that looked like it would be fine for the night. I was about to set up my tent when I recalled a challenge from a Clif Bar I ate on the way in:
Here is my bivouac spot! I even made sure to lay out my beach towel! I realized that it was gonna be a little chilly at night.. but what the heck.
Before heading to sleep, I made sure to grab a few photos as the sun went down. These were taken literally just after I pulled the kayak up to the shore, I was really cutting it close!
I really enjoy the earth shadow behind the lighthouse here...
I was really surprised at how well the Pentax K3 + 60-250 DA* tracked birds in fading light, unfortunaly photographing fast moving birds is a place where I really need to improve.
I put the kayak right here to block the wind from getting to me while I was sleeping.
As the sun went down, Orion came out and was in perfect position above Morris Lighthouse. There was still a little bit of glow lighting up the lighthouse, making it stand out just a touch.
As darkness set in, the sky REALLY filled up with stars. The lights from Charleston sure do eliminate some in the northern part of the sky, but fortunately I was looking south, so it didn't interfere too much.
Here is a long bulb exposure taken after all the stars came out. The lighthouse is lit up by the city of Charleston. I didn't photograph it, but you can see the Arther Ravanel Jr. Bridge waaaaay off in the distance from Morris Island.
I went for a little stroll while I was taking the above photo, and I really enjoyed how some of the bright stars reflected off of the wet sand. This type of photography is really pushing the capabilities of my camera/lens combo. A fast lens would be much better suited, but that didn't stop me from trying!
Once the star(planet?) on the left got high enough above the haze, it started to really strongly reflect off of the water. (sorry my logo is in the way)
I had two 'pre-visualized' photos that I wanted to take during my stay here The next photo is one of those two. If you are new to photography, or not-familiar with the term, it is worth looking into. Previsualizing your image before you take it is you imagining the final print. I feel like previsualizing a photo really makes it your own, you made it from start to finish. Sure, it's great to happen to catch something cool, but planning for a photo by knowing when and how the scene will look will almost always look and feel better in the end.
For me, knowing that I would be looking out to sea at a lighthouse with nothing behind it, and that the direction that I was looking would cause straight, diagonal star trails is all part of the previsualization of my photograph. Basically, I knew what this was going to look like before I took it. Now, there are other factors. Had there been too many clouds in the sky, we wouldn't even be talking about this right now... But, another part of the visualization process is planning. I knew that the weather would be favorable, giving me the highest percentage of capturing what I wanted.
I mounted the 60-250, found a spot behind a bush to protect the camera from the wind, and let it shoot. While this photo was being taken, I was laying down in my sleeping bag just looking up at all the stars...
Whether my finished product is awesome or not really doesn't matter. It was pretty much exactly what I had anticipated shooting, with the exception being the way the stars 'fade' as they rise away from the horizon, but I really like it!
Below, you can see Folly Beach. I would imagine that in the summer, the lights would be a lot brighter than they are now. Beach towns can be ghost towns this time of year.
After sleeping for a little while, I woke up at 3am and noticed that the tide had receded waaaaay out. I went on a little seashell hunt! I found many sand dollars(although most got tossed into the ocean since they were alive). I did find lots of the snail shells, even one with a snail still in it! And while I didn't get any photos during this time, I did spot the sunken sail boat on the shore. It really isn't much more than a few pieces anymore, and it isn't a 100 year-old sailing ship, it is much more current, as some of the pieces remaining were plastic.
The next morning, as I opened my eyes and peeked my head out of my sleeping bag, I saw a very nice sunrise starting to take place. I began again with the 60-250. After taking a 30 second test exposure, I stopped the aperture way down, did a little math, and took a two-minute exposure, and here is the result. I really like how the lighthouse silhouette stands out against the soft, colorful sky.
As the sky got brighter, I zoomed out and experimented with some different exposure values and shutter/iso speeds.
I really love the big dark lines in the waves.
But I also love the water when it looks smoother...
By now the pink in the sky was really starting to come out. I found some tall grass to mix up the compositions.
As the sun started to get a little closer to coming up over the horizon, I again mounted the telephoto and just waited for sunrise...
I had to run down the beach a little ways to get into position for the next set of photos, on the way I spotted this, and it was alive!
Below are the second set of 'previsualized' photos that I had planned on taking. I knew that this lighthouse had been turned off long ago, so I wanted to be in position for the sun to rise right behind it, taking the old light's place. I am really happy with the results. Also, I really love the 'lean' that this lighthouse has. Even though my camera has an electronic level, I found myself second guessing it in lightroom, only to find that the photos were straight all along...
After watching that gorgous sunrise, i walked around looking for things to bring back to my wife. Here is some of the bounty. There are a bunch of sand dollars out there!
I really thought about bringing this home to her but thought she might not fully appreciate the gesture...
By now it was time for me to go. I took the below photo of the kayak all loaded up and ready to roll thinking I was going to have fun heading back. The only problem, is that I was about to head in against the tide, meaning I had two hours of paddling up the river! There were times when the current was strong enough to make me feel like I could walk faster than I was paddling, it was rough! That is why I ended up taking a shortcut on the way home! Oh well, I made it. I'll have more South Carolina images to share soon!
Thanks for looking!
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I strapped on my waders and started milling about, feeling my way through the ice. I creeped forward towards the opening in the ice, making sure not to fall off the shelf that I knew was there! I got as close as I could while staying in my comfort zone(I really didn't want to fall in).
This photo is a composite of multiple shots to capture moving ice on the lower left.
I really like this icicle shooting out diagonally.
Then, climbing around on the ice and rocks of the falls, I got as close to these foreground icicles as I could(again, really didn't want to slide off into the water!) The longer I stayed there the more the fog appeared, which add a really nice element to the top of the photo.
By now the rain was coming down at a pretty good pace. This was the first time I had really soaked the new Pentax, and fortunately it survived just fine. Before leaving, I crawled up to the top of the falls to grab one shot of the classic Dismal Falls composition. I just love how this part of the fall sort of 'reaches' out to the viewer.
Thanks for looking!
]]>My buddy Dave Kingma(link goes to his Cascade blog post) and I set out on a little adventure this morning. We arrived at the parking lot for the Cascades just after 4 a.m. We planned for this time because the moon would still be high in the sky, and not too close to full to wash out the stars. We felt lucky when we got there because the moon was in the PERFECT spot! It was shining brightly at our backs the whole morning.
Click any photo to be taken to the Cascades Gallery. Thank you for looking.
I started out with the DA* 60-250 shooting some tight compositions. I had Dave shine his light to help me focus.
Before mounting the wide angle lens, I shot a bulb exposure of the top of the cascades and included some lurching stars.(I would not have been able to 'freeze' the stars with the camera/lens combo)
Now mounting the wide angle DA 12-24, I started with a long bulb exposure to get some travel in the stars. I then took a second exposure and lightpainted the foreground.
I used the same process again, only this time freezing the stars as pin points.
After freezing up there for a little while, I shot another of the platform. Here you can see the sky really starting to get bright.
One last photo before packing it out.. my oh my was a hot Hardee's breakfast welcome after this!
Thanks for looking! Click any photo to be taken to the gallery, from there you can see photos from my many other visits to the Virginia Cascades.
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A big moon lit up my scene, but wasn't big enough to drown out all the stars. I wasn't here long, but I tried to get a little creative with making ghostly figures in front of the orphanage.
For the above two photos, I would stand or sit in position for about half of the 15 second exposure. Making sure I was in the moonlight with a darker area behind me helps my transparent figure 'pop' a bit, but not too much.
For the below photo, I stood in place for one exposure and let my shadow be captured on the wall on the left(a light from nearby in Foster Falls light me up). I then took a separate exposure without me in it, and simply blended the shadow from the previous image into the 2nd exposure.
I'm not really the creative type and honestly can't say what I'd ever do with these images from a marketing standpoint but sometimes it's fun just to screw around!
Thanks for looking.
]]>To purchase any image, simply click on any image to be taken to the gallery. To license and image, Click here to Contact Me
I first went down to the Methodist Church. Pretty much every church in Abingdon is pretty, and this was no exception.
The sky was lacking color while I was at this church, so I opted to process these to Black and White using Nik Silver Efex Pro 2.
I then headed down to the REALLY cool looking Presbyterian Church. I was going to process it into black and white as well, but the beautiful red doors kept me working with a color image. Just before I was about to pack it in I saw the moon peak out of the clouds, so I waited a few minutes to get a shot with the moon included.
On my way back to the Martha I shot a couple photos of the Christmas decorations and a cool old car.
The first photo of the Barter Theater is a single exposure taken just as the blue hour started...
This second photo is a composite of multiple images. I used a 'lighten only' and some layer masking to bunch all the photos together in photoshop.
I gotta say 'A Modern Christmas Carol' was absolutely fantastic! I simply cannot express that enough! I have not yet been to a show there that has underwhelmed me.
The next morning, while my wife was enjoying sleeping in, I hit the pavement and grabbed a few more shots before heading home. The first two are probably just for reference only, but the Christmas Decorations at the Martha Washington were top notch! These were taken really early in the A.M. before the place got busy with guests.
I then walked down to the fountain near the Barter Stage II.
Can you tell that I really love this light across from the Barter? I took one more with a slightly different comp before shooting a few with the telephoto.
Now mounting the DA* 60-250 f4, I made my way around shooting different compositions of this awesome theatre.
If you get a chance to go to Abingdon, do it! And stay at the Martha Washington Hotel and see a show at the Barter! I can't wait to return in the spring when the blooms are out!
]]>I recently picked up a Pentax k3 and a Pentax DA* 60-250 f4. I have REALLY loved this combo so far! I love the range of this lens, along with the constant aperture. It is plenty sharp and really high in contrast. And I really like the big sunstars... I would have killed for some snow or frost this morning, but grey trees is all I had to work with for a foreground.
The thing I am getting used to on my new Pentax k3 is how I meter the scene. With my Canon 5dii, I would meter to basically blow out the highlights because the shadow recovery was pretty terrible(but it was really good at highlight detail). With the Pentax, the camera clips the highlights much sooner but has far better shadow detail. The photo above was basically black on the bottom when shot.
Because of some family obligations, I went to Fox Hunters Paradise on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It's fairly close to my house and offers a really nice view of where the Peidmont meets the Blue Ridge Mountains, plus a nice view of Pilot mountain(the nipple shaped hill out there).
At first I wasn't sure how nice the sunrise was gonna be, there were some really thick clouds on the horizon preventing any light from coming through. (I think the redish light in the below photo is light pollution) Taken with the Pentax DA 12-24.
After sitting at the overlook for a few minutes, I headed just a little further south to a big open spot on the parkway. I wanted just a bit of a different angle on Pilot Mountain. Before mounting the 60-250, I took one more with the 12-24. This lens has been very good, just not as good as I would like. I am going to continue trying to make the most of it, but will be looking for alternatives.
A little bit of color started to shine in the higher elevation clouds, and a break in the lower clouds let us see through.
At this point, I was kinda running up against the clock. I really wanted to wait for the sun to rise up above the clouds, but really had to hit the road for a family get-together. As I was leaving I decided to stop by Fox Hunter's Paradise one more time... And I gotta say I got lucky!
Man I just love crepuscular rays, golden clouds, and sunstars! The scene literally went from a dreary grey-blue to bright and gold in the time it took me to drive a half mile.
After having some dinner with the family(basically eating and then me dominating my nephews in NCAA 2015), my wife was ready for a nap and I was ready to be outside again!
I headed for the High Meadows Trail near the Blue Ridge Music Center on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I had just learned about this trail while I was cruising Google Maps the other day. I was looking at the 'green' spots near the Blue Ridge Music Center and noticed the Fisher Peak Road. After a quick Google search I ended up reading about the Fishers Peak Trail that is accessed by the Blue Ridge Music Center. I grabbed the Fearless Yorkie and hit the road!
Even with no leaves I always find the Parkway Beautiful. I really liked the light coming in from the side in the above photo.
A little further down the road I spotted some nice lichen covered fence posts.
Once I got to the Music Center, all I really remember seeing was tons of red berries! With a little more patience, I may be able to catch some birds in these bushes... but with a dog and tow and only a 250mm lens... I was just snapping photos of berries.
The trail takes you by these big open meadows.
With the sun getting lower on the horizon, my attention switched to all the tall grass shooting up out of the shadows.
Hope your Christmas was a fun as mine!
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I figured a few factors would be working in my favor to photograph the falls. The first, was that we have had a bit of a drizzle lately, which means the falls would be flowing more than the winter normal(read normal as 'very little'). The second would be the temperature. While most Virginia residents see mid-30's temps as cold, I see them as not cold enough to freeze waterfalls! Now, I love a frozen waterfall as much as the next guy, but I really was just wanting to photograph water splashing down the rock ledges at the falls. And I got exactly what I wanted... no ice, and not too much or too little flow.
The gear I used today is as follows...
Giottos MH1000-652 Large Ball Head
The Pentax and lens are a bit new to me, and so far I have loved using both, but the jury is still out! I really love wide angle photography, and unfortunately there just isn't a super wide lens that is as good as the lenses from other camera companies. But Pentax apparently has a new one on the roadmap, so I am interested to see what they produce. That said, I have REALLY enjoyed the DA* 60-250. The range on this lens is awesome, and it is very sharp and contrasty. I used it exclusively for this set of images.
I digress...
Dismal Falls is located near Highway 42 in between Highway 100 and Bland Virginia. Turn on Wilderness Rd, then Dismal Creek Rd, and you can't miss it. Oh and btw, the Wilderness Rd is also highway 606 if this helps.
This is a REALLY AWESOME fall for this type of photography. There are lots of different compositions available, and quite a few different places to set your camera. If you have waders, or are willing to get wet, you open up a whole different set of available compositions. If you have room in your car, it is a good idea to always have a set of waders with you! That way, when situations like this arise, you can go wherever you need. If the weather is warm, just bring sandals and walk on through!
My eyes were drawn to the little 'stairstep' many times during the shoot. I took a series of images to get it just right for my taste. I really wanted to get one where the stairs were void of water, I felt that this would draw more attention to them.
On the right side of the falls, there is a big wall where the water runs down over the rocks. It catches on these ledges and 'bounces' down. With the crop sensor and telephoto lens, I was able to get a really tight composition of a couple ledges.
One of the best parts of digital photography is getting instant results, and being able to compare images in the field. Below, you can see where I made a minor exposure time adjustment and changed the image completely. First, with a bit of a long exposure...
Now, shortening the exposure to about 1/4 of a second, much more detail was captured in the water. After some consideration, I chose the bottom one as my favorite of the two. I just love how much more 'action' is caught in the water.
You can really spend a lot of time shooting these falls. As the sky got a little darker, I headed for home. I shot one more photo through an opening in some trees. I like how the evergreens contrast against all the leafless trees, with fog coming in from the top.
Have a Merry Christmas!
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Twice during the last week, I've made the short drive to Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina. I chose this area because where it is located in the piedmont, the fall color tends to peak a little later than the higher elevations where I live. Big rock outcroppings like this area really cool cool mostly because of their location. Since it is in the piedmont(the big flat-ish area in-between the Blue Ridge Mountains and the Coast), the high rock outcroppings allow you to see almost forever. Being from eastern Montana, I particularly enjoy anytime I can see forever:)
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The first of my two trips down here happened on a Wednesday night. As I was driving on Highway 268, I spotted this little area that looked like there might be some history to it. There is a picnic table nearby, so it's not a super-secret find, just a cool place to look at. The steep bank on one side of the stream combined with the thorns covering the bank kept me up high looking down. Plus, I really just wanted to get up to Hanging Rock for sunset.
After shooting this photo I hauled off for hanging rock. Time wasn't my friend on either one of my trips, since the sun sets so much earlier than in the summer.
Luckily, I made it up in time. There was a small group of kids up on the rock when I got there. Sometimes loud kids can be really annoying, but I think that turning nature-loving kids into nature-loving adults is well worth having them around. They left just after I got there, which was about 40 minutes before sunset. After that I had the whole place to myself.
Unfortunately, the clouds didn't cooperate as much as one would hope, but looking down on a sea of color is always nice. Below, you can really see where the mountains end and the piedmont begins.
While the sky didn't really give me an awesome show, there were some very nice clouds just before sunset. I enjoy how the lines in the clouds offset the lines in the rocks.
As the sun went down, just a touch of color came out.
It can feel like an eternity moving from one side of the rocks to the other. You can't just jump over! You have to walk back around a big crevasse. It doesn't take long to get across, but with changing light it always seems like it takes too long! The trees from the above and below photos are the same trees, but I had to walk/crawl like 50 yards just to get into position for the below photo.
The sunset was a little bit of a letdown, especially since I had to drive an hour and hike up the steep hill. But it was mostly a let down because the sun was JUST out of position to the right of 'dip' in between the two mountains in the above photo. I knew that as the year progresses, the sun sets farther and farther south, or left, so I knew that coming back a week later it would be just right.
But first...
My second trip to Hanging Rock started with a little hike down to lower cascades. Like a few other places in the park, it has it's own parking area outside of the main parking lots.
I was really happy to see some fall color here even though it was apparent I had missed the peak for this area. Here, you can see some greens coming through the fallen leaves.
Below, a fallen leaf lands on a mossy stump.
The two above photos were trail side photos taken not far from the car. Moving down to the falls now...
I had to wet the big foreground rock by splashing water on it. It was somewhat distracting when it was bright and dry.
In the below photo, I was actually about 10ft away from the camera when the shutter fired. Turning the camera to portrait orientation only made visible a small portion of the rhododendrons(see above on right), so I set the 10 second timer and went and held them back.
After a little bit of scrambling around, I found myself at the top of the falls looking down.
After getting down to the base of the falls, I really wanted to include the big swirl of leaves. The only problem is that I had to be a good 10 feet out into the water to get a good composition of it. And the only problem with THAT is that the WATER IS ICE COLD! Now, this problem could be easily remedied by my not being lazy and bringing my hip waders down with me. The only problem with this problem's remedy is that I am really lazy, and I only brought sandals. Oh well, into the cold water I go...
