Sharp Top and Flat Top in Peaks of Otter
During the week of Thanksgiving, I was planning on some grand adventure to the Dismal Swamp and shooting some night photography. Flash forward after a 5 hour drive all the way out there and it was CLOSED!!! I had been getting updates from the Depart of Game and Inland Fisheries, when I needed to be looking to the Army Corps of Engineers who operate the eastern side of the ditch! So that was a 10 hour in the car day. Bummer.
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!
