Another Day on Foot at Home

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Another Winter

OK, so the roads are fine and I could drive anywhere I wanted to today.  Normally, I would take advantage of that fact and head out to go hiking or maybe do the rural exploration thing.  However, I had so much fun yesterday just walking around the neighborhood, I decided to keep with that theme for the weekend.  I couldn't help but think to myself that a photographer worth his salt would be able to make great images close to home as easy as if there was a long road trip involved.  We had snow on the ground, and that changed so much of the landscape, and since that was what I would be photographing, I didn't see a reason that I couldn't shoot the snow that was close by.

I woke up shortly after sunrise, and considered my options.  I had gone to sleep last night expecting to wake up to mostly clear skies with snow still on the ground.  The plan was to walk about a mile away from home to an old farmhouse that has been abandoned for many years now.  That was the plan.  That bed felt very good though, and I was more than happy to stay in it and rest a little more.  But part of being a photographer is getting up early for no other reason than the light is better at the beginning of the day.  Since I was close to my subject, I was already getting to sleep in late as it was.  I guilted myself out of bed for the sole reason of, "the snow won't be here forever."  If I passed up on this opportunity, I might not get another chance this Winter.

I got moving slowly with every expectation that I would talk myself out of going to the old farmhouse.  I mean, I have been there about a half dozen times over the years and have photographed it in lots of different conditions.  But there was snow today, and that was not a regular occurrence here in Winston.  But what if I walked the mile out there, and the light is wrong?  What if I can't get any good images?  I could just stay home.  I'm a photographer (insert expletive here)!!  I will go out and try it to see what I can do with the scene.  I had a previsualization of what I was expecting after all.

Shadow of the Tree

When I got outside, I could see that the sky was nice and blue to the North, and the sun was providing some really good light.  As I walked, I could see that the trees were still holding onto the snow that was covering the branches.  It was mostly ice by this point, but it was still there.  If I was lucky, I would get to benefit from this with the trees near the house.  There was very little traffic on the roads and it was almost a nice walk with the warm sun shining on me.  My fingers were numb, but I expected that and had gloves if I needed them.

When I got out onto the main road, I could see the house in the distance.  The light was hitting it just the way I was hoping that it would.  There was a warm glow on the side of the house which was important since it was a white house, and I didn't want it to blend into the snow too much.

Come, Sit a Spell in B&W

When I arrived, the snow was mostly untouched except for deer tracks which I could easily live with.  Having shot this scene many times, I knew that the best lens for the task was my 24-70mm which gave me the option of shooting wide, as well as getting in and doing isolations on the house.  I started off with a pretty standard quarter shot from the driveway.  Looking at the deep blue of the sky and the clouds, I was thinking about doing some monochrome images to really make the snow, and the siding pop.  I grabbed my Singh Ray Color Combo Polarizer to help with the contrast in the sky.

Something that I just love about this old house is the condition of that siding.  The paint has been peeling for years, and there are holds developing in different areas.  There is just so much to see on this siding.  The textures more than make up for the lack of actual color on this house, although the chimney does stand out against the white quite well.  There are also a couple of really interesting trees on the property that I can include in different ways with different compositions.  This is just a really fun little place to shoot.

Essentially Bare

With the blue sky and snow, the trees actually took on a whole new importance to my compositions.  The way they were almost growing around the house was too interesting to pass up, and I was lucky enough to still have the benefit of the snow on the branches.  Like yesterday, that really helped to define the lines of the branches and help the eyes see the flow of the limbs.  In the composition above, the story is actually the tree, and the house becomes a secondary element.  The framing really shows how the tree mimics the roof line of the house, and they really seem to belong together.  The blue sky highlights the entire picture, and draws your eye right to the tree.  The wooden door and chimney provide some much needed visual warmth to the image that is so predominantly cool toned.

Winter Arrives

When I backed up a little bit, there was another really large tree that also favored the shape of the house.  By getting a nice wide angle composition, I was able to use the foreground tree as a framing element for the entire house.  For a bit of added visual interest, I would wait for the clouds to move away from the sun so that a shadow could be cast.  Now, the tree not only frames the house, but is tattooed onto the house itself.  This is a great example of having two different elements connected to each other, and enhancing each other.  An image like this would not have had near the impact without the snow on the ground, so I was really thankful that I pulled up my photographer britches and braved the cold morning to get these pictures.