The longest exposure I could get was about 5 seconds with keeping pretty much everything withing the edges of the histogram.
Mounting my 10 Stop BW filter, I was able to shoot exposures as long as my heart desired. The below photo is 7 minutes.
Sitting patiently on the rocks waiting for the camera to finish the long exposures...
Below is a sequence of about 25ish 4 second exposures blended together using 'lighten' masks. It's definitely not was I was aiming to do but I think it looks neat.
When I got my feet warmed back up, I hiked up to the Moore's Knob Lookout Tower. I was running against the clock(as always) so it was a very exhaustive hike up the mountain. The views from the top are very much worth it! There is a 4 mile loop trail that this tower is on, but I took the short and steep route both ways to save time.
It's really windy at the top! I had to set up my tripod on the stairs just before reaching the top because the wind was blocked by the tower. Here is a cellphone photo of the tower on my way up...
From the top of the tower, you get a really good view of Hanging Rock State Park. On the upper left of the below photo, you can see the Hanging Rock outcroppings, just to the right and below that, the building you see is the visitor center, and to the right of that is the lake and beach.
Here is a tighter photo of Hanging Rock. On my computer I can zoom way in and see people on top.
On the trail up, I had passed a couple folks(they were enjoying themselves and I was in a rush), and after a few minutes they came to the rocks near the tower.
The sky wasn't showing anything special, but here is a shot from the rocks just past where the people are standing in the above photo. There are many large rocks that look like just a small push will send them falling.
At this point, it was just past 4 o'clock. I really wasn't sure if I could make it down to the lake, drive to the visitor center, and haul up to the top of Hanging Rock in time for sunset. I told myself that if I could get back to the car by 4:30, I would make for Hanging Rock. So I literally RAN down to the lake! I made it to the car at 4:28!
By the time I got to the base of the main rocks(just before the steep hike) I was basically breathing as hard as I could. I wouldn't say I'm out of shape, but I have a hard time pacing myself. And since at that time the sun was dropping out from below the clouds, slowing down was not an option!
I got there just in time for a pretty nice sunset. To give a little reference to where I was just an hour or so earlier, the tower I was standing on is located directly on top of the mountain/ridge just to the right of the sun. The wide angle makes it look really far away, but in reality it seems much closer.
Notice how the sun settled nicely into the 'dip'.
As I was crawling around on the rocks, I noticed a small gap in the rocks. And since I am a human, I pretty much try to recognize a face in everything. So I see a strange evil warlock-whale looking to consume the mountain where the Moore's Knob tower is.
That's all I have for this go round down in Hanging Rock State Park in North Carolina for the fall season of 2014. Below, you can see some of my favorites from my previous trips into Hanging Rock State park during a little warmer time of the year...
First is a photo from Hidden Falls. It is a very short hike down to Hidden Falls, and a very pretty, small waterfall just off the main trail.
In the same general vicinity(within a mile) is the Upper Cascades. There are a couple cool falls in this area. This is the lower section of the Upper Cascades.
I was crawling around Upper Cascades when I almost put my hand down on this...
I loved sitting at a distance and watching this bird feed the chicks. She would fly up into the trees every few minutes and be back with food, causing all the chicks to go crazy(I tend to have that same effect:)
I came back a week after the above photo was taken to see the progress, and they got HUGE!
... and my wife think MY table manners are bad! It was cool to see the birds had grown large enough consume whole bugs!
The adult bird would perch on a nearby branch and scope me out before heading to the nest.
The first time I watched the sunset up on Hanging Rock, my battle with time was exactly the opposite as my other experiences. This time, I was up on the top almost 2hrs before sunset, which I handled by leaning my head back, closing my eyes and just listening to the breeze.
Thanks for looking!
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That said, the Absaroka Range flanking one half of Paradise Valley near Pray Montana is pretty awesome and definitely fits the description of 'Paradise".
First.. Getting there...
After my voyage into the Crazy Mountains, I met up with my wife and mother at Chico Hot Springs in Pray Montana. On the way, I made a few stops along the Yellowstone River near Columbus MT.
I sort of lucked out that the trains were busy running down the river during the time I had to spend there. Below you can see a BNSF train that came from Columbus. I really love how the late afternoon sun really lights up the trees in fall.
Here is a wider shot of another train that had just left Columbus.
After the train had run, you can see empty tracks along with some nice fall color in the later afternoon sun.
I am not sure if the bridge below was an old railroad track or not. I was standing on the current and active railroad track when I took the photo.
Here you can see some cattle just as they should be... eating GRASS!
After the sun went down I headed for Chico Hot Springs to meet my wife and mother. It was nice to take a dip in the hot water, and the next morning, I left for photos just after 4 a.m. The moon was big and bright and in the right spot to light up the scenes in front of me.
Here is a photo looking down Meadow Road. I believe it leads to cabins that you can rent that are part of Chico Hot Springs. I remember staying in a cabin here during my 8th grade class trip with Trinity Lutheran School but can't remember where it was.
Also from Meadow Road, you can see Emigrant Peak in the distance, and those lights you see are from Chico Hot Springs. If you look at the bottom right, the dark figures are some mule deer grazing in the field.
After heading down the road a bit, I found a National Forest Access Road with a nice big cottonwood tree that was well lit up by the moon.
A little further down the road, and pointed in the same direction, the moon started to fall into the clouds which caused the light to sort of 'dance' on the landscape. I waited for the light to hit the yellow in the valley.
Seeing that it was about 5 a.m., I headed for Livingston in search of a cup of coffee. I returned to a pretty nice sunrise if I do say so myself... I just love the contrasting colors in this scene. The yellow in the foreground really helps separate the trees from the mountains.
Heading down the road a bit, I found a spot to shoot the setting moon and some nice clouds over the Gallatin Range and some agricultural fields.
As the sun got higher I started to move back towards a bridge that I spotted on the way in, stopping to shoot every now and then...
I got to the bridge WELL BEFORE the sun was going to peak out over the mountains. Once it did, I was all good! But while I waited I couldn't help but feel 'in the way' because morning traffic was just getting going so it felt a little crowded.
From the bridge I was able to take this photo, you can see a nice crepuscular ray shining down on the yellow trees. The towering Absaroka mountain range makes a nice backdrop for the fishermen on the bank of the Yellowstone River.
After this I was headed back to Chico to pick up my wife and head north to see my brother in Great Falls. We stopped a couple times on the way and took a gander at some fall color. We spotted a fisherman in the Yellowstone so we stopped to take a photo of him, I had to mount my telephoto lens so Ashley beat me up there...
A little later we stopped near an old bridge that crosses the Yellowstone.
Looking the other direction from the bridge above, I shot this panorama of the Yellowstone River with the Crazy Mountains in the Background.
After a little driving without seeing ANY OTHER CARS(it happens more than you'd think) we came out into the Smith River Valley south of Great Falls, the color here was nice as well.
We made a quick stop at the Sluice Boxes before heading into Great Falls to see family. My brother Matthew joined me on a little hike out to the Sluice Boxes very early the next morning so I'll include those here as well.
I'll have more to share soon from some other places I went. So stay tuned!
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The sunset after that was a good one, but first... getting there. I met up with my friends Enrique and Mike at Mike's house. He has been posting these really cute photos of his new St. Bernard named Boston on facebook a lot. I mean, just look at these photos...
We weren't underway on the trail for very long when Enrique got hot and needed to change. Apparently we thought the mountains of Montana were gonna be cold, and boy how warm it was!
This trail has an old railroad type bridge very close to the start, while I didn't get anything good here in terms of photos, it looks like Mike was having fun.
About a mile in, Mike started to complain about his back. I brushed it off as him just wanting to complain. I mean, here is a guy who has completed Ironman competitions and he can't hike 4 miles? Here he is on the final bridge crossing just below where the switchbacks start(about 3 miles in).
Just after the bridge is when things started to go really sour for Mike and his back. He would periodically lay down on a flat rock and try to stretch out his back for some temporary relief. Well, by the last time he laid down, we were running up fast on 5pm, which means we wouldn't have much time at the lake before sunset. Either way I knew I was gonna be hiking back in the dark, so I really wasn't concerned about that. I just really wanted a sunset on the lake. As you can tell by the photo below, Mike was pretty apathetic about finishing the hike. He didn't make it much farther than this...
At this point, Enrique and I wished Mike some generally sappy goodbyes and said "wish you were coming" even though we were getting a little annoyed with him complaining about his back the whole time. He said he would meet back up with us at the campsite, and that is the last we ever saw of him.
I grabbed a shot of the falls as well, but with the moon being on the opposite side, and me having a weak flashlight, I didn't get exactly what I was looking for. I am more or less just posting this to prove I was there:)
Yes, that is a gallon of water, a huge deep cycle battery, and a sleep apnea machine hooked up to it. Apparently Enrique was born with small nasal passages or something. And apparently he has a super hero mask he wears at night, but I didn't actually see him wear it. I made sure I was in bed and asleep first so the other guys could put out the fire.
Then we were off to get some breakfast! But first, we stopped a few times on the road and shot the fall color that was pretty much peaking when we were there. I first wanted to post this beautiful photo that Enrique took with his iphone of this nice jack fence and fall color.
One of my favorites is this photo of Wormser Loop Road(Big Timber Canyon Road?). I got out to shoot when a car came over the hill.
I'll finish with a few photos of mine from natural Bridge Falls, first a photo from the very top looking over the edge below...
Here is the finished result.. Calling the light here 'harsh' would be an understatement, but luckily my 5dii's sensor, while old, still has the range to capture the whole scene.
A really cool wall of fog was headed my way as the sun went down. It was slowly stretching across the landscape. In this video(after my exposure adjustment and loud noise of my moving around) you can see the fog creeping across the hills.
Here is a still of that same scene.
Looking south, you can see the ominous fog in between the trees and colorful sky.
To the north, a large cloud was lit up by the setting sun.
Just after I took the photo below, the wave of fog completely surrounded me and dropped my visibility to nearly nothing. Normally, on the hike down, there is plenty of ambient light to see the trail. I am really glad I had my flashlight because it got DARK fast.
Thanks for looking, below are some of my other favorites from Buffalo Mountain(taken on different trips)
Have a great week or whatever is coming when you read this.
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One of the most exciting times of year is upon us here in the southeast. The colors that get displayed here are some of the most intense in the nation! Mountain after mountain turns vibrant red, yellow, orange and maroon! The hiking trails and scenic drives become full of equally interested leaf-peepers from all over the nation! Exciting is basically the best word to describe it!
I have compiled a list of my favorite fall images taken since I have moved to the south east. I have only been able to experience a few fall seasons here, but I have tried to make the most of every one of them!
To purchase any of the following photographs, you can simply click on them to be taken to the gallery. From there, you can pick sizes and framing options. All purchased images will not have any logos on them, but can be signed if requested.
I'll start with my favorite place in Virginia, Grayson Highlands State Park!
This first image was taken up on Big Pinnacle. I got to the Massie Gap parking with very little time to spare! I raced up the side of the mountain as quickly as I could(the steep hike will run you out of breath FAST). Once I got into position it was just a matter of hoping and praying that the sun would be able to break through the clouds and give me some nice light. Boy did it ever!
I loved the fall color on Big Pinnacle so much that I returned the following morning to see what the morning sun would do for me:
My next image is from another state park not far from Grayson Highlands, it's called Hungry Mother State Park. In the mornings(when I shot the below photo) the lake is calm and highly reflective. This was taken just as the fall color started last year.
Heading up north, to some iconic places in West Virginia now... The first image from this very mountainous state is from Babcock State Park. There is an awesomely photogenic grist mill there. This is one of the first times I have had to photograph a scene with many other people. I normally find myself out in the wilderness all by myself, but this was way different! I did have some nice conversation with a few people to pass the time, so that was nice.
Heading further up the state, into Blackwater Falls State Park, I went to Elakala Falls... This waterfall is known for its 'swirls'
After shooting Elakala Falls, I went to another popular place called Lindy Point. It is located in the same state park. A lot of people were at this location also, which is why I think this photo from the trail to the overlook is my favorite:
The sun didn't give me a whole lot to work with when I actually got to the overlook, so this post-sunset scene with a nice patch of color was the one I liked the most:
My next set of images comes from a really awesome national park, Shenandoah!
Creeks and streams can really slow to a trickle in the fall. The slower/lack of motion on the water allows for some nice reflections. Here is a puddle on the Jones Run Trail.
Even the waterfalls shrink in size after a lack of rain, fortunately the hemlocks and fall color really bring this image to life(taken in White Oak Canyon)
While this list is mostly focused on the southeast, I feel it wouldn't be complete without a few shots from 'the homeland'
This shot, of Pompeys Pillar just east of Billings Montana, was taken just before the fall color really got going. But since the Southeast Montana Department of Tourism used this image for their travel guide, I am pretty proud of it.
A little further up the Yellowstone River, just south of Billings Montana, is Lake Josephine. The lake is located in Riverfront Park. During calm mornings such as this one, the water looks like glass.
This photo, also taken near the Yellowstone River, is one of the final sunsets of an awesome Montana indian summer(a summer that lasts a long time)
The last photo is from the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. It really isn't a personal favorite of mine, but it sold really well at a festival I did last year, so that has to stand for something(sometimes other people's eyes are better judges than mine:)
From what it sounds like, this year is gonna be a great one for fall color. Hopefully, I'll have more to share soon!
When I first moved to Virginia from Montana, I would come to the Grayson Highlands State Park and Mount Rogers Recreation area just to find a little bit of breathing room. It's not like Montana is short on trees, but the dense forests of Virginia felt almost suffocating at first. It almost felt like a challenge to find an overlook that I found acceptable for a sunrise or sunset.
While I have since started to 'see the forest for the trees', I still need to get up to the big open spaces of the Grayson Highlands. This was especially true after the last few weeks. All of my free days the last two weeks have been consumed by my beautiful wife telling me to take off the shingles of our roof, and install a new metal roof! I can honestly say that this project had me way over my head regarding my DIY skills. One of the frustrating things was having to watch so many beautiful sunsets from the top of my roof!
Monday night, I had just enough time to escape to Grayson Highlands State park and stay the night up on Wilburn Ridge. I didn't plan on it being so chilly! This was evident by my forgetting to bring a hat or gloves! This was more of a 'cram the tent into the camera bag and bungee cord the sleeping bag on' kind of outing.
Just as you enter Mount Rogers Recreation area(after crossing the gate out of Grayson Highlands State Park), there is a nice little area of hemlocks shooting up into the sky.
As I was enjoying these wonderful sunlit hemlocks, a couple nice folks were cruising on up the Appalachian Trail.
By this time, I had already set up my tent near the hemlocks since that is where I was going to be shooting later on that night. I then headed on up to the first peak of Wilburn Ridge.
The sunset was nothing short of overdue and spectacular. Once I got up to the rock outcroppings, I had a nice view of the color on Big Pinnacle. You can see the color really starting to come out.
As the clouds moved, the light on the Pinnacle would change...
As the sun went down, the color really started to come out. Boy was I happy with this one!
As the sun dropped down below the clouds, it lit up the rocks with nice warm light for a few minutes.
Then the sky really came alive with color. The trail marker in the below photo is the Wilburn Ridge Spur Trail marker. It is an option for A.T. hikers to really get a nice view.
Sure is nothing quite like standing in a meadow under a big pink sky...
After watching the last of the sunset, I headed back to the tent and waited for the sky to get dark enough to shoot the stars. I spent a little time lightpainting them. The thing about light painting with the stars, is that you are working with multiple frames. So during the culling of images when I got home, I had a lot to work with, both light painted and strictly silhouette.
After shooting the hemlocks it was time for bed. I must say, I was not quite ready for how chilly it was going to be. Rolling up my tent the next morning was a cold, dew filled experience. Next time I will prepare properly!
The next morning, Orion had moved into perfect position with one of the hemlocks. The morning twilight lights up the hemlock just enough to make out some nice detail.
While every sunrise is beautiful, this one simply wasn't as awesome as last night's sunset. This and the fact that my roof needed a few finishing touches, I made my way out. Looking back on Wilburn Ridge, you can see it and the hemlocks lit up by the morning sun.
These last two are shot from the Rhododendron Trail. The color is really starting to come out in spots! Hopefully we have an awesome fall on our hands!
Thanks for looking
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If you read any reivews of the hikes in Cumberland Gap, you see the word 'strenuous' a lot. This is by far the most accurate description. The Ewing Trail, which is the one I used to get to the Sand Cave, seemed to endlessly climb.
Click here for a detail of my hike.
Staring at the Ewing Trailhead, you take the trail up until you reach the Sand Cave. It's roughly 4 miles in, and it is HUGE! After a long initial hike, walking up to the back of the sand cave through all the soft sand was exhausting.
The cave is nearly an acre in size. When I was planning the hike, I was worried that I would get to the cave and there would be a million people there, only because there were so many footprints in all the photos I saw. In the end, it turned out that I didn't see anyone on any part of the trail. There really isn't any weather in the cave, so the footprints could be 100 years old, and they'd still be there. It makes me wonder what it was like to be the first person to stumble upon this huge cave before anyone set foot in it.
There are lots of awesome patterns and textures on the ceiling of the cave.
The layers of time are really evident here in the cave. There are pebbles that are on the ceiling of the cave that you can see have fallen down into the sand at some point or another. The drops of water that fall afterward make the pebbles sit on little spires of sand.
There is a nice little trickle of a waterfall at the cave's entrance. After I got done in the cave, I cooled off a little by standing under the water. I also filled my water bottle here and didn't get sick so that's good.
After this I was off to White Rocks. You take the ridge trail to get up there, so it's pretty easy going until you make the scramble up to the top of the rocks.
I startled some huge vultures when I got there, which in turn startled me! It's peaceful to see them flying around at eye level.
In the photo above, you can see a puddle to the right. This puddle has a BUNCH of tadpoles in it. Now, I'm no professional amphibian, but I have to say that a puddle in a rock outcropping is a high-risk place to lay eggs. But it seems that the puddle holds enough water to not go dry in between rainfalls.