No Warmth Here

Speaking of the cold, it was right chilly out there standing in the snow.  The blue sky and the cooler color temperatures of late morning were starting to really flatten the image and I needed some help from the warm tones that were present.  The best source of (visual) warmth was the chimney on the side of the house.  One of the last few images of the morning featured that chimney as an attempt to balance out the color pallet in the image.  It succeeded in bringing in a lot of visual warmth that complimented the blues quite well.  The tree behind the house was a nice bridging element to break up the white of the house and snow, against the light gray of the clouds.  The composition worked very well, but I was still quite cold, and wondered when the last fire was ever burning in that fireplace.

Come, Sit a Spell

Funny thing about this old house...I have lived in my house since 2001.  I drove past this house at least once a week and never really noticed it.  In fact, it wasn't until sometime around 2008 that I started to pay any attention at all to this house.  I was still getting started in photography and was leaving the house one day and happened to see the sun really lighting up the side of this farmhouse.  I think it was in June or July, around the middle of the day.  The sun was very harsh, but I started to shoot it anyway.  I even lucked up and got a cat in a few of the pictures.  The final images were all really good, and some of my best rustic pictures to date.  

Since that time, I have ventured back to it many times.  I have seen the aging process at work on the house, and have started to feel a connection to it.  I don't know how much longer this house will remain here, but I do hope that it is a lot longer.  Every year or so, I get the urge to go back and document the current condition it is in.  It fits very well with my wabi sabi approach to photography, and I'm pretty sure that I am documenting something that won't be around much longer.  That is a pretty important reason to get out there and make pictures.

Tall Tales

of course, every time that I am out here with my camera, I keep wondering to myself about what all this house has been through over the years.  I know that it has a lot of stories, and has seen generations growing up up.  There have been tears dropped on the floors, celebrations had within the walls, and friendships developing on the front porch.  These days, it is wood and brick sitting beneath trees that were just saplings when the house was new.  In the passage of time, there is beauty.  As nature reclaims the property, there is beauty.  It is hard to deny that there is a lot of beauty around this old farmhouse.  I'm just glad I'm able to photograph it and hold onto that beauty for a little while.

I wrapped my day up with just over 40 frames shot of this house.  Of that, you can see I have a bunch of keepers.  Considering that I haven't driven a single foot this weekend, I have really been fortunate with the camera to have captured all that I have.  It just goes to show that if you look close enough, there is beauty to be had anywhere.  A photographer doesn't need to travel hours away in order to capture a meaningful image.

Winston's Winter Wonderland

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Winter's Song

We were supposed to get an inch or so of snow overnight on Friday.  Well, by the time I left work that evening, the roads were already starting to get a little slick in places.  The grass was already covered up and the trees were bathed in this wonderful wet snow covering.  It was the kind that I had been very hard pressed to get pictures of over the years.  Usually, the snow that we get is either too dry to stick to the trees like this, or the rain that usually follows knocks it down too fast.  As I was coming home from work, I was looking at the trees against the white sky and wishing that I had time to get some pictures.  Unfortunately, by the time I got home, there was not nearly enough time to get out with the camera before the light faded away.  I just knew that the next morning would be a different story as the snow fell off of the trees.

Bark in the Blizzard

Well, when I work up, I looked outside to see what changes had happened.  What was this...the trees were still covered in snow, and the sky hadn't changed much at all.  I was going to be able to get some pictures today!  With the roads questionable, and my truck still clean, I didn't care to go out in search of pictures with the possibility of getting involved in a crash (I don't trust other drivers on slick roads).  Instead, I opted to stay home and do a little walk around the neighborhood and search out the trees that I found interesting.  A tree is a tree after all.  No since in driving to photograph something that you can walk out of the house and photograph just as easy.

Textures of Winter

I started out with the intention of looking everywhere to see what I could photograph.  The first part of my hike took me probably 200 feet from the front door of the house.  This was an open lot with trees all around it.  I went ahead and pulled out the camera and set it up with the 70-200mm lens.  I skipped adding any filters because with the snow coming down a little bit, I needed to keep the hood on in order to protect the front element.  There wasn't much need for any filters anyway as everything was very evenly lit with the thick clouds above.  The snow was actually reflecting the same light that was in the clouds, so I could pretty much shoot in any direction and include any part of the landscape with the same exposure.  The trick became picking out compositions.