After eating a sandwich and enjoying the sunshine for a while, my tired feet and I made our way down the mountain to the car. I then drove to the Pinnacle Overlook near the Cumberland Gap Visitor Center. En route, I shot a few photos of White Rocks from the Wilderness Road.
When I got the Pinnacle Overlook, I was blessed with a really nice sunset and some nice conversation with some redneck high schoolers from Kentucky(but let's be honest, everyone from Kentucky is a redneck). After the sunset, we were all walking back to the car when me and one of the kids both walked on either side of a copperhead snake! The head of the snake was probably 6 inches from my ankle, and the craziest part is the fact that the kid I was walking with stepped on the snake's tail! I feel like I cheated an almost certain death!
Then, after a little driving and a night in the car, I shot some nice foggy scenes just north of Abingdon.
I leave you with the below image, which I took while I was metering for a photo. The camera moved a bit when I snapped the photo and made what I think is a nice abstract image(not my specialty for sure). Either way, thanks for looking:)
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Living near Galax, I have to say I am blessed with my proximity to different features in the southeast. I don't live far from the towering views of Grayson Highlands or the Blue Ridge Parkway. I live very close to the New river and many streams that feed into it. And in just a couple hours, I can be at the trail head for places like this!
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En route to this trail, I got to see some nice views of the Blue Ridge Mountains just north of Abingdon.
The trail head is just off of High Knob Road in between Gate City and Norton Virginia. There is no service in this area, so I recommend caching this area in your map application should you need it. See the map below or click here:
To get a little more detail on the trail itself, click here for Trails.com's guide. The seven mile loop meandering through the forest is for sure the way to go! You will really get away from all the people and just be one with nature for a while.
The first thing you'll notice when hiking the loop is that the trail can be rough going sometimes. There will be downed trees and branches causing you to do a little crawling around. Also, since I was most likely the first person on the loop today, there were MANY spiderwebs that landed strait onto my face. I used my tripod to block them as much as I could but it didn't help out too much.
After walking a little while the forest opens up just a bit allowing for a little more visibility.
Below you can see a stump as the growing ground for many plants.
And of course some nice Fungi...
While your first creek crossing is right at the start, many of them are very small. All of the large ones aren't until the last few miles(after the bathtub).
Once you get within about a mile or so from the Bathtub, you'll notice a small swimming hole on your left with a decent sized cascade tumbling into it. It is STEEP and SLICK getting down here, which is why it is really handy that people have had the brains to tie a rope at the top to help people get down.
The photogenic-ness of this little cascade is hampered by the fallen trees. Maybe if I am feeling ambitious when I return in the fall I will bring a hacksaw.
I made the assumption that the trail I left to get down to this little cascade would meet up with the creek at some point downstream. Fortunately I turned out to be right and didn't have to backtrack up the creek. So I bailed on the trail and started walking down the creek.
While I was shooting the area below, I started to feel something on my ankle, when I looked down I saw an ENORMOUS crawdad! Now, I realize that it was most likely really little, but looking into water magnifies so it looked HUGE! After jumping up in fright, I tried to find it to take a photo but I was hidden somewhere waiting for its next victim.
Moving further down the creek now..
Some really nice cascading water here...
A short video of this cascade.
Then, before I knew it, I went from casually walking down the stream to being waste deep and on my tiptoes to keep my bag above the water!
If you see this huge rock wall, you have made it to the bathtub(it's just around the corner)
And now for the good stuff! The Devils Bathtub is a photographers dream. Rushing water, a big colorful pool, leading lines EVERYWHERE, and remember that big rock wall? It makes a really nice backstop for your scene here.
Trying some different compositions here in changing light...
A short video from above Devils Bathtub.
Below is a shot taking in the whole scene. The cascades on the top lead into the Devils Bathtub, and then meanders down towards the bottom of the image. This really is a nice place to photograph. SO many lines and features!
Now looking away from the Devils Bathtub downstream towards the large swimming hole. Setting up for this photo I took one step forward, my foot slipped, and I was almost taken away by the rushing water! I was lucky I had my tripod set up and in a sturdy enough spot to hold my weight!
The chute of water in the above photo leads into the large swimming hole in the below photo.
On the rocks I spotted this little guy crawling around...
Before I left I just felt the urge!(and wanted a photo with a person in a swimming hole) I used the Magic Lantern to shoot these.
It was nice to finally wash all those spider webs off of me! But the water was way too cold to stick around too long. I bet on a hot summer day this place gets plenty of traffic. Cool river water during summer heat is one of the best feelings a guy can experience. Today was warm, but not really 'swimmin' hole' hot.
After this, I was done. Two more miles to the car with a bunch of creek crossings. If you don't want to get wet, this ain't the hike for you! If you aren't really up for seven miles, you can just take a left at the fork in the trail at the start and go straight to the Devil's Bathtub, that would be about a four mile total hike. You can't go wrong either way.
Heading home through scenic southwest Virginia, back to the real world I went..
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If it has rained at all the previous days before you go, watch your step starting out. There are a few hundred yards of mud and rock that can be slick!
To get there... Find Pearisburg. Then, off of Main Street, turn on Johnston Avenue, the fork off to the right onto Morris Ave, which becomes Cross Avenue. Then, find the Appalachian Trail. There is a pullout on the left just past the trail.
The hike is just over 2 miles up(a little further if you include the Wilburn Valley Overlook).
Click Here to see the detailed map of my hike.
This trail is entirely on the Appalachian Trail, meaning it is well marked(white blazes) and maintained with proper signage. Below you can see one of the many switchbacks through the forest. Here you can also notice the steepness of the hill.
Once at the top, you have the option of going straight to Angels Rest with views of Pearisburg(pictured below) or shooting off to the left and view Wilburn Valley(first photo at top of page). My advice? Just do both, you came all this way, it's only another half-mile to the second overlook.
First a wide-shot of the valley, just look at those big puffy clouds!
Now zooming in towards Pearisburg...
On the left of the above images, you can see the New River meandering through the Blue Ridge Mountains. Below is a telephoto image of the New River.
Then from the Wilburn overlook, you have nice views of farmland and pastures.
After getting done with the hike, I made my way into downtown Pearisburg to take a few photos of their beautiful courthouse.
Before heading back home I walked around downtown a bit and took a few shots. In the below photo, you can see the where I was just earlier on the mountain in the background.
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This was a long one! I don't normally take breaks so long, but I am really glad we spent all the time we did. My wife and I joined some great friends on a journey south. As a matter of fact, it's as for into the southeast as I have ever been!
Sorry for some of the mobile photos. I only got the big camera out a handful of times. Part of this was because I didn't want to carry it, and part of it is because sometimes I just want to look at stuff and be with friends. Most of the photos I took were quickly edited using Google Photos app. (I was the passenger for this trip so I had time)
Our very first stop was the Boone Hall Plantation in Mt. Pleasant, near Charleston South Carolina. The grounds are beautiful. A long dirt road of live oaks covered in spanish moss greets you(after paying $20 a person). The tour of the home was very nearly my favorite part, mostly because it was air conditioned! The Gullah Geechee performance on Slave Street after that was absolutely incredible. Here are a few shots of the grounds of Boone Hall Plantation. All taken with a Galaxy s4.
First photo is of some small plants growing in the bricks of the buildings on Slave Street. Slave Street in the Boone Hall Plantation is where all the skilled slaves lived(blacksmiths etc) while all the non-skilled slaves like field workers lived out in shacks in the fields. The history here is insane.
Top of a building on Slave Street.
The gardens in front of the main house.
And one from the sweltering enclosed butterfly garden...
After that we were off to Tybee Island in Georgia. Its close proximity to Savannah made for a busy beach but granted us quick access to an awesome downtown and River Walk. We took a ghost tour(which was more of a history tour but I did get to try out the electrometer-ghost detector thing), ate some pretty incredible food at pretty much the best restaurant ever, and, most importantly, got to spend our days basking in the heat of the sun on Tybee Beach. Below you will find camera phone images of a really cool oooooold cemetery in Savannah, a shot of the Tybee Island Lighthouse, and a long exposure of the Tybee Island Pier. Clicking any image will take you to the full(still small) gallery.
After hanging out in Tybee Island and Savannah, we headed south out of Georgia into a little area in rural Florida called Paisley. My friend's brother put us up there for a few days and I gotta say, I'll come back anytime he lets me.
More mobile, sorry. Didn't get the real camera out much in Florida:)
Even though Dwight(red shirt) and I were well behind Michael(shooting) we weren't totally sure we were in the safest place(his bullets can go ANYWHERE).
Two natural features really stood out to me in Florida. 1. the absolutely incredible cool water of Alexander Springs(no photos I was too busy snorkeling). 2. Monster Spiders.
After leaving Florida, we headed BACK up to Charleston, South Carolina for a couple days. We all put lots of miles on our shoes here! The hotel we were staying at was 1.5 miles from the good stuff and valet parking only. So we walked to everything! Both the mornings I was there I walked to Waterfront Park, so I had a good three miles of walking in BEFORE we started walking everywhere! Fortunately the weather cooled down a bit.
Walking around Charleston you'll find history EVERYWHERE! Take the below photo for example, this appears to be some kind of working communication device from the late 20th century.
Another thing that just blows my mind is the Market, or Market St. It used to be slave street. It used to be the actual place where slaves where brought in from Africa and sold. And while there are lots of local artisans doing the place well, modern America hasn't let it go unscathed...
And of course I had to get a pack of Necco Wafers, and of course it ended up looking just like it did when I was a kid(seriously who eats the gross colors?)
Alright, enough fooling around. Here are the images I took on the two mornings I was in Charleston. My feet were chock full-o-blisters so it was hard making the walk down to Waterfront park at 5:30 am, but the trip would not have been completely satisfying without a few good ones. The second morning had better sky color, but both were nice.
While this thing is totally awesome, it is somewhat difficult to shoot if you are into the 'technical' side of photography. The water falling on all sides and big circle shapes really exaggerate any poor techniques(of which I have many).
Before heading back to the hotel on the first day, I took this 10-minute exposure of the Arthur Ravanel Jr. Bridge.
Then, on day two, I had a much nicer sky to work with. Deep blue sky matched really well with the color of the fountain lights. I light painted the fountain just a bit to keep detail in the bottom and very top.
Then with the light increasing on the last day, I opted for a little more context with the scene.
Thanks for looking... can't wait till my next visit further south:)
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Click any photo to be taken to its place in the gallery.
Or Click any of the links below to be taken to a related gallery:
2014 Grayson Highlands State Park
2013 Grayson Highlands State Park
From any photo in the gallery you can view more information(exif data), or purchase prints(which helps feed my yorkie)
During most of the hike, the sky and clouds were really making for some nice light on the foreground and overall scenes. Starting up the Rhododendron Trail(which unfortunately saw the last of the Rhododendron Blooms in June) you quickly meet up with the Appalachian Trail and the Wilburn Ridge Trail.
There were lots of small ferns coating large areas of the ground with the iconic Hemlocks shooting up at the sky. While shooting I thought I had this whole scene focused right from front to back, but once I got it on the computer I noticed the hemlocks in the background were just a bit soft. Considering the ferns close up were only a few feet away, and the hemlocks being like 25-40 feet away, I'll take it.
Looking back on the same general area, you can see the great big clouds coming in over the hemlocks on the Appalachian Trail.
A little further up the trail on the first of the three Wilburn Ridge Peaks, I took a second and shot some really nice ferns and blooms overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains. From here(and many other places in the area) you can see into North Carolina and sometimes even into Tennessee.
Heading up to the second peak, the rock formations and light from the low clouds really made for a nice scene.
Hikers must leave crumbs a lot up here(It is a good place for a snack). Birds were flying around quit a bit. I think this is a cedar waxwing.
Here is a telephoto view from Wilburn Ridge, I believe that the peak covered in clouds is Mount Rogers, Virginia's highest point. But I can't really tell.
Staying telephoto here... the clouds really made for some nice soft light.
Switching back to wide angle here, you can really see what low clouds/fog add to a scene. The brightness here was a bit more than my camera could contain so I blended two exposures using luminosity masks in Photoshop CC(something I hadn't done before). Not a bad first attempt. :)
On the way back, big clouds and oncoming twilight made for a nice finish.
And then, when I got back to the meadow near Massie Gap, I looked up while walking to admire the stars that were out. When I looked back down I realized I had company... The flash on my phone irked him a little but he really didn't mind me.
Thanks for looking.
]]>Sometimes, the cards dealt to you simply don't work. You need to have a few stored up your sleeve:)
The other day, at Cascade Falls, I had to pull out a few cards to 'win the hand'.
Click Here to jump straight to the full Cascades Gallery
Looks nice, don't you think? I really love the just-fallen blooms from trees above, and the reflection in the puddles on the wet rocks. But I have a secret... It sure didn't start out that way.
Here was my initial scene... (very unedited)
Wow, just look at those horrendous rocks! I mean sure, I love being at any waterfall, but this just won't do. To improve the scene, I reached down into the water and splashed water as far as I could. Wet rocks always look better that dry ones. I also took some blooms that were laying around just outside of the frame and randomly tossed them into view.
Looking better so far! Wetting the rocks sure does remove a lot of the distraction in the foreground. There is just one problem.. where is my reflection? I mean, the only reason I set up in this exact spot was to have a small reflection in the puddles.
Enter shot #2... A quick turn of the polarizer revealing all the reflections...
I do love the reflection of the falls in the foreground puddle! But I really don't love all the rest of the reflections. This is where a quick layer mask in Photoshop comes into play. Basically, I want to keep everything in the fully polarized photo, as well as the falls reflecting in the non-polarized photo. A simple layer mask and viola!
A summary...
Don't let the scene completely dictate the photo you want to take. You have a lot more control than you might think. All I had to do to really make my hike worth the time was splash a little water, toss a few blooms, and merge two exposures(which was the easiest part).
And since you made it all the way to the bottom, here are some others I took on the same day. The ferns at the end were taken near the car well after dark(I hiked in from the Barney's Wall area).
Thanks for looking...
The final few were taken with a Rokinon 24mm 1.4. I had planned on a different photo project for this lens, but the weather forced me into something different... oh well:)
I really do love stop-action waterfall images.
By the time I got back up to the Barney's Wall parking area, civil twilight had begun and the light from the sky was dropping fast. A large area of ferns caught my about a quarter-mile from the car. At first, I shot using available light with a long exposure, and then tried a little light painting with my cell phones flashlight.
Natural lighting.
The Rokinon 24mm 1.4 Performed really well here. But I must say I favor the above image.
Thanks again!
]]>As I was driving towards the parkway, a spot near the Presbyterian Church on Halls Store Road caught my eye. After leaving the parkway, I headed back to this area to wait for sunset. I wasn't really sure what would happen, but I couldn't be happier.
The color started off as subtle and went ballistic. Rain was falling the entire time, which wasn't a problem for the telephoto images as it has a long lens hood. The issue came when I mounted the wide angle. For the life of my I can't find my lens hood for it. I never really used it often but times like now it would really be handy.
I ended up wiping the lens and keeping the lens covered until the 2 second timer was about to end and just hoped that the image would be rain drop free. The image was indeed rain drop free, but wiping the lens right before the shot made the colors 'bleed' a bit into the foreground. This was made more apparent because the rain was causing color everywhere.
I originally shot these using the 'shade' white balance setting. In post, I backed the temp off to somewhere around the 'daylight' setting, which is much cooler. I posted a photo at the bottom using the 'daylight' white balance for comparison. The color really was that intense!
Thanks for looking:)
Here is a photo from earlier this year using nearly the exact same white balance(to emphasize the incredible color of the above images)
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My camera was in my bag in the hotel room which was kept below 70°. As soon as I pulled it out in the heat of the beach the glass fogged up! I tried my best to keep the lens clean, and, in the end, I like the effect a tiny amount of fog has... the color from the sun bleeds out a little bit.
There is a feeling that occurs when, after having been away for a while, you get back to your neck of the woods and really appreciate its beauty. This happens to Ashley and I when we make the 'climb' in North Carolina up into Blue Ridge Mountains. You can start to see for a long ways, the Classic Country radio station comes into range, the air cools by 15° and we ask ourselves... why did we even leave?
Below are my photos from Doughton Park taken over the last couple of days. I really love living in close proximity to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It offers lots of views, cool weather, and great hikes.
An incredible highway...
When I walked up to take this photo, I startled whitetail dough who was bedded down near the creek at the bottom of this photo(below). While the pink blooms are nice, the parkway has lots of great looking Mountain Laurel blooming right now(background-right)
I found this little spot by driving REALLY slowly and peering into the trees looking for color... This was only about 75 yards from the parkway.
Thanks for looking...
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You might be curious how it's possible for a place to have a 365° view. Sure, it's technically 5° more than what is actually possible, but let me tell you, when you hike up past young foals and blooming rhododendron to get to a rock outcropping where you can see into two other states, you'll know exactly why this place gets the extra 5°.(In my book anyways)
The Rhododendron Trail and Wilburn Ridge in Grayson Highlands State park are BANGIN' right now! The Catawba Rhododendrons have painted large sections of the hillsides in pink and purple, young foals and their mother mares frolic about, and the partly cloudy sky has made for some great scenes.
You can support me and this site by buying prints. You can click on any image to be taken to it's respective place in the gallery. Or you can use the links below.
Grayson Highlands State Park 2014
Grayson Highlands State Park Ponies
Now to the good stuff...
I came up here yesterday to check out the foals, but also to get a glimpse of how the rhododendrons were coming along. I knew that they bloomed in June, but I wasn't quite sure when. Once I got up there, my mind was blown with all the blooming rhododendron! After parking at Massie Gap, I made the walk up towards the ponies. If you come here in the late morning or afternoon, you'll be sharing this area with a bunch of people. Since I was here just after sunrise, I only had to share with one other. She was a nice lady who told me about the stallion named Fabio, why some were called painted mares, and how they had been separated from the ponies in the Mount Rogers Recreation Area because of a fence for cattle. All cool stuff!