Chilled Path

For the most part, I knew that I was going to be shooting woodland shots and predominantly monochrome compositions.  There were exceptions to that plan.  When it came to the monochrome choice, there were a lot of exceptions with splashes of color that added to the image.  I found a lot of interest in the woods around the house, and to be honest, this was the first time I had really tried to shoot in the neighborhood.  The snow made things much more interesting than they normally looked.

Wonderland

The thing that I most enjoyed about my little walk in the neighborhood was the absolute quiet that surrounded me.  The snow absorbed so much of the noise that was normally in the air leaving nothing but the crisp morning.  It was like going on a hike in an empty forest, I absolutely loved it!  The longer I was out, the more the snow started falling though.  I was sure glad that I had that lens hood on.  The rest of the camera was getting pretty wet, but nothing that I was really concerned about thanks to some pretty good weather sealing on the body and lens.

Winter's Fright

What I was finding was that the snow was doing a great job at simplifying the backgrounds in the images.  You could still make out the snarl of limbs, but the white made the primary trunks and branches stand out.  The textures of the bark really showed through which was one of my goals for this outing.  I wasn't really wanting to capture the typical snow scenes as those are always done, and I was already getting tired of seeing them on social media.  The last thing that I wanted was for my pictures to blend in with everyone else's from the area.  I had to put my little spin on the winter weather.

Snow Coatings

I don't get out to do much snow photography normally.  With my primary job as a Police Officer, I have been forced to drive in the white stuff every year for the last 18 winters.  I am confident in my ability to get around, but having seen the wrecks caused, I would just much rather avoid the situation all together.  In winters past, I have looked out of my window and wished that I had gone out to capture some of the snow shots, but had never really considered just going for a walk in the neighborhood before.  Thanks to my new "woodland" techniques, I am much better prepared for the types of photographs that I have been getting so far this morning.

Overlapping Seasons

I think at the furthest, I had walked about a half mile from home.  Considering I had never gone and shot around the neighborhood I was really surprised to see the image count adding up.  When it was all said and done, I had over 50 frames shot, and for the most part, they were all different compositions, and mostly different locations.  It didn't take long before I was already counting this little morning walk as a success.

Dancing

Since I was starting to feel pretty good about how things were going, I started to get a little creative in my compositions.  I started to find interesting trees in the landscaping of lots, as opposed to the wild trees on the edges of properties.  Some of these actually turned out pretty good.  I did have to be careful of the framing to avoid including the houses in the compositions.  These were not quite rustic enough to actually fit my style of photography.

Radiating Winter

As I was shooting the scenes and looking in the histogram, I was pretty sure that there was going to be minimal post processing needed on these.  The contrast was already there, and the lighting was already so even that there wasn't much need in dodging or burning in the images.  It really did just rest on the compositions and what I found to put in front of the lens.  Some scenes really worked well, others didn't quite have the visual strength to make it past the original culling process.  However, I have to admit that I came back with well more than the half dozen I was expecting to.

Woodland Hush

Just as I was getting good and warmed up, I started to think about some other things that I could photograph.  I was seriously thinking about an old farm house that is about a mile from my house.  I've photographed it several times in the past and have always had pretty good luck with it.  I wanted to try a few things with it, but I didn't have a very clear idea of what I was after.  As I was shooting the trees, I considered some different compositions and techniques that I could use.  The sky wasn't going to work in any of the compositions because it was just too featureless to loom right over top of the house.  That meant that I would be shooting more intimate shots.  That was good since, I was going to have to keep my long lens on due to the snow that was falling from the sky.

Three Trees

Speaking of snow, it was falling pretty heavy at this point.  So much in fact that I had to stop down the aperture a little bit to slow the shutter speed.  I was seeing that the falling snow was starting to show up in the photograph and soften the overall look of the image.  While that would work for some photographs, I didn't want it to show up in these.  The longer shutter speed was able to eliminate the snow flakes as they fell.  But looking at the rate they were falling, I realized that it was getting too heavy to really continue.  I checked my weather app, and it was showing snow for the next couple of hours at least.  I wasn't seeing my chances improving for shooting the house any time soon.

Winter's Contrast

I abandoned the want for photographing the old farm house for the time being.  The plan was to go home and wait the snow out, hoping that I could venture out later in the day.  I left the camera in the garage, just in case, to keep condensation from forming on it, and inside of it.  When it became apparent that things weren't going to change, I went back out and packed it up.  I'll possibly be going out tomorrow morning to try some shots of the barn with hopefully a blue sky above it.  Who knows, I might get two treks in this weekend without even putting a key in an ignition.

Anniversary Trip to Boone

Wednesday, January 11, 2017

Each year, Toni and I head to the mountains for our anniversary.  This year was about to be different though.  With some other commitments happening in the same week, we decided to cancel our normal vacation and stay at home.  She kept the week off from work, and I gave back all but Wednesday so that I could spend the day with my bride.  When Tuesday rolled around, Toni mentioned that she had things under control with school, and wanted to go somewhere for the day.  We quickly decided that we would make a day trip to the mountains, more specifically--Boone, NC.

Boone holds a special meaning to the both of us since we were married at the Crystal Wedding Chapel just outside of Boone.  It was a great day, and we have returned in some form or fashion to the mountains each and every year since.  It was a nice treat to be able to go back to where it all started this year.  Of course, being in the mountains after a snow storm would necessitate bringing the camera.  Fortunately, Toni understood, and agreed to either go with me, or let me go out alone in the morning to get some pictures.  This was going to work!

It was going to work until I really looked at the weather.  Nothing but full cloud clover and rain off and on for the day.  Well, I was going to give it a try since I was there.  At least I really enjoy photographing in the clouds.  The rain...not so much though.  I set out after we ate breakfast shortly before sunrise.  Toni remained in the hotel room and worked on some of her projects and school work.  It was raining, but not too bad.  Even though it was pretty cold, the roads were fine and I had no issues getting to the Parkway.  However, once I turned off of 421, I was shifting into 4WD for the needed traction to make it.

Top of the Morning

I wasn't expecting anything in the way of a sunrise this morning with the clouds so dense, so when I saw the sun poking through, I was elated.  I slid into the first vista I could find.  I have photographed from Grandview a number of times in the past, and have gotten some really good sunrise shots.  However, I typically use a medium focal length to capture the scene.  I didn't have time for any extra setting up this morning, so I left the 70-200mm attached.  I didn't even bother with any filters before I attached the camera to the tripod.  I found the right location and framed a quick shot.  I focused really fast, and dialed in the exposure.  Snap....I got one good frame with the sun between the clouds before it faded above them, washing the color out.

Sunrise Sneak

Not one to be satisfied with a single rendition of a scene, I started to look for other interesting points at the overlook.  I was still shooting with my long lens which opened up a lot of different possibilities for me since I was normally going for a wide angle approach.  I started to pick out valleys that formed leading lines.  I actually found one that worked really well, and I found it as the sky was starting to light up once again.  It was almost like a second sunrise, but fainter.  The sky was very much overcast save for that single sliver of light.  I worked that sliver since it was placed perfectly above my leading line.  I started with a nice vertical orientation to really accentuate the line, but thought that there was just too much other good stuff in the scene to avoid taking a horizontal shot or two, as well.

Morning Silence

There was something magical in the textures of the rolling hills.  The splash of color added some really good visual interest as well.  But, as I have come to learn...the light changes quickly.  It wasn't too long before the sky was all monotone once again, and I was left with very little of interest in the scene.  I was very happy that I had been at the right place at the right time to capture this unexpected sunrise though, and to have had the time to work a few different compositions was a nice cherry on top!

After packing up the camera, I got back in the truck for another edition of slip and slide down the Parkway.  It was just a matter of taking it slow and steady, while looking for another scene to photograph.  As I was looking over to the right, I saw some nice mountains with low clouds moving past them.  This was going to be my next scene, and I was rather excited about the possibilities for this one.  I got everything out of the truck and started to look at what I was working with.  I decided that I needed to swap out the lens for my 24-70mm to allow me some flexibility with the foreground.  I again chose to avoid any filters since the lighting was so even already.

Winter Textures

I started off with a nice wide view of the whole scene.  Normally, I am not a fan of snow that is melting to this extent, but in this case, it really worked.  You could see the rows from working this field, and it added to the textures I was seeing with the soft clouds, and the bare trees.  I really liked the low cloud that was passing by under the distant mountain that added a bit of drama to the scene as well.  I liked a lot of the aspects of this scene, but I wanted something in the foreground to really give it a sense of scale.