You can click any of the Horse photos to be taken to the Highlands Horses Gallery.
After spending a little time at the edge of the state park and Mount Rogers Recreation Area, I went into MRRA and headed up higher on the Wilburn Ridge Trail.
While I was taking the photo above, I was able to see the rhododendron patches over on the Rhododendron trail(left of the frame). I started my way back down the trail. Right as I passed the state park border, some foals accosted me and knocked over my tripod. As soon as it hit the ground all the other foals came and tried to eat the knobs on the ball head.
I was REALLY trying to get a pony or foal to walk through this little patch of yellow. I only got one chance at it and I am sure happy with how it turned out!
Then I made my way to the Rhododendrons... I love the windswept trees in the area.
The terrain is the most challenging part of photographing this area. Since you are shooting plants that are taller than you, you tend to rely on rock outcroppings to get a view. This is where having a really tall tripod gives you more flexibility. I use the Induro Alloy AT-413
If you look at the background on the two photos above, you can see the top of Wilburn Ridge. This is near where I took the wide shot with the ponies. When I looked up towards that area, I saw HUGE patches of rhododendron. I really tried to talk myself out of hiking BACK up to the ridge, but, realizing that this is only a once-in-a-year occurrence, I went on up.
As I got to the top, I remembered that one of my colleagues had sent out an email asking to pick up shifts at work. I sent her a text(that's about all the service you get up here) asking her to work for me the next day. Shortly after I received a reply and was STOKED because I knew I would be returning the next day!
Here are the photos from the rest of Day #1 in Grayson Highlands/Mount Rogers.
Panorama....
After leaving the park, going to a surprisingly fun gender reveal party, sleeping, waking up, having breakfast with the wife, doing some dishes, mowing the grass, walking the fearless Yorkie on the trail, gassing up the car, stopping at the Highlands Visitor center and getting a year pass to all Virginia State Parks, I was BACK AT IT!
I started out on day 2 by going down to Cabin Creek Falls. I had some time to kill before the sun went down, and I didn't want to get bored up on Wilburn Ridge. I've never gotten any 'spectacular' photos down on Cabin Creek, and today was no different. It's more or less just a fun time crawling around on a waterfall. You can click the photo below if you want to see more like it.
meh...
After this grabbed a few items from the car(jacket, flashlight just in case). The rain started just as I hit the trail. I could tell by the size of the clouds and the direction they were moving that it wouldn't last long.
The only jacket I had was a North Face soft shell. It's a great jacket that I have had for many years now. But when climbing a hill during rain, I might as well have not worn it because its small bit of added warmth made me get soaked in sweat!
After the rain, some nice light came down.
I like the opening on the Wilburn Ridge trail that lets you see out to the Blue Ridge(below)
From the top of Wilburn Ridge, home of the 365° View!
Some SWEEEET CLOUDS!
Here is a telephoto shot of some Rhododendron and the Blue Ridge Mountains. You can see some ponies milling about on the right.
The photos above and below were taken in the same general vicinity. The first with my 70-200, the second with my 17-40.
In the above photo, you can see some grey clouds on the far right. This was a pretty gnarly storm making it's was through the area. Since I was a couple miles from the car, I figured I would start to make my way back down, shooting as I go.
By now the moon was nice and high in the sky. On my way down, I took the Appalachian Trail which goes around the ridges, and makes for an easier decent. Anytime you see white blazes, you are on the A.T. You can see one here on a rock in the bottom of the image.
The crazy thing about these cows/longhorns er whatever they are called, is that they are scared of me. They simply do not realize that they could shred me to pieces. That said, it was interesting seeing them on the A.T. and in the same vicinity as ponies.
There is a really cool section of the A.T. in the Mount Rogers Recreation Area right next to the state park boundary that is home to nice group of hemlocks. While I was here shooting the moon I twice heard an owl in the distance, so that was cool.
Using a focus point just beyond the tree and using a small aperture, I was able to get the entire scene in focus with one exposure. The only downside to this was cleaning up the sensor dust in Lightroom 5! (my sensor is craaaazy dirty). I spent a little time here getting the composition just right.
And then, right before I got to the car, I startled a bird that was very close to me. I did just a little looking around and saw the nest...
Thanks for Looking..
]]>You can also support me by purchasing the gear I used during this little adventure via the following links:
Giottos MH1000-652 Large Ball Head
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM
77mm Zeta C-PL Wideband ZR-Coated
Now to the Good Stuff...
The photo above was taken with a stacked polarizer and B+W 10 Stop filter. It is a two minute exposure metered +1 EV to the clouds. It really 'maxes out' the dynamic range of the 5d Mark ii's sensor. There was a TON of color noise in the shadows. I used Lightroom 5 and Nik Dfine 2 to process much of it out, but it never really goes away completely(especially since I don't use in-camera noise reduction).
This was taken at the end of an awesome day on the New River Trail.
My day started early, I drove out to Buck Dam to photograph the rocks and reflections during sunrise.
After a peaceful sunrise, I went upriver from Buck dam and checked out the marshy, flat water. On the way up there, I spotted a snapper turtle laying some eggs.
Can't say I've seen this before...
After seeing this, I felt like giving the turtle a little privacy... so off I went to shoot the trees on the New River... Below, a Redwinged Blackbird sits on top of a tree in some fog.
On my way back, I spotted the Snapping Turtle making her way down the trail.
And then a staring contest I was born to lose...(they don't blink)
After that, I was heading home for some breakfast and to fill my Camelbak bladder for a little riding. I went to the low bridge parking area near fries and rode in to Buck Dam. It's a great ride along the New River. After shooting some clouds and tadpoles near buck dam, I spotted a Royal Catchfly(I think) in some ferns and made it back to the car just before some serious rain.
I wanted more reflections, but the shallow water and brown rocks really hindered it.
As you walk around, you startle hundreds of tadpoles in the area. Some of them look as if they are about to lose their tales and become adults(er whatever they turn in to)
After getting home and saying hi to the wife, I took off AGAIN for Buck Dam for sunset. It was a nice one!
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You can also support me by using the following links to purchase any of the gear I used on this little adventure.
Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX DG Diagonal Fisheye Lens (rent it first, they are nuts)
Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS USM
Giottos MH1000-652 Large Ball Head
Coast HP7 High Performance Focusing 251 Lumen LED Flashlight
Now to the good stuff...
Yesterday after work, I raced home, bbq'd up a burger, and threw my bike in the back of the car and headed for Fries Junction. The closest parking spot is on Gambetta Rd. You could also get here from the Byllesby Dam or Fries parking areas. From Fries, it's about 5 miles along the New River to get here. I go to Gambetta because it's a little closer to my house and the trail along this section of Chestnut Creek is nice. There are usually folks fishing in the calm water on the first half of the ride. Then, once you get through the tunnel(photo below taken last year) you get to see some nice foliage and rapids.
Here is a map with directions. Just head out Gambetta Road and park where the road intersects with the New River Trail.
Once I got there, I strapped the tripod on the back of the bike. My large Induro tripod is quite heavy on the back of a bike, but knowing that I was only gonna be cruising a few miles, I was good to go. I have a much smaller Manfrotto tripod for trips where I am gonna be doing more bike riding than photography(I don't wanna be weighed down).
I got to the trestle just before sunset. I had really thought that the clouds were gonna be lit up all nice, but the sky sorta cleared out as the sun went down(which is ok). After taking a few photos, I sat down and just listened to the geese, fish jumping, whippoorwills, and frogs as the sun went down. I really like how it gets louder when the sun goes down.
Once twilight began, and I was able to get a nice exposure with the sky and light painting, I started to have a little fun. I really like the look of the supposed oncoming train on the New River Trail(as seen above)
Plus, I had rented the Sigma 15mm 2.8 for the 'busted' meteor shower that I missed(don't ask). It makes sweet starbursts!
As the sky was turning a rich blue, a pigeon was making his way back to his nest in the trestle. He has quite the setup here. His nest was inside the steel beams. When he would go in there, his noises would echo through the whole structure.
As the sky got darker, my light painting became more prominent in the image. It is kinda tough to light paint around a fisheye lens. The field of view is so wide, that when the camera is pointed up it is really easy have the light hit the glass causing massive flare.
After the sky got totally dark, I could really start to see lots of fireflies floating about. It is a wonderful sign of summer. In my last image, you can see where one blinked around in the top of the image.
After that, it was hand holding a flashlight while riding my bike back to the car. Thanks for looking:)
]]>I first have to give a quick shout out to United Camera. I recently broke my 70-200 f4 L IS to the point where it was basically unusable. First, I cracked the cover to the focus diagram, and then I knocked something else loose inside which all the images incredible soft at the edges. I took a chance and sent it off to United Camera, paid just under $200 bucks, and a few weeks later got my lens back and it works like a charm! THANK YOU!
Yesterday was loooooong day with lots of photography! I started out before first light on the New River Trail near Austinville. I was riding my bike in this area the other day and was impressed by all the calm water, rocks, and reflections. I hadn't realized how much rain had fallen recently! As I got closer I realized that reflections weren't gonna be part of the equation...
Even with reflections, the fog would have been too much for the sun to really shine through in this area. As you can see above, the river was high enough to isolate trees out in the water. Below, you can see the sun trying poke through the fog a little later in the morning.
I approached the bank of the river to shoot the fog and trees in the distance. When I got there, I startled a little family of geese. If you look closely, you can see a straggler in the lower left.
After getting back to the car, I was cruising through Austinville when I needed a place to park and walk for a photo. I was in luck because the old guy Randy had just opened up his tire shop(it was just after 8am) and I needed a tire rotation! So I paid $15 for parking and got a free tire rotation!(unfortunately the only photo I got was of the inside of the shop)
The secret to catching a woman seems dated...
After getting home and mowing the grass... I was off to the Grayson Highlands State Park. I made a quick stop in Independence at the courthouse and took a long exposure of the Grayson County Courthouse. "To our Soldiers of the Confederacy"
And THEN I was OFF to the Highlands! BUT FIRST! I made a quick stop at Rowlands Creek Falls, it's a 'quick' 3 mile out and back:)
And THEN I was finally off to the Highlands.
The light greens and yellows are looking awesome right now!(but then again, the Highlands pretty much always look awesome.) I started off on the Rhododendron Trail and made my way up to Wilburn Ridge.
I met some nice folks while checking out the area. LOTS of A.T. hikers up here this time of year.
I love all these rock outcroppings.
After Wilburn Ridge, I headed back to some outcroppings near the Rhododendron Gap and Massie Gap to watch the sunset. And it was AWESOME.
After a great sunset, I caught some nice twilight while heading back down to the Massie Gap parking area.
And that finishes up a great day of being outside and taking photographs. Feel free to ask questions by contacting my directly or by commenting. Thanks for looking:)
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Yesterday, I had an awesome time on the New River Trail. I rode my bike from Hiwassee to the Ghost Train artwork. When I finished my ride, I went to the car and grabbed my tripod. When I made it back to the bridge(only a few hundred yards from the parking lot), there was a guy there who was telling me about the awesome history of the New River Trail. He was talking about the Shot Tower, the person who discovered lead in the area, and how the trail was so crucial getting ammo from the Shot Tower to the Armory. Pretty interesting stuff when you think about it. The trail that people walk their dogs on used to have such a different purpose!
After that guy left, I got a text from my mom telling me that a family friend had died. A man I had just seen a few weeks before. It's one of those things that you don't really believe at first, and even when you believe it, your perspective on the matter simply pales in comparison to what the man's family must be going through. It's a hard thing, and while the conditions of our deaths may not be ideal, they are a necessary step in our lives, and can only lead to something greater.
As I set up for the following shot, an old guy with a backwards visor on came cruising up on a bicycle. He immediately started talking about some cameramen he knew in Vietnam...
Since I was shooting long exposures at the time, I really couldn't look like I was overly busy. The sky was getting to the point where the colors in the clouds were arriving, the sun was just hitting the horizon, and the time to shoot was RIGHT NOW. But he kept talking. For a brief moment, I wanted to dust him off because I was a big important photographer with a cool camera and a really big tripod, but, in light of what I had just learned about our family friend, I kept listening. And listen and listen I did...
For the next 25 minutes I sat and listened to him talk about his experience with a Copperhead on the new river trail, and many experiences during the Vietnam war including King Cobras, huge rats crawling on him while he slept, Hardcore VC, charging elephants, 14 foot high sugar cane, naked-lady playing cards, and where in Vietnam to get a good shave and neck massage. It was absolutely incredible.
I even recorded part of it just to show my friends how awesome this guy was. Whether he was a war hero or a kook doesn't really matter(I'm leaning toward war hero). Here is a screenshot of this crazy-cool guy.
After talking to him for a while, another older guy showed up and was pretty much EQUALLY as INTERESTING as the war hero! His story was a little different, he was a walker. He walks and walks and walks. He claimed that he had walked tens of thousands of miles on the New River Trail, that he was on his 38th pair of shoes, and that he had met people from 42 states! He even had notepad with '#8' on the front, which he said was his 8th notepad he was filling up with people's names and places of origin(Of course I filled mine in with Billings). The people he had last met were from Slovenia!
So there I was, standing on an old railroad trestle talking(and listening) to two old guys tell their stories when I could have been taking photos. During the interaction I had little moments where I would notice a colorful cloud and wish that these guys would just head on out, but then one of them would say something clever and I was locked in on conversation again. I figured, the moon, the sun, the river, all of it will be there tomorrow. And 50 years from now I doubt I will remember very many sunsets, but interesting and hilarious bridge conversations with old men? Now THAT is something that will stick.
Thanks for looking.
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On my way back from Billings, I decided to take the long route home and check out Makoshika State Park. Its just south of Glendive Montana. It added a couple hours to my journey home as I then would have to go through North Dakota and more of Minnesota.
It was worth it. This State Park in the Montana Badlands is an awesome journey through time! There are so many different layers and colors of rocks, and not to mention TONS of cactus and yucca!
I first stopped at the Cap Rock trail head, but saw some rednecks climbing around, so I kept on driving and ended up at the Kinney Coulee Trail head. I had no idea how long the trail was, but figured I couldn't get too lost, so off I went.
There is a pretty big hill to climb in your car on the way, so make sure to stop and take it all in. The park is really impressive.
Then I hit the trail. I didn't see another person on the trail, which is always nice(and a benefit to going places in the middle of the week). This is one of those places where you may as well leave your camera attached to your tripod as you walk around, because you will be seeing 'photograph worthy' scenes around every bend. I didn't have the best of conditions, but the somewhat ominous looking clouds were good enough.
As you hike through Kinney Coulee, the scenery is constantly changing. Around every bend is a new layer of rock with a different texture or color.
I loved seeing all the cacti and Yucca plants holding on for dear life as the rocks erode around them.
The park has it's section of Barren areas too..
As the sun went down, I did get some nice light for a brief few moments. I went from a leisurely stroll taking photos to running around like a madman trying to find a spot where I could take advantage of the changing light. Having never been here before, I didn't know what was ahead to I just had to chance it!
The trail ends up right where you come in, being a loop and all. I made a quick stop at the cactus from before and shot a photo using the 10 stop B+W filter. The blue tone is attributed to me compensating for the strong magenta that the filter causes.
And then one more shot of a yucca before leaving Montana...
See you all next time, MTers. :)
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You can support me and this site by purchasing prints. You can click any image to be taken to its full gallery or by using the following links:
It's that time of year again! The blooms are coming around, the days seem to be longer, and oh the warm weather! It was only about a week ago that I was crawling hand and foot through snow in the Absaroka Beartooth Wilderness in Montana, and then just yesterday I was swimming through rapids on the New River in Virginia after our canoe went under!
My weekend started off like most of my days, I drink a boatload of coffee and then take the Yorkie to the New River Trail. It's getting greener and greener and more and more critters are milling about.
Right out of the gate, a snake was getting all defensive by my car.
Fresh greens and blooms on the trail...
After this I headed up towards Speedwell Virginia for some mountain biking. It's just south of Wytheville. I went on the Henley Hollow trail, which Trails.com said was for the 'more advanced user'. It turns out I am not a 'more advanced user', as this trail worked me hard! There are lots of rocks and creek crossings, which made the ascent difficult for me. On the way down it was a total blast!(that's when these photos were taken)
Then, it was canoe time! The beautiful New River in Virginia is one heck of a place to float! While this trip cost me a camera and a smartphone due to some rapids being a little much for our canoe to handle, a good time it was...
oops!
Now, images from Whitetop during sunset.
This final image is one that I have had pre-visualized for some time now. On Whitetop Mountain there is a rock outcropping where the Appalachian Trails runs through the area. I wanted a shot of a hiker(me) a lit up tent, and the blue ridge in the back ground. I was a little disappointed when I arrived as there had been a prescribed burn in the area, leaving the ground black and lifeless. Oh well. I used one exposure more me, and one for the tent(both with the same EV for easy blending). Leaving me happy with the result.
Thanks for looking!
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I didn't think that the trip would be all that crazy, since we were canoeing a short section in between the Byllesby and Buck dams. Most of the water was flat, but all it took was that one crazy spot. After a short time in the rapid, our canoe had taken on so much water that it basically sunk out from under us! Next thing I knew I was clinging to my backpack floating down the river next to the canoe. The canoe then became lodged on a rock, to which I had to swim up and free. It was heavily dented, but Jessica and Amber's Canoe was in even worse shape! Theirs had a big crack in the front of it!
All in all it was a crazy awesome day that only cost me a camera and a smartphone, but I'm not emotionally attached to my smartphone.
The k20d had a long and rough life, as you can see in the following photos, this incident was just the last of many encounters with trouble.
The first real shock it had, was when I left it on the roof of a car, and found it later on the side of the highway... the door covering the ports was damaged, but it was mostly intact after that.
Then came a cold day in South Dakota. I was pulling the camera out of my trunk(by this time it wasn't my primary camera) when it hit the ground and broke the bottom off of it. Fortunately it wasn't something that a little black tape couldn't fix!
Then, after surviving all of that, the water rushed in.
Now, a look back at my favorite images. I really don't think my Pentax days are over, but next time I may consider the WG-3 Point and shoot(It's waterproof). Hell, I might even use a dry bag:)
This first one is from Shenandoah National Park. It's of a very young crescent moon setting just after sunset. It was shot with my very old Sears 135mm 2.8. The cool part about Pentax is the fact that you can use all the old lenses!
This shot of the puddles on the Rimrocks above Billings Montana is also a favorite. I took it as I was really figuring out graduated filters.
Blazing a trail on a solo hike to Mystic Lake on fresh powder!
The first time I ever tried for a good 'sunstar'
A photo of Bison during winter in Yellowstone National Park
And one of my favorite sunrise scenes over one of my favorite places, the Bighorn Canyon.
All in all the Pentax and me had a good run. Fortunately at the time of it's passing, it was simply a backup that I only took on trips like the one that did it in:)
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You can support this site by purchasing prints. Click any photo to be taken to the full gallery or click the following link:
The Stillwater River Full Gallery
One of my first places to stop when getting to Big Sky Country was the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. There are MANY access points for this(lots of mountain roads go up the various drainages). There are also many access areas on the Beartooth Highway(the most beautiful drive in Montana).
I spent a lot of time in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness because living in Billings, I was only 2 or so hours away. This allowed me to take many day/overnight trips up to Mystic Lake in West Rosebud, Elk Lake in East Rosebud, and Sioux Charlie Lake on the Stillwater(just below the incredible Cathedral Point).
From a photography perspective, the rushing water through the Stillwater Canyon is really hard to beat. Compositions are everywhere! and the changing seasons bring so many different looks to the area.
In the summer there is lots of plant life, clear water, and friendly people. In the fall the patches of aspen really add to the scenes. In the spring the river RAGES! But my favorite time to visit is(and always will be) in the winter. The people are scarce, the bears are asleep, and the ice really works its magic.
This time around I didn't have a whole lot of ice, since I came in spring. But there was a nice layer of snow everywhere. In Billings, the ground was dry, but as I approached Columbus and my elevation started to increase, the amount of snow on the ground ticked up.
By the time I got to the Nye area, I was in a winter wonderland. I knew I had a little bit of time until the good light, so I explored a couple different roads I had never been down before( I no longer had the excuse of 'I'll do it next time)
For real...
My transportation and hotel for a few days...
Blink and you might miss it...
When passing the Stillwater Mine, you will often see a big group of Bighorn Sheep that are very comfortable around people.
Continuing past the Woodbine Campground, and nearing the parking area for the trailhead to Sioux Charlie, we are graced with this scene...
Now on to the trailhead, you immediately enter the canyon the forces the Stillwater River into some awesome little waterfalls and rapids. Image of signage was taken with my smartphone.
It doesn't take long before Cathedral Mountain comes into view. It sure is an incredible sight!
A short ways past the tree pictured above, there will be another trail on the right that goes up a different direction away from the river. If you take this trail a short ways, then bushwhack up to the rock edge, you get a nice view like this one...
After the sun went down, the clouds came in and the snow started to fall! I knew that the moon should be up in the sky but with all the clouds I needed to get away from the larger mountains to really see it. After taking a detour near Nye, a herd of elk ran across the road in front of my car! By this time, I was in an area where the moon was really shining, so I cranked up the iso on my camera and tried for a shot of the elk herd in the field. (the elk at the very bottom right held still looking back at me for the six-second exposure:)
From there I milled about shooting the mountain scenes before packing it in for the night...
Thanks for looking...
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You can support this site by buying prints! You can click any image to be taken to the full gallery or click the following link:
Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area
Also, see my post about proper planning for photography(because luck is only 90% of it):
Resources for Photographers: Planning for Photography
The Bighorn Canyon has to be my favorite place to go in Montana. The recreation area as a whole offers fun seekers of all types plenty of space to run around. There are areas for dirt biking and four wheeling, boating, fishing, and hiking with incredible views. The hiking areas are well separated from any of the other activities, so you won't be in the way of a dirt biker, and their noise wont be bothering you.
The thing that has made me enjoy this place so much is the fact that I have never really been here in the summer, or peak season. I always go in the winter and have never had to share a trail with anyone. The place is basically abandoned except for the occasional park ranger, bighorn sheep, or wild pony. The reason for its emptiness in the winter is obvious. The temperatures can be very cold and the winds are unforgiving. But when I am seeking out solitude in nature, sometimes poor conditions just come with the territory. This time around I got a little lucky. I went in during spring on a nice 50° day and saw one car and that is it, I had the place all to myself.
The park straddles the Montana/Wyoming Border. To get here from Billings, I drove down to Lovell Wyoming, and then turned back north. Be sure not to speed in Wyoming! THEY DON'T WRITE WARNINGS!
I started as I always do, drive the length of the park and back looking for horses and bighorns. This time, I only saw one horse(not pictured) and a handful of mule deer by the corral.
I then started off into the Sullivan's Knob Trail. It's about a mile out and back. I was feeling ambitious at first, and wanted to hike into the Lower or Upper Layout, but I just didn't have it in me. (driving across the country can do that to a guy) I will say I am satisfied with the scene provided at the edge of the canyon via the Sullivan's Knob Trail.
As soon as I got out of the car, I saw some really awesome Great Plains Yucca Plants on the trail. These things are so sweet! I always walk really close to them, feeling them prick my calf really reminds me of home.
Then, down towards the edge, the view gets incredible...
After my little hike, I made my way up to Devil Canyon Overlook and headed for the Arch.
The drop off in Devil Canyon is a shear 1000 feet down! The shape of the canyon will echo your yell back to you about 4 times! If you drop a rock you can count to almost 5 before you hear the echo of it hitting the bottom. It's incredible. There is a sense of danger and excitement as you approach the edge and you feel the wind shooting up at you from the bottom.
Then, as the sun dropped down a bit I started chasing the clouds to get different compositions.
I was wearing shorts on this afternoon, and as soon as the sun went down, I REALLY started to feel that wind! So I jumped into the car for a moment, took a call from my lovely wife, and then glanced out the passenger window and spotted a sweet rising full moon! So back out into the wind I went!
Then, on my way out, I stopped at the entrance sign and did a little lightpainting.
I anxiously await the next time I can return to Bighorn Canyon(or anywhere in Mountain Time Zone for that matter), thanks for looking.
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Grayson Highlands State Park Gallery
You can support me and me keeping this website up by clicking on any photo and buying prints, or if you are in the market for certain camera equipment that I have demonstrated, you can click the links in my article for the respective products, or by purchasing anything from Amazon Using This Link
Yesterday I started off my afternoon in Grayson Highlands State Park photographing cloudscapes. The sunny, partly cloudy day made for some great scenes. And since the foliage has yet to turn colorful, focusing more on the clouds and sky are a nice way to add color and keep things more vibrant. I also shot some black and white when I felt that the color scenes were kind of bland.
I started shooting up on Wilburn Ridge, an area where the Appalachian Trail and Rhododendron Gap Trail intersect in Mount Rogers Recreation Area. The first photo was taken with the B+W 77mm ND
The wind was so intense up here that after this shot I threw the tripod on my backpack for the rest of the hike. I found that hand holding the camera was a lot more productive and easier than setting everything up in the high winds.
The hemlocks in Grayson Highlands are totally awesome. They are all over the place! I really wanted to get a long exposure including a large hemlock but the winds were much too high. They do shake quite a bit!
On the way back from the Mount Rogers Area and Wilburn Ridge, I spotted a few of the ponies as I crossed back into the Highlands State Park.
After this I left for the sunset on Whitetop Mountain, and I could NOT have been happier with the result! The crepuscular rays were intense from the get go and had me shooting non stop for a couple hours! The only concern I had was the wind, when I got there it was hard to get my car door open against all the wind.
And a wider, color shot of the clouds above the rays.
Then I mounted the telephoto Canon EF 70-200mm f/4 L IS, and I am REALLY glad I had the Image Stabilized version of this lens! The winds were INSANE! I would stand up on top of rocks only to have the wind push me back and cause me to lose my balance!
In the below photo, you can see the Appalachian Trail where is passes by Whitetop Mountain.
I then walked down towards the Appalachian Trail and mounted the wide angle Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L.
As the initial rays passed by, I mounted the 10 Stop again. I probably lost some sharpness on this photo because the winds were so intense, and the winds were coming up from the bottom of the hill, so I was unable to block much of it my standing in front of it.
And then I got one more little burst of rays before the sun got lost in the clouds for good...
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On Saturday morning I woke up at 2am and hit the road hoping to shoot the falls under the last of the moonlight, and while it looked pretty, I was on the wrong side of the falls to view the 'bow' during the moonset. Additionally, the angle of the moon was pretty high in the sky, which would have made the 'bow' very low.
Either way, I took a photo or two, then fell asleep in my car for a few hours to take some more shots during the morning hours.
And then during morning twilight and sunrise...
As the sun started to peak out, I went to the overlook that was farther away to get a wider perspective.
I then mounted my 10 Stop B+W ND Filter to take a 2 minute exposure as the sun hit the trees.
After this, I went and took a long nap to recover from a night with little sleep. Then after that we went to the Wolf Creek Dam and took a photo from the Fish Hatchery area. It was nice to be outside on such a lovely day! The only problem with lovely days is that all the sunshine can really make photograph difficult, especially water scenes. This is another situation when a ten stop filter comes in handy, it smooths out water and lets clouds roll past, taking a snapshot and making it a little better...
After this, I went BACK to Cumberland Falls for the Moonbow during the moonrise. Man oh man was it a different place! There were TONS of people there! I first went to the far overlook and just prayed I would be able to see the moonbow from there...
No Dice! So I headed back to the closer overlooks and was met by GOBS of people! There were probably 30 people and about 10 tripods at the bottom overlook. My tripod can put my camera well above my head and I considered just shooting from above everybody. Then it hit me, "Why would I want the photo that all these other people have?" I mean, sure, they are getting a lot of the 'bow' in their photos but really nothing else. So I said "screw it" and hopped the fence. I had the base of the falls all to myself. And while the 'bow' may not be as large in my photos, I have everything else that I want.
I got down to the base without a light, I did not want to draw any attention to myself because I didn't want to give any other photographers any ideas and I didn't want any employee hassling me. But once I got down there and got comfortable, I knew a little light painting was in order.
I was very careful when lightpainting, as to not shine the light on the falls too much. I knew that this may mess with other people's attempts to photograph the falls, so I used my hand to block the light and keep it in the foreground.
If you look that the below photo, on the far left, you can see heads of people looking down at the moonbow.
Thanks for looking:)
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I have been here many times, it's a great walk for the dog, a picnic, or a great spot to cool off in the summer. The following are some images I have taken of the falls this winter. The bottom images were taken today, after the snowfall.
Clicking any photo will take you to it's place in the New River Trail State Park gallery where you can browse the rest of the photos and purchase prints/downloads.
The below photo was taken with a B+W 10 Stop ND Filter, allowing for a 2 minute exposure.
The next set of photos were take by wading out into the water and using the 10 Stop filter.
Thanks for looking:)
]]>First, I made a quick stop for food and some bridge photos in Charleston, SC with some good friends that I knew back in Montana(who have now relocated to SC).
Clicking any image will take you to the gallery where the image is located. From there you can purchase downloads and prints.
The above image was shot using a B+W 10 Stop ND Filter
The below photo was shot with only a polarizing filter, notice the difference in the clarity of the clouds and grass.
After that, I was off to Hunting Island State Park, one of my favorite places to be... after a night in the car...
The clouds were moving really fast, and the wind was howling, but the temperature was very nice. There were short bursts of color that were quickly dowsed by grey skies only to return again. Here is the first set from the morning, taken early enough to have a little color and even a star or two!
As the skies got brighter, I mounted the BW 10 stop filter to allow a really long exposure. In the below image, you can see the sun peaked through the clouds very briefly during the 3 minute exposure.
After this little outing, some thunderstorms were coming into the area pretty quickly. And since I really wanted some time on the kayak I headed up to Congaree National Park to try my luck on the river there. I wasn't there but for a few hours but really enjoyed the scenery. There were lots of downed trees that made navigating the river somewhat difficult. And there isn't a whole lot of color this early in the year, so it's just kind of a brown/grey landscape. But I can't speak highly enough of the park and the people working there, it was a great experience and has free entry.
:)
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For most of my little day hike yesterday, the temperature and wind were very pleasant. Sure, it was a little on the cold side, but when hiking around it isn't too bad. The only times I got REALLY cold were when I was up photographing rocks on the ridges. Boy oh Boy does the wind HOWL up there!
One thing I really liked yesterday was the amount of visibility. I have been up here on several occasions during snow or shortly thereafter and had beautiful snow scenes but no visibility! Yesterday that was all different, from Wilburn Ridge I could see Big Pinnacle and further south into North Carolina. It sure was amazing.
Links to Galleries: HIGHLANDS PONIES GALLERY | HIGHLANDS 2014 GALLERY
At first the visibility was low, as you can see in the first photos, but then it cleared right up!
To get the following photo of the Wilburn Ridge Spur trail, I had to walk around the first group of rocks and climb up from the back, as to not alter the scene with foot prints. You can see a painted trail marker on the right.
After coming down from Wilburn Ridge in in the Mount Rogers Recreation Area, I opted to go up on to a rocky outcropping to try and spot the sunset. I am REALLY glad I decided to stick it out in those crazy winds!(I got there about 30 minutes before the sun dropped out of the clouds)
Turning around 180° from the shot above, I took the shot below. Both shots were handheld at f18 set to +2EV(metered to the sun)
The shot below is looking back towards Wilburn Ridge in the distance.
After that it was back to Massie Gap Parking Area...
Thanks for looking:)
]]>This morning when I woke up I knew I was in for a miserable few hours getting used to the frigid temps that have come into the area. But, this kind of weather doesn't come around very often so I figured I might as well go and enjoy it!
The crappy thing about starting out a hike in the cold is my nose's initial response! Once I get moving I am A-OK, but then I build up a sweat, my glasses fog up, and life starts to suck again.
Luckily the hike to the Cascades is only 2 miles one way. I opted for the less scenic upper trail, to get me there faster.
I got to the falls right about 7AM,
I was ABSOLUTELY STOKED to see all that ice! It sure makes for quite the foreground. The only issue with waterfall shots and specifically frozen waterfall shots is the spray. It's not just normal spray that you can wipe off, it freezes! As the temp of your camera lens drops, the more and more frozen spray you get. I had some lens cleaning wipes that would get me just clean enough and buy me enough time to dry off the lens.
After screwing around a little on the 'left' hand side of the creek. I decided to try and cross up to the right to get a shot of the sunlight hitting the ice on the far side. The only problem is, when crossing, I grabbed some slush that I thought was ice, soaking my gloves. The water didn't get down to the liners but almost instantly I had really hard frozen glove fingers to try and work through! And to cap it off, the sun hadn't yet risen high enough to light up the far side.
You can see the light starting to creep down, but by now I was shivering from head to toe! It was time for me to bail.
And a quick note... for those of you that are going to head up into the icy cold soon, remember this. If at anytime your tripod goes under the water, plan on using it like that for quite a while, because at temps this cold it essentially freezes on contact. One way I averted this from happening(for as long as I could) was to fully extend the lowest section of the tripod, and making most height adjustments by using the upper section. This way, you put as much room as possible between the water and your tripod levers.
Don't forget to wear a jacket! Thanks for reading.
To celebrate the onset of 2014, I did what I always do: I go take photographs.
The wife was down in Charlotte partying with her friends, which meant I could do whatever I wanted!! I ended up at Doughton Park on the Blue Ridge Parkway. The parkway is closed on either side of Doughton Park, so you have to hike in from the Alligator Back/Bluff Mountain trailhead.
The thing I like about Doughton park is the wide open fields and solitary trees that shoot up into the sky. Just like the lone tree, I had Doughton Park all to myself.
I really like all the exposed rock in the area. They all contain some great details that are interesting to look at whether or not you plan on taking a photo.
There were lots of clouds on the horizon where the sun was setting, preventing any real color from happening. But it didn't matter. I had this whole place all to myself(well I had to share with a few whitetails who were grazing nearby). On the way out I opted to walk down the parkway instead of going back on the trail where I came in. I did this partly because I am afraid of the dark and didn't want to be in the forest at night, and also partly because I wanted to see all the ice that has closed this section of the parkway!
The sun doesn't really hit this part of the parkway during the winter, prompting the Park Service to close it down. The ice does build up quite a bit and large chucks were all over on parts of the road.
I used a flashlight to illuminate the ice in the next 3 images.
And just like that, I had watched the last sunset of 2013. I hope next year is just as great as this one was. And I wish all of you 365 awesome sunsets for next year.
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For Christmas, my youngest brother got me a sweet Coast HP7 LED Flashlight. It is way brighter than a Maglite of similar size, with the added benefit of the push/pull one-handed focusing system. It can throw a wide swath of light or focus down to a small circle in just an instant.
The first thing I noticed upon arriving to the bridge was how prominent Orion was in the sky. I decided to point the camera way up and frame Orion near the rusty trestle. It is interesting how some constellations that show up well to the naked eye can seem to 'blend in' with all the other stars during a long exposure. If you aren't sure, Orion is on the left side of the image(look for 3 stars in a row).
To put this image together, I used two exposures. Once I had a 'good one' of the stars, I refocused the camera to the trestle, and started lightpainting. I also closed the aperture down to really show the detail in the rusty trestle. After lighting the trestle from multiple directions, I found one that worked for me. Then, it was a mostly simple 'lighten-only' blend in the Gimp!
After a short walk down the bridge, I found a composition I liked that included a little of the Milky Way. There is some light pollution here so it didn't really 'pop' like one would wish. But using multiple exposures for the bridge and the stars, we get it about as good as we can!