Slight Chill in the Air

This was where the 24-70mm lens really shined.  I was able to back away from the fence, and go kind of wide to incorporate the fence.  The melting snow helped to give me some visual differences in the field which kept things from being quite a static.  I was able to line the fence posts up with the slight sweep of the terrain, to help frame the mountain caught in the mist.  The sky was a little ominous as well, which helped with the overall mood of this image.  By this point, it was starting to rain a little, and I was not going to be able to stick around much longer.

Keeper of the Field

In keeping with the desire to have a strong foreground, I moved up to one of the fence posts, and kept the lens rather wide.  The single fence post made for a very prominent visual anchor, and complimented the mountain in the background.  The barbed wire and the snow provided a nice diagonal element as well.  This is probably the strongest composition of the three, but I wasn't able to really fine tune it due to the increasing rain.  It was time to load up and find another location.

I feel like I did a lot of driving at this point.  I wasn't fast though.  I fact, I was rarely out of 2nd gear as the Parkway was getting increasingly worse with the rain falling.  Even though the temperature was above freezing, the rain falling on the ice and slush on the road was starting to glaze a little bit.  There were a few times that the truck got a little squirrely which rarely happens in that truck.  The clouds were getting thicker, and I was not seeing much chance in getting any more pictures.  Thinking back to the hourly forecast, I was looking at the real rain starting in about another hour.  I figured that it was time to get off of the Parkway, and go elsewhere to hunt for some pictures.  This was a great day for finding barns, and that was what I was looking to do at this point.

Through the Ages

I wish I could remember exactly where I found this barn, but I know that it was at the base of a very steep hill.  Fortunately, the roads throughout the county were in great shape and I had no issues at all with them.  I had seen a lot of nice barns that I wanted to photograph, but they were just not really in the right setting.  That is the hard thing with barns...all too often, they are situated right under power lines, or next to houses, or have the brand new farm truck parked next to them.  I had seen a ton of barns in that category today, and I was about to lose hope in finding a good one for pictures.

However, I happened to see this green metal roof in the distance that caught my eye.  Normally, I don't like new roofs, but this one looked different.  As I pulled up close to it, I saw that it was at the base of a slight hill, which had a small cemetery on it.  There wasn't anything really close to it, and the sky above looked pretty good.  All of the major ingredients were there for this picture, so I pulled off of the road and got the camera out.  Once again, I fitted the 24-70mm lens with no filters.

In my haste, I hadn't seen the power lines that were draped over the road next to the barn.  I was going to have to get to a different vantage point to be able to capture it without the lines in the shot.  Fortunately, the driveway was inset into the fenced perimeter about a truck's length.  I was able to get in there, which turned out to be the perfect location to shoot this barn.  As I was setting things up, I noticed that one of the horses in the field had started wondering about me.  He was working his way toward me, which could be a good thing, or a bad thing.  I would have loved to have had the horse in the frame as a foreground element, but if he stopped in a bad location, I would have to either accept the composition, or clone him out.  I don't like cloning, so I fired off a quick shot before the horse got into the frame.  It worked out, and the exposure looked like a winner in the histogram.  However, I stayed around to see what the horse would do.

Through the Ages in B&W

Well, I was rather disappointed to find that the horse was a little shy. He stayed right next to the barn on the right side for most of the time I was there.  This was not a good location for him to be since he wasn't big enough to constitute an element, but was big enough to constitute a distraction.  He did finally move, and walked around to the other side, behind the corral.  This proved to have the same problems, so I was unable to use any of those pictures because the composition was just not quite right.  At least I had the original shot which worked out very well.  In fact, it turned out so well, that it screamed for a monochrome conversion which I think turned out even better than the color version!

A Soft Glow

On the way back out of the valley, I happened to see a really nice scene unfolding to the side of the road.  The clouds were starting to break up a little bit, and despite it being late in the morning, there was a soft glow coming through the clouds.  Fortunately, I found an overlook (well, a small turn out) to park.  I didn't even really consider the composition all that much, and just pulled the camera out.  I started off with the 70-200mm lens and got some shots with that just in case the lighting changed.  After I was satisfied that I had gotten the light, I started to look for some specific compositions.  What I found was not going to work with the current lens, so I swapped in the 16-35mm lens which didn't quite do what I wanted it to do, so I backed down to my standby 24-70mm lens.  this one did exactly what I wanted...

Ghost Stories

I normally try to avoid cutting the tops of trees off, and I will also try very hard to get the base of the tree in the frame as well.  This was not going to be one of those times.  I found that cropping in close to the nearby tree provided just the sense of depth that I needed to the scene.  The sky had just enough interest in the open area, and I was able to get the low clouds skirting the hills.  It was a tight composition, but one that told the full story.  When I was editing it, Toni dropped in and said that the clouds looked like ghosts.  I had to agree with her, and the picture was named in that moment.

With that, it was time to head back to the hotel room to start the rest of the day together with Toni.  We did some more exploring and saw a bunch of really cool sights, but it was more about the exploration than the photography at this point.  It was a great day, and a wonderful sixth anniversary.  It was also pretty productive in the photography department with 10 new images added from 68 frames.

Standing on an Icy Slab

February 16, 2014

The weather lately has made it rather difficult for me to get out and do much in the way of photography.  We have been hit by a winter storm that dumped about 10 inches of snow and ice which looked pretty, but made travel difficult, and also introduced new chores at home...namely shoveling the driveway.  With several days of that behind me, it was time to start looking at the weather for a good sky.  I was rather disappointed that when the snow was over, we transitioned immediately to sunny skies with no visual interest whatsoever.  On my last day off before having to go back to work, the forecast promised cloudy skies up until about lunch time.  that was enough time for me to get out and hunt some targets for my camera.

I woke up nice and early, planning on heading out to Pilot Mountain, well....at least the overlook off of US 52.  I had worked that view several time before and have enjoyed playing with the light trails.  Today, however, I wanted to try out my 10 Stop ND filter and see what kind of movement I could record in the sky.  It was an experiment more than anything.  My secondary plan was to take advantage of the overcast and seek out some barns, or old cars along the roadside until it was time to get home and wash the salt off of the truck.

This was taken after all the color had left the sky

I arrived at the overlook at about 6am, an hour before sunrise and got things set up as quickly as I could.  I knew that I was going to need my 70-200mm lens to get the reach that I needed, so I wasted no time trying out different lenses for compositions.  I found my spot and composed the image the best I could in the dark.  I had to be very careful though because I was standing on some very packed snow with an icy glaze.  Nothing like keeping on your toes with the fear of slipping and falling.

I started out with several minutes worth of exposures, but things were still rather dark and flat except for the light trails.  I was actually finding that I had very little hope for this shoot because my cloudy skies had pretty much gone away and I was left with just a few passing puffs.  I continued on in spite of this setback though.  As the sun started to come up, I could tell that what clouds were in the sky were blocking the color and leaving me with very little to work with.  However, there were some clouds working their way into the picture.  In the name of experimentation, I grabbed my 10 stop filter and slid it in the holder.  I did some quick approximations based on my current exposure and found that 7.5 minutes should work out for keeping the proper exposure with the dark filter in place.  I couldn't even see through the lens at this point, so I just clicked the shutter and waited to see what happened.

The Scenic Route

Much to my happiness, early on with that exposure the sun popped out from the clouds behind me and lit the clouds in front of me with a nice warm hue.  I wasn't real sure how this would render in the camera since I have very little experience with this type of filter.  When the full exposure ticked past, I was pleasantly surprised that the color that was recorded was actually quite a bit more intense than what I saw in reality.  The image was slightly underexposed (due to an oversight with my aperture), but it seemed to work out very well.  What you see here is not a true representation of what my eyes saw, but it is what was captured by the camera, and represents what my intention was behind the image design.  I see areas for improvement with the long exposures, but I really do see some great potential when working with cloudy skies.

The Scenic Route in B&W

More out of curiosity than anything, I made a conversion over to monochrome with this image.  I applied some tweaking to the color channels  to make sure that there was sufficient tonal separation and found that the resulting image actually was pretty strong without the color ingredient.  A quick check with Toni and she liked this one more than the color one...so here it is!  Whether in color or black and white, I can still feel the hard packed snow beneath my feet.

As I was taking a few last exposures, that were getting into the 30 second rang, I decided that even with the dense filter, I was falling victim to the daylight more than I wanted to.  It was time to move on to something else.  Fortunately, while I was making these long exposures, I had been paying attention to what was going on around me.  I had been watching the clouds to my right move across the sky just on the other side of a fence.  I went ahead and grabbed the camera and started to slowly walk over to the other side of the parking lot.  As I was about to step down from the curb, I saw what looked like standing water about two feet into the driveway.  As cold as it was, I knew better than to step down without testing it first.  Yep...just as I thought...black ice.  Having slipped on ice before and broken a camera and lens, I was a little more cautious this time.  I found a place where I could step down a little more safely and walked across the driveway.  Once at the other side, I had a similar problem, and had to find an access point I could safely get up on the curb at.