I used the Magic Lantern on my Canon 5d Mark ii to have the camera shoot continuously while I walked up and down the bridge lightpainting. Having a powerful flashlight let me using a relatively low ISO and small aperture to maximize detail. After all was said and done, it was again a 'mostly simple' lighten only process in the Gimp. Individual photos are just after this big, finished one.
The cool part of lightpainting like this is the fact that all the parts of your scene are put together separately, meaning that if you want to try something different, or don't like the way something looks, you can just add and remove parts as you see fit!
For example, when I was on the bridge, I had a glow stick and some rope, so I decided that I was gonna make an orb. Basically just twirl the glow stick and spin in a slow circle during the exposure and you have yourself an ORB. The glow sticks I had were green and blue, but I really wanted a golden orb, so I warmed this photo up in Lightroom 5. Then all you have to do is add it to the scene like anything else.
While I think that the orb looks cool, there are better scenes to add them. This was the first time I had ever made one, but I will sure try again in a scene where it looks a little more 'in place' :)
On the subject of train trestles, here is a photo of the tunnel near Fries Junction on the Chestnut Creek part of the trail. I made this image using the same principles, just let the camera run while I shined the light in different places.
If you have any comments or photography questions, feel free to shoot me an email at [email protected] or simply leave a comment.
-Michael
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The first thing I will mention about this, is that I was having trouble sleeping and left my house at around 3:30am. Groundhog Mountain is only 25 minutes or so from my house, so I was set up and shooting by 4am(and back in time to have breakfast with my wife:)
I came here a week or so prior to this and tried making a scene like this with my mag light.
The problem I run into the most is how 'cool' the light of the Maglight is compared to a nighttime scene. I have yet to use gels to fix this problem, so that is why I chose a black and white finish for this image. Not only was the temperature of the unfiltered LED Maglight an issue, the particular Maglight that I had purchased was more suited for campground stuff, not near powerful enough to create big beams of light. Enter the spotlight!
It's even CAMO! And I was intruged by it since it came with both a car charger and a wall charger. That way I could hide my purchase from my wife by charging it in my car! GENIUS!
I chose this spotlight because of the word HALOGEN! Halogen lights are very much NOT the rage anymore, LED technology has all but erased them from the scene. I like the halogen because of its warmer beam. But like everything, there is compromise. Halogen lights are a pain to filter, where LED is almost pure white so filters work really well on them. This is still a decision in progress, but for this scene I was was more than happy to have a warm light that I could cool down to match my scene better.
I started by using the Live View to compose my scene. I started by placing the fence at the bottom, and used the view finder to compose the left-to-right. Since I couldn't see the fence, but could see the sillouhette of the tower and night sky.
I chose f7.1 for my fence. I did this because of the closer focusing distance, and because the light was like, WAY powerful! I played around a bit with how low I could go for my ISO and ended up with this foreground...
Then, I played around with what ISO/aperture for the beams. I ended up with 3200 and 5.6.
After this, I used the Magic Lantern to have my camera shoot continuous 30 second exposures, and headed up into the tower. There was a touch of wind, but I was able to hear my camera's mirror lockup during the 2 second timers. This gave me the heads up to change positions.
I took several of these over the next half hour or so, coming back to the camera every now and then to look at which angles still needed to be covered, along with checking brightness/exposure settings.
After I had captured the beams to satisfaction, I shot an exposure to fill light in on the tower itself, and then shot one for the stars.
I ended up waiting a fairly long time for some of the clouds to clear out and show some stars, but at 5 in the morning I didn't have much else to do.
The warm halogen light made blending all of these images very easy. I was able to set them all to the same white balance in Lightroom, and then use the Gimp to blend them all together using the 'lighten only' layer mask. Choosing 'full transparency' when adding the mask made this process super fast. The stars only image was noise-reduced immediately, as that is the most effective way (even real photographers agree), see this link from Kevin Adams Digital After Dark blog on Long Exposure Noise Reduction. I should have reduced the noise in the other images as well, but to be honest, while I enjoy the results of the Nik Dfine Noise Reducer, I don't like opening up plugins. So the final image got just a touch of noise luminance reduction in Lightroom 5.
Thanks for looking, if you have any other questions about this post or about photography in general, feel free to comment on this blog or shoot me an email at [email protected].
-Michael
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To combat this, the Methodist Church sprung into action, and I mean BIG TIME! They built watch towers ALL over the southeast(like the ones pictured) in hopes of 'proving people wrong'. The images I've created below and above are a representation of what a watchtower would have looked like on Christmas Eve, when Public Enemy #1 was supposedly making his 'deliveries'. Armed with high caliber rifles and spotlights; preachers, clergymen, and lay ministers alike all looked to the sky, skipping time away from family on Christmas Eve to combat this true terror.
While the Methodist Church did not 'formally' recognize Santa Clause, they did have some interesting information passed out in little booklets to all who would attend the yearly 'hunts'. Some bullet points included:
"Armed members of the church are FORBIDDEN from targeting Reindeer. Only Santa is to be targeted."
"Should a reindeer be killed on 'accident', and the reindeer is NOT Rudolph, 5 more reindeer will need to be killed before the sled no longer has the ability to fly. Should Rudolph be killed, the sled will lose course and fall from the sky, regardless of how many other reindeer are still alive. "
" Should the sled be brought down with Santa still alive, contact your local "Santa Contingency Ops Committee'. "
"Should the sled be brought down with Santa dead, contact your local 'Santa Success Ops Committee'"
"Should the sled be brought down with Santa not found nearby, contact your local 'Crazy Obese man in woods Propaganda Ops Committee'" (The Methodist Church has lots of committees)
"All living reindeer are to be donated to zoos no less than 400 miles away from scene."
Again, these are just bullet points that were put into a booklet, the Church never formally recognized Santa.
But on a very cold morning of December 26th in 1994, a group of Methodist preachers were seen leaving a wooded area near Groundhog Mountain in Virginia. They were said to have looked dirty, carrying hunting rifles and shovels. Apparently they were continually congratulating each other as they left. Not but a few weeks after this happened, in early 1995, the Methodist Church Abandoned all watchtowers in a secret deal with National Park Service. This allowed the park service to own and maintain all of the watch towers that the Methodists had built. The church called it a 'gift' to the state. Interesting, don't you think?
Ever since hearing about this crazy story, I have been attending First United Methodist Church in Galax VA. Hopefully if I shake enough hands, and fake enough smiles, someone, someday will let me in on what REALLY happened that cold December day.
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. And it helped me create an image like this:
You see, the earth spins like, crazy fast, making it appear that the stars are moving! This can give landscape photographers a bit of a headache because exposure times need to be limited due to the 'movement' of the stars. Now, the Polarie compensates by moving the camera to match the stars. I know what you're thinking, "but if the camera is moving with the stars, won't everything else be blurry?" the answer to your question is YES.
When I ordered the Polarie from Lensrentals.com, I knew in my head that the image I created was going to have to be a composite. I also knew that I wanted to maximize the amount of light coming into my camera sensor. Because of this I also chose to rent the Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art Series lens. I chose this lens because it is highly favored for edge-to-edge sharpness, and I have already played with Canon's 35mm so I wanted to try something new:)
First a little bit about how the star tracker works. Take a look at this video:
Here is a 30 second exposure taken with the Polarie turned off:
And then, simply turning it on...
Pinpoints!! This is a severe crop of an image taken from the back deck of my house. Check out the Andromeda Galaxy!
Now to the more practical application(for me anyways). I basically wanted one image PACKED with stars, and one with some hemlocks(an icon in the southeast) for the foreground. Lucky for me, I had one clear night to use the Polarie and one cloudy one to capture the foreground. I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway for the star photo, and captured a few images:
This was taken with the 70-200 zooming in on Orion's Belt. The clouds were starting to roll in by the time I took this photo. Below is a photo zoomed out as far as possible with the 70-200, filling the frame with the key parts or Orion.
Now for 'the keeper'. This image was taken with the Sigma 35mm 1.4. It is a 2 minute exposure at f1.8, iso 1600. How about all the awesome clusters!
The next day, I made my way out to Whitetop mountain in search of some hemlocks. Hemlocks are an iconic tree that are suffering from an insect that basically destroys them. They grow up, die, and remain a stark figure in the landscape.
The above photo isn't anything to write home about, but then again I am only interested in the foreground. This image was also shot with the Sigma 35mm 1.4.
After a little tinkering in the Gimp, I had my final product! It isn't 'exactly' as I had previsualized, but it will have to do for now. You see, a winter storm has taken over the southeast, and after it passes will be my busiest month of work at the real job, so I will have to play with Polarie another day...
For good measure, I took a few more images with the Sigma 35mm 1.4. I had hoped for a nice sunset or something but it never really happened. Lots of blue though! So if you like the color blue you will LOVE these next few photos!
The Sigma 35mm 1.4 is an AWESOME lens. I think I may try out the Ziess for the next go round, it's just my favorite focal length for a walkabout lens. Thanks for looking...
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I strung up a few glowsticks to some fishing line and casted away! I set the camera to shoot continuous 30 second exposures and threw the glowsticks up into the top of the falls and let them wash on down. I then used a few flash pops to give a little light to the trees.
Neon WaterfallGlowsticks in a waterfall, at Powerhouse Falls in VA
After that, I headed out to Whitetop Mountain for some stars. The full moon really lit up the scene nicely. Full moon really inhibit the ability to see stars, but I love having a foreground! I can handle a lesser amount of stars. I shot many series of photos, and while I did have fun shooting and sleeping in the back of the ford, the sunrise was my favorite part of the 'night'.
I'll leave it at that. Enjoy
A lone tree lights up with the morning sun.
A 'quiet' sunrise over Whitetop and the surrounding mountains
On the way back, I spotted a little cascade from the road and took a little extra time capturing some reflections.
A tree lights up with the morning in this reflective pool.
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To view the rest of the images or to purchase, simply click on any image and you will be brought to the gallery.
Thanks for looking:)
Rays over the North Carolina Mountains at Sunset.
Rays over the North Carolina Mountains at Sunset.
Rays over the North Carolina Mountains at Sunset.
Rays over the North Carolina Mountains at Sunset.
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The clouds on the horizon remained clear, allowing the sun to BLAST its light onto my barn scene(which is only like 7 minutes from our new house). I was running around in the field changing compositions and lenses. While running I bent a tripod leg and dropped my camera into the soaking wet grass... guess it would have been better to just take my time. Now I have a tripod with one leg that wont collapse and a muddy camera. After that little hiccup, things went a little more smoothly....
It was a great day for panoramas and big sky images. Hope you enjoy! To purchase, just click any image:)
Panorama of a Barn and the Virginia Countryside
A long exposure of a barn in Virginia
A rainbow behind a barn in the Blue Ridge Mountains
A panorama of a barn and rainbow in the blue ridge mountains.
The blue ridge mountains after rain
A barn in the blue ridge mountains at sunset.
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My Ashley and I had the pleasure of having them over for dinner a couple months ago to make 'the pitch". Boy am I sure glad they chose me! Working with them has been a total BLAST!
If you know Ashley or Justin, shoot them a text telling them that they are AWESOME!! And thanks for looking:)
Thanks for looking!
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Since I was heading towards the Meadows of Dan parkway access, I made the obligatory stop at the Mabry Mill... AGAIN
Then I cruised up the parkway about 4 miles or so until I got to an open field. I set up here for the next 90 minutes or so to capture the remaining color followed by the twilight scene.
After waiting for the moon to drop and the sky to get a little darker, I could see Jupiter(just right of moon) and Venus(below and right of Jupiter). Venus had actually been visible for quite a while as it can be very bright, Jupiter took a little longer to show up. The next several days are going to be great for nighttime landscape scenes, as the moon will be bright enough to illuminate the ground, but not quite bright enough to wash out the stars. Check it out!
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Per the usual, I always make a quick stop at Mabry Mill when I head up there, and this trip was no different. The following photo is a 5 image panorama taken with the Canon 70-200 f4 L IS.
After the mill it was 9 more miles of driving and then I was there. But the fog was crazy thick so I parked at the westernmost(nearest) pull out and started walking. Humid, foggy and wet about sum it up. Margot and me went up to the Rocky Knob summit, shot a few photos on the trail and headed back down to where I could see more than 50ft.
Thanks for looking:) On the way out I snapped a shot of our fearless yorkie with the cameraphone.
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The Zodiacal Light. This is the second time I have woken at 3am to start my drive toward Rocky Knob in hopes of being able to see the Zodiacal Light. The first time I headed up there, I was looking right into a bright 3rd quarter moon. So bright that even trying to identify the Zodiacal Light would have been fruitless, as the sky must be very dark to see it well.
Up on Rocky Knob, the wind HOWLS! But it is well removed from any city, and one can see bajillions of stars! It's a perfect place for the Zodiacal light. And today, I had clear skies and a moon that was not set to rise until right before dawn(and even then it was a 1% crescent or something like that, photo further down)
The Zodiacal Light can be seen during late summer before twilight. It is caused by the sun lighting up a big cloud of dust in our solar system. It can also be seen in the early spring after sunset, which I gotta say, makes way more sense than getting up this early.
I could spot the 'cone' of light right away, there really is no mistaking it. It takes up a huge section of the sky, the photo below is taken with a 17mm focal length, which is considered 'superwide'.
If you focus on the cone of light, you can see a small meteor that streaked through during the exposure. I used the Magic Lantern's intervalometer feature on the Canon 5d ii to continuously shoot until twilight(in hopes of catching a larger meteor, but oh well).
After twilight set in, it was a waiting game for the moon and sun to rise, with the moon coming in just before the sun. It is hard to photograph the moon like that, as the contrast during that time of the morning is off the charts. If you look to the right of the following image, you can still see the moon well after its rise and getting very near the sun's own rise.
After this I cruised up to the north end of Rocky Knob and enjoyed a photo of the sun amongst some trees before heading home. Thanks for looking.
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Another place that really puts perspective to just how big I am is the ocean. To think that as far as I can see is just a small fraction of the ocean is crazy. It's also crazy knowing that if you got onto a boat and traveled in a straight line you would reach the shores of Europe or Africa, you could even get side tracked and end up in South America!
Recently, on my trip to Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina's Lowcountry, I had the pleasure of being near the ocean, AND looking up at the stars. Listening to the waves roll in while the stars appeared to spin around surely was relaxing, but most of all... AMAZING!! The time that it took my camera to capture the light from the stars is just a TINY speck in the journey that that light had been on...
Take the Orion Nebula, for example
To put this in perspective... The Orion Nebula is 1,344 LIGHT YEARS away from earth. Meaning, if I were to jump into a space shuttle and travel toward Orion, and was able to travel at the SPEED OF LIGHT(which is 670,616,629 Miles Per Hour) it would take me 1,344 YEARS of Traveling at 670,616,629 Miles per hour. Crazy huh?
For even more perspective, think of it this way... When that light left Orion on its way for earth, it was year 669 a.d. In year 669:
The worlds population was around 208 million people, there were still Emperors and people like Pacal the Great(7th Century)! Muhammad, the prophet of Islam, had just died in year 632. We as humans were still 1,210 years away from inventing the light bulb!
To think about it in more modern terms, the tiny little light on the horizon(left hand side of an image) is a ship that would not have been build yet, and the tree in the foreground had yet to grow and die. As a matter of fact, A LOT has happened since that light left Irion!
Next time you are out on a stargazing adventure, just remember... A LOT of time has been spent putting that scene together for you!
For now, another couple images from the bone yard at Hunting Island...
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For perspective, here is a photo from the beach with my back to the ocean. If you look closely, you can see a service truck on the left and a structure on the right. These are inside the campground.
Feeling like I wanted to 'mix it up' photography-wise, I decided to rent the Canon EF 8-15mm f/4L Fisheye
During one of hikes I took near the Nature Center, I could see lots of palm trees that were backlit by the sun. Photographing them was somewhat difficult as I WAS LITERALLY BEING EATEN ALIVE BY MOSQUITOS!! I am STILL itching.
The beach at Hunting Island has quite a bit of variety. There are marshes by the dune, lots of downed/dead trees near the lighthouse, and PLENTY of space to lay out and enjoy the sun. Also, like other beaches there are CRABS!
And with that, I would like to thank you for viewing this page and wish you the best of luck in the future, as you will never see me post again, since I will now be a full time husband who's only concern is that of my wife:)
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We slept at the Beartree Campground inbetween Damascus and Whitetop. The campground was near empty so it was nice and quiet, which is just how I like it. After hanging out at the fire, we 'hung out' in hammocks. This was the first time I had slept in a hammock, but I gotta say, I was as comfortable or more comfortable than when I sleep in tents. I find that I wake up multiple times in the night when sleeping in tents, and this was not the case with a hammock!
I recommend the Eagles Nest Outfitter DoubleNest Hammock simply because the little bit of extra room makes sleeping one person much more comfortable. Click the link to get yours. I did have two enormous spiders crawling on me when I woke up in the morning, so the optional Eagles Nest Outfitters ENO Bug Net
The next morning I went down to Beartree Lake, which is a small lake about 3 miles from the campsites, but very close to the camp entrance. It was nice and quiet but the clouds never materialized.
After this we hit up a local diner for breakfast and hit the trail! The Virginia Creeper Trail, that is. It is a 35 mile bike trail that goes from Abingdon, through Damascas, and ends at White Top Station. The trail actually goes a little ways past White Top and officially ends at the VA/NC line, but since most people get shuttled up to White Top and ride down, they never see that last mile or so. This day, we rode from Damascus to Abingdon and back, crossing many tressles along the way, since the Creeper Trail is the re-use of old railroad bed. The trail gets its name from the way people thought old locomotives used to 'creep' slowly up the mountain.
The coolest of all the tressles had to be this one:
Sidestory that I never posted before....
At the beginning of August, I spent a week in Abingdon for the Virginia Highlands Festival. I made it to White's Mill for a sunrise, and biked from Damascus to White Top and back, passing Laurel Falls(or something like that). I also went into Tennesse and shot a black and white image of the sunset. A few photos from that trip are below.
Thanks for looking!