I made my way to the fence and set things up.  I removed the 10 stop filter and checked my composition. I was able to get a little bit of the sky and a nice tree with a collapsed house at the base using my 70-200mm.  That just wasn't the composition I was seeing at the time though.  I was running out of time based on how the light was changing in the clouds, but I wanted a different composition so I slapped the 24-70mm lens on with a polarizer.  I checked the exposure and found that there was too much latitude for me to get a proper exposure.  I needed to add an ND Grad filter, and it needed to be quick!

With my now numb fingers I got my adapter ring and started to try and thread it on the front of the polarizer.  Imagine screwing a ring on another ring that rotates freely while not having any fine motor skills.  Not the easiest course of action, but I was determined to get this picture.  The clouds looked amazing, and I had to make my finger work just long enough to press the shutter button.

Crisp Country Air

With just minutes left to spare, I was able to crank off several exposures which captured the muted yellows in the clouds against the deep blue of the sky.  I was very lucky that in addition to a really great tree as a foreground anchor point, I had the collapsed house, as well as a barn on the ridge beyond.  Everything really flowed well in this picture, and the colors were tremendous!

Crisp Country Air in B&W

While I was looking at the image, my mind started to assign tonal values to the colors, and I started to see it in monochrome.  A couple of button pushes later with some tonal tweaks, I found myself looking at a very interesting black and white image.  I was sold on this one, and even Toni liked it better than the color version.

Shortly after taking that shot, I decided that the clouds had lost their color, and were even starting to break up even more than they had been.  It was time to pack up and move on to something else.  I started out looking for some more barns, but quickly found that the lighting was too harsh for that.  I changed the plan and looked for some more landscapes, but could find nothing that worked with the existing lighting.  After a couple of hours searching, I threw in the towel and headed home to get the trucks cleaned up for the upcoming week ahead.

An Anniversary Getaway

January 18-22, 2014

This was a very productive trek that wasn't even designed as a trek.  Every year Toni and I celebrate our anniversary by going to the mountains and staying in a cabin just like we did for our honeymoon in 2011.  This was our third anniversary, and now the second time that we stayed at this cozy little cabin just outside of West Jefferson, NC.  An interesting factoid, in the years that we have been married, I was only an active photographer for the first year.  I did a little photography on our honeymoon, but for the anniversaries that followed, I wasn't interested in photography in the least.  Fast forward to this year....with my photography entering back into our lives, Toni suggested that I bring along the camera for this trip.  While that wasn't going to be my main focus, I could hardly disagree with the logic.  It was going to be like old times again!

I figured that we would get out and do a little bit with the camera, but I wasn't really expecting much in the way of trekking on this trip.  Plus, I was a lens down since my 70-200mm telephoto was still at Canon being worked on.  It actually was being shipped back while we were gone, and arrived at the house a couple of days before our return.  Without that lens, I was restricted to only two lenses, which fortunately were my two most used lenses for landscape work.  I took everything and figured if I could get a picture or two I would see that as gravy on what was sure to be a most enjoyable trip with Toni.

The weather forecast was all over the place for our stay there.  We were looking at clear days, cloudy days, cold days, REALLY cold days, and some snow days to boot.  This should be exciting!  We arrived at our secluded cabin right on time on Saturday the 18th.  We got in and got settled in for the afternoon and evening.  I wasn't really thinking much about photography, but had noticed that there was snow on the ground, and being located in Winston Salem, I knew that snow pictures were few and far between  for me normally.  I figured that my best bet would be to get up early in the morning and do some exploring on foot around the neighborhood which was far from developed.


Sunday, January 19, 2014

The alarm rang very early, and I just wasn't quite ready to get up.  The dark sky looked totally overcast which was going to kill my only idea for a photograph (a shot looking up at the cabin from the road below).  I decided to roll over and go back to sleep.  That was an easy decision since Toni wasn't interested in going out in the snow with me that early in the morning.  Try as I might, I was not able to get back to sleep, so I went ahead and got up to go explore a little bit.