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We spent a week at the beach in celebration of her putting up with me enough to sign a legal agreement allowing me access to all of her money!!! One night, we took some photos.
For you Canon shooters, I used the Magic Lantern's Intervalometer feature to have my camera take shots every few seconds so I didn't have to run back and forth between Ashley and the camera:)
If I look awkward in some of the photos it is for two reasons, 1: That is how I look, 2: it was hard to see what I looked like while taking the photos(since I was in them) :) If you know Ashley, shoot her a text that says 'Michael loves you"
And so you can sleep well tonight, A shot of me with my dirty glasses.
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I was excited because the full moon was rising the day after we got there. This month it happened to be the 'SUPER' moon, the largest moon of the year. To be honest, the only thing cool about the 'supermoon' is that it has a tendency to get people out of their houses to go out and look for its rise, that's about it. It is pretty much impossible to tell it different from any other full moon, but if it gets people out into the world to experience a moonrise with friends and families, then it's nothing but a good thing.
Personally, I prefer photographing a full moon the day before its official full moon rise. This is because the moon will be rising on the brighter side of the sunset(before), which allows me more ambient light to work with(less crazy contrast).
I was REALLY hoping for a clear night, which would allow me to shoot the moon really close to the horizon, but I didn't mind waiting for it to rise up out of the clouds(after all, I was at the beach). These two photos would have been nothing but a bright moon and a black silohette had I waited the extra day.
The following morning, I went out to pretty much the same place and watched the moon go down. A small tidbit for you, the Moon did not reach 'Full' until 7:32 am on June 23. So if I was planning on see the moon turn full I would have been out of luck as it set at 6:13 am! I feel SO CHEATED!! But its ok, it looked full to me:)
About an hour or so of hanging out on the beach waiting for the sun to rise, I snapped this shot of the Caswell Lighthouse during one of it's 'blinks'. There are four huge lights spinning at the top of the lighthouse, so a viewer sees four 'blinks' every ten seconds or so.
Dealing with the contrast of the moon would normally be the most 'challenging' thing during a trip like this. Oh was I in for a treat! For one sunset(and pretty much the only other time my camera came out) I ventured down to the Caswell Lighthouse. The wind was OFF THE CHAIN(it's a technical term, ask a young person if you don't know what this means). I immediately knew that controlling the scene with HDR was a no go, the super high winds and moving blades of grass would have made ghost-reduction pretty much a waste of time. But that didn't stop me from bracketing.
In the first image, the range of the whole scene fit without any need for a filter. But as the sun began to set, I pulled out the Singh-Ray 3-stop reverse graduted ND filter, cranked up my ISO to 1600 and just hoped that I could freeze the blowing foliage...
Photography is usually about compromises, fortunately for this shot(one that I am proud of) I didn't have to compromise anything but a little additional noise from the high ISO... Thanks for looking:)
I arrived around 7pm at the parking lot, and walked the half-mile or so it is to the Beach. The walk is through a really pretty wetland. The following is a cameraphone snap.
Once on the beach, I headed down to the left of the entrance towards the bulk of the boneyard. There are many possible compositions here, all changing with the rise and fall of the tide. On my trip, both times at the beach were during low tide. The sun at my back made for some nicely lit up trees out on the water.
After the sun went down the darker blue sky started to really take over, making for some nice contrast between it and the fading pinks.
After the sun went down, I headed into Edisto Beach and grabbed some grub. I then parked at the gate to the entrance of Botany Bay(where boneyard beach is) and made myself as comfortable as possible for a really warm night in the back of the Ford. During the drive there, little frogs with some insanely high vertical leaping ability would be crossing the road. One stayed long enough for me to get out the camera-phone and snap a shot of him lit up with a mag-lite.
After that, I rolled the windows down a touch a fell asleep listing to the frogs and bugs play a swamp song. I was actually surprised at how loud it was in the swamp.
After a night of listening to that, I patiently waited for the gate to open again and headed back in for a nice sunrise.
Then after a quick swim in a perfectly temperature regulated Atlantic Ocean, and after getting destroyed by a million bugs(even after another photographer gave me some Repel) I bailed. I'll take more in the winter:)
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Planning is a very important part of any type of photography, but especially nature photograpy. When out photographing nature, you are forced to follow the ever changing(yet very predictable) schedule of the earth, stars, and moon. Because of this, it is very important to have a plan.
Even if certain obstacles get in your way, YOU MUST STICK TO THE PLAN!!! For example, my recent trip to Lake James in North Carolina was a seemingly well planned outing. It started out the way it usually does, me laying on the couch perusing The Photographer's Ephemiris on my phone. The sun/moon rise and set at different times/angles based on the time of year/month. And The Photographer's Ephemiris has been crucial in helping me find where I am gonna go.
After some looking around, I found this lake's edge on the map. It's around 2hrs driving time from my house. Without doing anymore research, I started driving. I had a plan now, go to James Lake, park on Powerhouse Rd, and photograph the sunset and the following moonset(a 2% crescent is sweeeeet)
Upon arrival, I immediately noticed that this area was mostly owned by Duke Energy. There were many signs that stated "no persons allowed in this area" and "Police are authorized to arrest!". I was a little bit worried by this. Along with the "no trespassing" signs were a bunch of "no parking" signs. I drove up and down the road a few times trying to sort out what to do. You see, my plan was photographing the sunset, and it was a plan that I intended to work.
After a little driving, I found a place below a bridge that didn't have any obvious singage except for a 'no parking' sign. I decided that if I got a parking ticket, it would be a fair price to pay, so I parked anyways and enjoyed a wonderful sun/moonset.
You see, the moral of this story, is this: You plan your work, you work your plan, even if that plan has legal ramifications.
The acceptable results are below, thanks for reading:)
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| Fielding, the boat's owner suggested this photo. |
They say that 'pre-visualization' is the most important part of photography. And while it's hard to fully pre-visualize a photo shoot where you don't really know what anything is gonna look like, the following photos two photographs were the ones that I can honestly say I 'pre-visualized' :)
We made a quick stop to a field near the lake.
Then, as soon as we started to head home the boat decided that it only wanted to go in circles. As soon as this happened, the rain started POURING down. If it hadn't been for the rainfly that comes with Clik Elite photography backpacks, I would have been screwed. To get the boat moving, Fielding had to lay down in the engine compartment and manually steer the rudder while Levi shouted out direction. By the time we got back to the dock, we all were completely soaked and thankful that the lightning that had surrounded us decided not to strike too close. While I am thankful to be alive, I would do it again in a heartbeat. :)
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| Lindsey and Stephanie enjoying an umbrella while Levi and Fielding fix the boat. |
Well, I can see that she did 'man up' indeed. We were wading through a creek, hiking through brush, and spending time up at Doughton Park, which can be a bit chilly when the wind picks up.
The fun I had with his couple set the fun scale to a new maximum. I had a great time and they are pleased with the images. And aside from the time where I slipped on top of a waterfall and almost fell to my death, the shoot went off without a hitch. :)
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| At the Brenigar Cabin |
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| At a waterfall in Northern North Carolina |
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| Sunset at Doughton Park |
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| Some great color during sunset at Doughton Park |
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| After sundown shot at the Bluffs Lodge Terrace |
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| Justin and Ashley put in some time making props and the results were great. |
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So, when I found out that Hanging Rock State Park was less than 90 minutes away from my house I was just a little disappointed that I had not gone there earlier. It will suffice to say that I was rewarded for waiting so long:)
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| Near one of the first waterfalls I visited was a grown up bird wondering when the baby birds were gonna stop complaining. |
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| Hidden Falls on the Indian Creek Trail. |
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| The upper part of Window Falls |
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| The Lower Cascades, my favorite falls of the park. |
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| A sunset from Hanging Rock and a great finish to the day. |
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The Great Dismal Swamp is a pretty impressive area. I am surprised there weren't more people there since it is in such close proximity to some really big cities. I actually didn't see another person in the swamp or lake once I got on the kayak(there were some people milling about the boat ramp area).
The Dismal Swamp is near Chesapeake VA, and it straddles the VA/NC border. It's about a 6hr drive from Galax if you count the time it took for me to go to Riner and pick up the kayak that a friend foolishly let me borrow.
I got a bit of a late start on the drive due to lunch with the gf and some friends. So I didn't arrive at the boat ramp until about 7:30pm. This made it pretty much impossible to get to the campsite before dark, as it's about a 3 mile kayak trip.
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| Getting dark in the Feeder Ditch |
The good thing about the campsite, is that it is located near the lock that keeps the lake level high. There are some services there including flush-able toilets, power outlets, tables, and a little house where I think a ranger can stay or something. The REALLY good thing about the campsite was the lights! It got dark well before I made it to camp, but as I got closer I could start to see fluorescent lights, guiding me there(the Feeder Ditch through the swamp is a straight shot, just loooooooooong)
The lock consists of a spillway and a cable boat transporter thing. Basically, you put your boat on it, press a button and it takes your boat up the and over the hill to the other side of the lock.
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| Due to peet soil or something like that, the water here is brown like tea:) |
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| I slept in that brown building:) |
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| Put your boat on here... |
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| ...press a button and it will take your boat over here.. |
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| I took this on the way out, since when I started it was too dark to see the sign. |
Once I got to the camp, I found out that the sit-on-top kayak I borrowed uses holes in the floor of the rear compartment as ballast. This normally wouldn't be a big deal but my sleeping bag was at the bottom and therefor soaked:) Luckily when I picked up the kayak I stole a tarp is well. So instead of pitching a tent I slept on the floor of one of the screened in picnic table areas(the tarp would be a bit too big of a sleeping back for a two-man tent).
Now to the good part...
I have had some pretty incredible areas all to myself in the past. I have blazed a trail in fresh snow to Mystic Lake in Montana. I've sat and watched the stars turn over a moonlit Devil Canyon without being disturbed. I've enjoyed hours in the Stillwater Canyon without seeing a soul.... But for some reason, waking up at 4:30am from a tarp, hopping in a kayak onto what looks like a sheet of glass, and paddling out of the swamp and into Lake Drummond where huge monoliths rise up out of the water, where the sound of the kayak's wake, frogs, and birds are all that you hear(I was up before the planes started flying overhead)... this was one of the most incredible experiences in my life, even if it only lasted for a short time.
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| It's hard to see in this photo, but the far tree was chock full o' birds |
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| Vibrant green on the edge of Lake Drummond |
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| The southern Edge of Lake Drummond has a different look. I used a CPL, an ND filter and a Singh-Ray reverse grad to manage an 8 second exposure to capture this scene. |
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| A warbler(I think) |
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| Turtles were EVERYWHERE! |
One thing I learned on this trip, is that it is very hard to setup compositions on a kayak. What would normally be easy to change on dry land is more difficult when working over the side of a boat. I used 3/4" wooden dowels rammed up into the bottom of my tripod legs to give me the height needed(the lake is about 4-6ft deep).
So here it is... the first car I ever purchased from a dealership.
Its got room for 4 fullsized people + two small sized people(the far back seats are a bit cramped)
All passenger seats fold flat.
It has AWD, a 6 speed auto, and a 260hp engine that helps me get around multiple cars when the center line turns dotted:)
and... I've always wanted a station wagon.... :)
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| The dealership transferred my plates and everything:) |
I arrived about 30 minutes before sunset, and once the sun actually set, my eyes were peeled looking for the comet.
After waiting about 25 minutes after sunset, I started to get frustrated with not being able to see it. I even googled how to see it(luckily I had data service), and space.com stated that the comet would be visible just to the left of the crescent moon(at this point I couldn't even see the moon).
...A few minutes later... Boom, there's the moon, a tiny crescent almost perfectly following the sun. But still no comet.... So I waited... and waited... and waited... and then I got really frustrated because the wind was howling and I was starting to feel like this whole night would be time spent in vain(even though shots with crescent moons are nice by themselves).
I looked again at where space.com said to look, and took a photo of the general vicinity using my 70-200mm lens. Then upon viewing the image... there it was. I tiny little streak in the sky right where it was supposed to be. It was so small that it was very hard to spot with the naked eye even after finding out exactly where it was.
After I got home and loaded the images on the computer, I noticed that Comet Pan-STARRS was visible WELL before I noticed it on the back of my camera. It was visible while the moon was much higher in the sky!(and I didn't have a clue)
Oh well.... Enjoy...
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| Comet Pan-STARRS near a setting crescent moon backed by a rich pre-twilight sky. |
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The items I brought with me were as follows
Canon 5d Mark ii
Canon 17-40mm f4L(your widest lens is recommended)
Tripod
Intervalometer or Cable Release.
Extra Battery(a battery grip would be perfect for this)
A smart phone with a stargazer app.
A good radio station or an mp3 player with 4 hours of music:)
I knew that the Geminids were going to peak around 2am on the night of the shoot. So I left the house just after midnight to head to my shooting area(about 20 minutes from my house).
Upon arrival, the first thing I needed to do was find out where in the sky the meteors were going to come from.The Radiant(the constellation in the sky that they seem to fall from) this night was Gemini constellation. Once I found that constellation on my smartphone I had a better idea as to where to point the camera. It is not recommended to point your camera directly at the radiant point because a falling metoer hitting your lens can cause serious damage. Just kidding, the closer the meteors are to the radiant, they shorter they appear(think of someone shooting an arrow directly at you from 100ft away, and then someone shooting an arrow to a point 50ft to your left. The arrow travels the same distance, but you can see much more of it when it is viewed from the side)
From here on out, all that mattered was how I was going to compose the scene. I opted to put a tent into my scene, so I placed a light inside the tent to help me compose my scene in the dark.
Once my camera was composed, I set the camera to shoot 30 second exposures at 3200iso, 17mm, f4. I used the intervalometer as a standard cable release and just locked it down. If you are shooting with a lens around the 24mm length, I would recommend a shorter exposure time, as the star movement will be more apparent on a longer focal length.
Then, all you do is enjoy the show. I ended up with several meteors showing up in the resulting images.
Before I packed everything up and left, I needed to capture an exposure for the tent. You can get really creative here if you would like, with any sort of foreground. For mine, I stood behind my tent and shined the light for a few seconds.
Since I had been shooting for many hours in the early part of the morning, my camera, tripod, and tent were covered in dew and frost!
Now for the boring part....
It's really easy to blend all the exposures together properly. First I find my tent picture, adjust the white balance to the light of the flashlight, and save it(note that this will look terrible on the top half of your image)
Once I have found all of the metoers, I adjust the image for contrast, sharpness, and very importantly, white balance(from here on out you will be working with jpegs), then save all the images in full resolution.
Next you will need to 'blend' them all together. This is really easy, just a little time consuming. If you are not familiar with using layers in photoshop or the gimp, make yourself familiar, then keep reading(sorry no screenshots)
I use the Gimp. It's free, easy, and exactly like photoshop for the things I do. All I really use it for is layers and masking, all my other edits are completed with Lightroom and Lightroom plugins.
I opened up all the images as seperate projects(you can open them up as layers if you like working that way). I like working on them one at a time so I keep them seperate. Then I copy and past one of the images onto another image and add a full transparent layer mask(make a note of where the meteor is in your image before adding the layer mask, because it will disappear). Then I use the 'lighten only' brush and draw a thin line over the meteor's trail. This will expose the meteor, and some surrounding stars, so keep it tight! Flatten your image, rinse, repeat until all of your meteor trails are displaying nicely in one frame.
Then grab your tent image and add it as a layer. Using the same principle as before, I added the tent into the scene.except I did not use the 'lighten only' brush, I used 'normal'). Since the treeline in my image was black in both the photo shot for the tent, and the stars, blending them together was easy.
There you have it, an image with two parts. The bottom part a tent with a white balance set to the flashlight, and the top part a bunch of meteors raining down in a nice cool blue sky:)
Oh and if you take all those photos from your night and blend them together with star trail software, the results are cool as well:)
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| Pilot Mountain Pre-dawn |
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| Looking up at a backlit red leaf |
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| Just off the trail near the summit of Stone Mountain. Rain and flowing water leave thier mark down the mountain. |
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| A view from the homestead |
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| A group of buzzards swooping around and acting like the juveniles that they are |
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| Looking up at Buzzards above Stone Mountain |
I find it funny how much we as humans waste time. More time is not guaranteed, nor is it ever able to be replenished, yet, we waste it like crazy. Whether we are watching mindless tv, looking at facebook(biggest time killer ever), or just being lazy... we waste TONS of time. Even right now as I write this, I am essentially killing time. I don't have anywhere to be so I sat down and edited some photos from this morning.
Editing photos becomes cruising the web, reading news.... killing time.
In Edward Abbey's 'Desert Solitaire', he talks about a place where the days are long, and time seems to creep and last forever, just as it should be.
I couldn't agree more, it's hard to find that anywhere but the desert but I think it's still worthwhile to look.
Time is an enemy in life. work deadlines, sales quotas, retirement funds, savings accounts, all things that take up multiple resources including time. I think it's important for all of us to find time to escape time. For me, photography gives me a sense of that peace. Like today, for example. I knew exactly when the sun was going to rise, I showed up early and set up different compositions, took some test exposures, adjusted my polarizer, and waited for the sun to rise. I start shooting like crazy, hurrying from one composition to the next... and just like that, the sun was up, and the shooting was over. But I didn't just walk back to the car and leave, the moment just after the sun comes up out of the clouds is my favorite. It's when I turn the camera off, put the lens cap on, move the tripod off to the side, and just watch and feel the warmth. For a moment there, I really stopped caring about the time, and that right there is a little slice of heaven.
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| Fall color near Fox Hunter's Paradise on the Blue Ridge Parkway. |
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Fall is such an incredible time of year. It's a wonderful time of year for photogs and non-photogs alike to enjoy the cool mornings, warm days, and some really intense color in the trees.
Shenandoah National Park has just about as much fall color as a camera sensor could handle. Sometimes too much... Now, I realize that this is probably not true, but I do feel as if camera sensors don't always do justice to the scene. Yet, other times, a camera sensor brings out more than the human would have seen anyways, so finding the balance can be tricky. For example, if I tried to make the colors as vivid in the below photo as they were in real life, I would have some very funky, over-saturated images.
But maybe it's a good thing that cameras only tell part of the story. If we were able to fully satisfy our thirst for wilderness with a photograph, there might not be any desire to actually be IN the wilderness!
Oh well, until then I guess we as photographers(and many more successfully than I) will have to keep attempting to recreate the beautiful, colorful 3d world into a 2d format that is very unforgiving of your mistakes.
Both images below were shot with the same focal length(17mm), using much different perspectives.
Both images were shot at waterfalls in Shenandoah National Park, about 18 hours apart.
At this time of year, the waterfalls in the area aren't exactly roaring:) They more or less trickle down the rocks in tiny streams, dreaming of a day when they can be big and strong again!
Because of this, the focus really isn't on the falls themselves, they merely play a part in the photograph.
In the top photo, the waterfall takes part in a colorful, yet stark scene of fall color, grey hemlocks, and bald rocks.
In the below photo, the fall color takes the stage in the form of a beautiful reflection. And the only part of the falls that's visible is simply a shallow pool at the bottom.
In both photos I used a Kenko Zeta CPL. I like the Zeta line of polarizers because they are multicoated, reducing flare, and don't detract from your image like a cheap filter will. They also are affordably priced at around $160(some polarizers can be well over $200).
In the top image I used the polarizer to remove the reflection from the water around the fall, adding to the contrast of the scene with the waterfall 'popping' out a touch from the dark rocks.
In the below image I used it to enhance the reflection of the trees. This brought out not only the fall color, but rich blues from the sky as well.
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But sometimes, it's luck that makes you prepared in the first place. Like this particular evening.
I was in Shenandoah National Park for the second time in less than a month. I came here a few weeks ago with the gf, and loved it so much I knew I had to return for more fall color photography.
Upon my arrival, I had a two small hikes planned, and then figured I would catch the sunset from one of the park's 75 lookouts. Easy... right?
Well, it's hard to plan photography sometimes, because we photographers are constantly finding different things to photograph. A mile long walk through nice looking moss and leaves can take hours, and that's all before we get the our intended destination.
So there I was on the last hike of the night, heading for White Oak Canyon Falls. A nice waterfall in a canyon full of fall color. My award winning guidebook(which cost me $2 at the Big Meadow Visitor Center) said the hike round trip was 4.6 miles.
Off I went, I was about a half-mile into the trail, at about 4:45pm when I crossed an intersection with another trail where a man was sitting. I nodded 'hi' and kept moving, until he shouted "Hey, you going all the way to the falls?
"Yes" I said,
"You gotta light? You gonna be coming back in pitch black!"
In my head I knew that I would have to walk about .5 miles per hour for me to take that long, since civil twilight provides a little bit of light after sunset.
"Really?" I said, "My book said it's only 4.6 miles round trip"
Shaking his head he said "no, more like 4 miles one way"
"ok, well I guess I will just give it a shot!" I smarted back to him as I walked away...
As I was leaving I could hear the man's wife mentioning to him that the trail was in fact, only 2.3 miles one way.
As a continued down the trail, I kept thinking to myself "man that guy was a Dbag, just because it takes him 2hrs to walk 2 miles doesn't mean it's gonna take me that long"
But for some reason, this interaction with this man made me hurry. I kept looking up at the sky reassuring myself that I had plenty of time. But my reassurances were short lived, I started to run.
And run I did! I ran pretty much all the way to the falls, cutting out a TON of walking time. Just before I got to the falls, I checked the sun calculator on my phone, and found out that the sunset was MUCH sooner than I expected. For some reason I thought it was to be around 7pm, when it was closer to 6:30pm.
I took a look at the waterfall when I got there, snapped a photo or two, then made my way back. I wasn't really concerned about the sunset, just getting out before pitch black, like the guy said earlier.
As you know, since I am typing this, I survived the dark abyss of the White Oak Canyon Trail. I got in the car and made my way back towards Big Meadow. As I passed the first overlook, what I saw was the tail end of an incredible sunset over the Shenandoah Mountains. The layers of mountains and rich color were quite the sight to see.
And then I remembered a blog post I had read earlier in the week from a photographer mentioning that a very, very young moon(super skinny crescent) would be visible just after sunset. I looked around for it but couldn't see anything, so I got back into the car and started eating an incredibly delicious turkey sandwich made with Earth Grains 100% Whole Wheat Bread. The texture of the bread and the taste of the Miracle Whip and thinly sliced turkey were truly amazing... but then, I saw it, the moon. It was behind a layer of clouds and falling fast.
I raced out of the car and started firing away, and just like that.... it was gone.
I then thought back to the man who told me to hurry, and how lazy I thought he was. I'm glad that the part of me that controls my legs actually listened to him and ran the first half of the trail. Otherwise, not only would I have been walking out of White Oak Canyon in the dark, I would have missed this awesome sliver of a moon. I most likely would have been mauled by a pack of juvenile black bears as well. :)
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| A young crescent moon sets over Shenandoah National Park |
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At the Massie Gap parking area, you start off in a field of scattered trees, but as you ascend, the landscape becomes more and more open. There are some rock outcroppings that, when climbed, give you a nice perspective of your surroundings.
The only downside to the Highlands is the wind. The wind, at times, can be punishing to say the least. Today was no exception, actually, it was an exception, it was exceptionally STRONG today.
Just getting out of the car in the dark with that strong of wind is daunting.... I really didn't want to:) But... I did, and it was worth it. The wind presents multiple challenges. First of all, everything is moving, A LOT. Short exposures and high ISO is necessary, and a necessary evil at that. Even the sweetest, most awesomest cameras suffer at high ISO.
This morning, a beautiful crescent moon was rising into the sky. During the predawn hours, when the cloudiness is 'partly', the colors are beautiful. The rich blue sky and rising sun create an awesome darkening gradient.
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| The wispy clouds wash out the crescent moon. |
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| Big Pinnacle, the point off to the left, is the highest point within the park. Lens distortion makes the hill to the far left seem higher. You can see the trail on the bottom right of this scene, this takes you past the horses, and towards the Appalachian Trail. |
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| This HDR(processed in Photoshop) was taken in crazy high winds, I had difficulty shielding the camera from the winds. |
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| I took a break from most of the wind and headed down the hill towards the wild ponies. |
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| A somewhat intimate portrait of a horse(my longest lens is 50mm) |
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| Awesome fall color in the Highlands. The road to the left of this scene, is the road you would take if going to the Grayson Highlands Visitor Center. On the way back from the visitor center, you past the only place on a road where you can see Mount Rogers, the highest peak in VA. It's not much of a spectacle, just a big hill. |
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| From Big Pinnacle, you can see the edge of Virginia, into North Carolina, and even the beautiful state of Tennessee. |
On the way out of the park, I took a few shots of some awesome fall color. I would highly recommend that all of you take a trip to the Blue Ridge Mountains within the next few weeks:)
Thanks for looking. :)]]>
I think part of this was because of my lens line up. I only had 3 lenses and all were prime. There is nothing wrong with shooting primes(super fast/sharpest available/less quality compromise), it's just much more difficult out in the elements to be changing lenses/filters to get the shot.
Back when I was shooting Pentax primarily, I had multiple zoom lenses that made shooting fun and easy. It's also significantly less expensive to shoot a camera with an APS-C(crop) sensor.
Now that I have a full frame sensor I have found purchasing lenses to be difficult, to say the least. I read reviews left and right, compare different lenses to different applications, and it seems that there is always a compromise. And when you are on a budget and want the best you can afford, compromise is a must(even though it isn't super fun).
I ended up purchasing a 17-40mm f4 L from a store called Lee Hartman and Sons, in Roanoke. It's the best compromise for me, I think. It's sharp, weather sealed, much wider than my previous lens, and uses a standard 77mm filter. The compromise, or downside to the lens is the f4 aperture(static stars need not apply), and the vignetting.
Today was the first day with my new lens. I had an awesome time crawling about and wading in the creek today. Having the ability to zoom was something I had taken for granted for sure! I love how wide the perspective is, how sharp the images are, and just overall I find this lens to be a great fit for me.
Now I know why the 17-40mm f4 L is such a common lens among nature photographers.
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| I used two images to capture more depth in this scene. |
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| Leaves were falling like crazy today! |
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When you hear country music stars talk about 'cooling off in the creek' or 'skinny dipping in moonlight' or any other kind of swimming hole, this is what they are talking about. Being from Montana, I can't say I have a lot of experience swimming in rivers. Mountain streams are bitter cold, and to me, even the lakes aren't swimmable till 2pm in the summer. And the larger rivers can be hazardous to your health(currents that can KILL!)
But, when it's 95° out and humid as can be, a cool creek down in a hollar is quite refreshing.
Even now in October, the water was somewhat pleasant, not too cold to stand in for a long period of time. Towards the end of my little outing I attempted to cross the creek in an area about waiste deep, but the farther out into the creek I went, the more and more the current was about to push me over, and since I was carrying my 'nice' camera, back to the shore I went:)
The below image was shot using two images. One was focused on the foreground leaves, and the second on the background. I could have gottent most of the scene in focus using f22, but the diffraction of that aperture can really bring down the sharpness of an image. Hence, I shot the two images using f8 or f11 or something like that:)
I photograph this pretty often, mainly because it never lets me down. As long as the fog isn't too terribly thick, the views from the Fox Hunter's Paradise area never disappoint.
This was taken just south of Fox Hunter's Paradise, at a large opening off the Blue Ridge Parkway.
Sort of unrelated side story.....
The Grand Tetons in Wyoming are a beautiful sight to see. So beautiful in fact, that the fur traders that first came to the area called them "les Trois Tétons" or "the Three Breasts." "The Three Breasts", how awesome of a name is that!?
I am hoping that after the fall of civilized man, and rebirth of the cave man(it's bound to happen), that the future, primitive, uneducated fur traders will give Pilot Mountain a proper name. I can't say exactly what that will be, but my recommendation would be either Bosom Hill, or Mt. Milk Canon or something like that:)
Good Morning......
During this trip, we never made it out of the south district of the park(the park is crazy long). Therefore I will be returning to the park in the near future to capture images from the other districts, and to take in the peaking fall color:)
Thanks for looking....
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| The first sunrise we got to see, shot with a Canon 70-200 2.8L and a graduated ND filter. |
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| A not-so-terrible looking HDR shot with the Canon 24mm 2.8 |
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| Layers of hill/mountains. |
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| A roadside spike! |
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Sort of unrelated back story....
I went to the Mesa Verde Arch in Canyonlands National Park late last fall. I was not the first to arrive at the parking lot, but the first to the arch, well before sunrise. There is a bush very near the arch that I hid in front of so that other people/photographers could also enjoy the sunrise from behind me. It was a wonderful experience full of shutter clicks and the occasional 'that's beautiful' comment from a wife to a husband. But other than that, it was quiet. We all showed respect for one another to maximize the enjoyment for everyone that was there....
This day at the waterfall was a bit different. Maybe people are just more polite out west, but here in Shenandoah I got a bad taste in my mouth regarding the average tourist.
A photographer doesn't show up to a landmark and yell and laugh with his friends, he doesn't let his kids run wild all over the place, he is there to document, and enjoy. He(hopefully) has others in mind as he does his thing.
This waterfall was full of loud people, laughing and yelling, kids running all over the place, people stopping for long periods of time to take photos from the trail that also included other people trying to get by. It was.... crazy... to say the least.
Even as bothered as I was by this, when climbing the different levels of the falls I still naturally tried to stay out of other people's way, as much as I wanted to stand up on the middle tier and shoot right in the center of it, ruining everyone's photographs. But alas... I resisted these temptations, and resisting temptation is definitely not my forte:)
I will make my next trip to the falls more enjoyable by showing up super early in the morning. If there are any people there at that time, they are more likely to have the same values as me regarding the enjoyment of nature:)
I write this to encourage you to soak in nature the way it was supposed to be soaked in. Listen to the sounds of the falling water, watch the occasional leaf be spun around in a whirlpool, feel the same wind that moves the trees so dramatically. Just take it in, and share:)
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| The middle tier of Dark Hallow falls. Shot with the Sigma 50mm 1.4. |
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| A wider perspective of the middle tier. Shot with the Canon 24mm 2.8. |
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| Top tier of the falls, shot with the Canon 24mm 2.8 using a graduated ND filter. |
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| A closer, yet still wide perspective of the top tier of the falls. |
This was going to be a post about an awesome waterfall in the South District of Shenandoah National Park. Jones Run Falls, to be exact. It didn't quite work out that way...
I must be honest with you. While I enjoy the journey, I am a 'destination' kind of guy. Most of my pleasure comes from reaching/photographing my destination. As for the journey? That's just gravy(but not my fave)
Well today was a little different. The gf and me were en route to Jones Run Falls, when we noticed two hikers looking up into the woods. What they were looking at turned out to be a yearling black bear. I attempted to mount the zoom lens, but by the time all of that took place, the bear was a long ways away through a dense forest... but still fun to see no doubt(turns out that the journey can be fun afterall!)
The trails in Shenandoah are carpeted with yellow and red leaves right now, and the color is only getting more intense. Below are a few images of the leaves that have fallen in the right spot:)
All images below(with the exception of the final image) are shot with the Sigma 50mm 1.4 through a Helioplan Circular Polarizer. The final image was shot with the Canon 70-200 2.8 L.
Are you prepared for the following image? Can you ever truly be prepared for a raging waterfall such as the one you are about to see? I present to you, in all its glory..... JONES RUN FALLS!!!!!!!!!!
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| Ok so maybe it isn't that awesome:( |
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| Vines creeping up a tree. |
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| Backlit Leaves.... |
Thanks for looking... I will have one more post on Shenandoah(until the next time I go later this month) :)
Before winter, we get to experience an incredible transition. We get to see mountain after mountain painted with bright yellow, orange, and red. Combine this with the already beautiful blue haze of the Blue Ridge Mountains, and you have yourself one colorful sight to see for sure.
The peak colors are happening in different areas very soon. During our hikes(photos to come) we saw some great forest color, both up high and carpeting the forest floor.
I would like to encourage you to get out, take a drive(even better, walk) through nature and soak it all in. Soon enough, it will all be gone, and we will be waiting for green again.
Below are two images from our last morning in the park. We got up REALLY early to catch the moonrise, only to find out that I had the iphone app set to the wrong day, giving us an hour at an overlook to sleep in the car.
After a quick predawn nap, we headed for an overlook that was closed to cars... Ivy Creek I think. The sunrise was incredibly colorful, even for a cloudless morning.
As soon as the sun came up(this was one of the last images I took) we headed for a different overlook facing the other direction. We drove past an opening in the road and, instead of driving to the overlook, parked the car on the shoulder and set up there. The harvest moon only comes once a year, and I felt it was very important to capture it. There is nothing extra spectacular about a harvest moon that isn't just as spectacular every other full moon, it's simply the first full moon after the beginning of fall:)
Enjoy... and get outside! If you need a hiking partner... you've got one in me!
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| A sunrise captured by the Sigma 50mm set to f16(the smallest aperture) for the sunstar effect. |
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| The fading harvest moon captured by a Canon 70-200 2.8 L. |
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| A classic Virginia view:) |
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| Not too bad of detail for a Pentax k20d + 16-45 |
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| As soon as the sun breaks, you are racing it up the creek, trying to get your shots before the rays come in. |
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| Endless cascades on Wilson Creek |
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| Big cascades, watch your step here:) |
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| I'll give you one guess as to how many aperture blades my Sears 135mm has:) They are painfully straight, as you can see in the bokeh. |
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Once I got there, a layer of clouds slowly started to move in, allowing me to shoot the falls with a little more control. A canopy of trees and a cloudless day can mean some nasty shadows, shadows that render photos worthless in my book.
Here are the images from yesterday's 'dog walk'.
The color in Virginia is only getting better... so stay tuned:)
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| The noise of this falls is best portrayed in this images(it has a bit of a roar) |
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| If you look REALLY closely you can see little Margot the Yorkie on the bank |
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| The clouds really started rolling in as I left |
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| It only gets better in October too:) |
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There are a lot of miles to hike around here, even if there aren't very many trails. I think there are 3-4 trails but they range from 1-10 miles in length(with some steep climbs if you want). Today I went up the trail less than a mile, but it took me nearly 3 hours(macro photography will do that to ya).
I somewhat broke the rules with my shooting times today. I know that it shouldn't matter what time you show up, but let's be honest... the earlier the better:) I lazily rolled onto the scene around 9am(about 4 hours later than I should have).
Oh well...
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| Instead of an overwhelmingly blue photo(as the Blue Ridge often creates) I opted for monochrome in this scene taken with the Pentax K20d + 135mm 2.8 |
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| Rays of light as captured by the Canon 5d Mark ii and Sigma 50mm |
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| A short hike up from 'The Saddle' parking lot. |
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| Virginia is always in some kind of bloom:) |
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| I don't really know what or why about these. It appears that tiny bits of leaves got surrounded by water... it was in a crevice of a rock. The light was very low, so a bigger aperture high iso were used to capture it, even if it was poorly done:) |
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| Another sure tell sign of Autumn:) |
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| Some greens make their way out from under the bottom layer. |
Thanks for looking:) Y'all have a good rest of whatever you are in:)
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Today I set off for Stone Mountain State Park in North Carolina. It borders the Parkway. There wasn't a soul at the parking lot, which brought me great joy... I get to hang out in the forest without anyone else:)
Aside from the occasional turtle or fish, I pretty much did have the place to myself. I really don't know why anyone would be out there, the rain was coming down HARD, hard enough that the rain caused my camera(the Pentax) to lose it's ability to control the lens' aperture. It was at that point when I decided I should pack it out. Fortunately I managed a handful of photographs first:)
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| Mist at Fox Hunter's Paradise |
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| Flourishing Fungus near the trailhead |
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| A windy creek near the path |
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| Middle Falls - Stone Mountain State Park |
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| A raging and muddy Big Pine Creek(shot from a bridge on the parkway) |
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