Freshly Fallen

I was having a hard time finding anything that really excited me photographically.  My idea for the cabin shot wasn't going to work as I had intended.  I was left with no clear idea of what to work on.  I just walked aimlessly up the road and looked at the different vacant lots.  In one of them, along the driveway, I found a nice little rock sticking out from the snow.  There was a fairly fresh red leaf right next to it as well.  The driveway had a nice leading line, and I could see the sky which had some clouds in it.  This was starting to develop into a composition.  I quickly got the camera set up with my 24-70mm lens.  I added a color intensifying polarizer as well as a 2-Stop soft edge ND-Grad filter to control the sky.  I'm not sure why, but the white balance in the camera was having a hard time resolving the light.  It was showing a very blue color cast in the LCD.  Figuring that it was just cold, I snapped away, knowing what I was seeing in front of me, and knowing that since I shoot RAW I could adjust the white balance later to more accurately show what I was seeing.

It wasn't until I got home and started to fine tune the white balance that I was able to see the image as I remembered it.  The color intensifying polarizer did exactly what I wanted it to do.  The sky now popped with warm tones against a blue background.  Thanks to the graduated ND filter, the snow was still properly exposed, and what I had captured was actually the tail end of a colorful sunrise which was ever so faint in the sky at the time of capture.

I continued to walk around for a bit and found a handful of other subjects to capture.  They were not all that exciting though, and ultimately they got cut and left in the recycle bin on the computer.  I was having a hard time getting inspired.  After about an hour, I headed back to the cabin.  Before I went inside though, I walked around to see what views I had from the deck.  While they were not my customary views, I did see some moderate potential, and for the moment, the sky was looking pretty good.

Bird's Eye View

I managed to pick out a relatively tall tree to use as an anchor and counter balance to a distant mountain and open range on another hill.  I was able to set up the shot without switching lenses.  The lighting was pretty good and did not require the ND-Grad, only the color intensifying polarizer.  It took a few frames to find a composition I could live with, but I think the vertical orientation suits this scene quite well.  I was very lucky that the trees still had some red leaves which added a nice warm touch to an otherwise cool image.  Because of those tones, I was able to have a well balanced image.

With those images taken, it was time to get back in the cabin and warm up.  I had shot quite a bit of "film" for my short walk.  I knew that most of it would be throw away images, but I was pretty happy that I was able to get out and give it a try.  I figured that was going to be it for the day, and was ready to settle down to enjoy some relaxation time with Toni.

While we ate breakfast she suggested that we go out for a little while and see what was around us.  Her main reason was a little more utilitarian than that though...she had run out of Chap Stick and needed to get some more (it was an emergency!).  She pushed me to take my camera gear and I reluctantly agreed with her.  I figured we might run into something interesting, and I would hate to miss out on a good picture.

Solidarity

After we replenished her Chap Stick supply, we started out on a Sunday drive with an unknown destination.  We drove for miles and miles it seemed.  The lighting was not all that great, but I was enjoying the mountain scenery as was Toni.  I was dead set on finding some old barns or old cars to photograph, but she was wanting some more landscapes since I haven't been doing many of those lately.  I was looking for those as well, but tend to enjoy them more after Spring hits.  However, I have learned to trust that little voice that sits to the side of me in the truck, and she was feeling landscapes today.  As we were driving down a winding road she spotted a rock and pointed it out to me.  I was in the middle of a tight curve and couldn't see it, but figured that she might have something.  I knew I wasn't coming up with anything interesting!  I turned around, and found the rock.  I could see some potential in it, but wasn't convinced.  I got out of the truck anyway and walked over to it.  The wind was howling....the gusts were about 20-30mph, and with the wind chill it was feeling like single digits.  Oh well, we were out here now, and Toni wanted landscapes.

Solidarity in B&W

 After getting the camera set up, and before my fingers went completely numb, the clouds started to do some very interesting things.  I quickly set up several different compositions that showcased the rock that had caught her eye.  What I was seeing was some very deep blue in the sky with some expansive clouds full of texture.  This was going to work out!  I still had my color intensifying polarizer attached, and was not able to add any other filters because quite frankly, my fingers were not working very well at all.  Fortunately, the exposure was well within the latitude of the camera and I was able to capture some nice tonal ranges.  In fact, there was so much tonality in some of the images that I was able to render my favorite in black and white as well as color!

A Gentle Breeze

The wind was still howling, and I could not feel my arms, hands, or feet at this point.  However, I wasn't convinced that I had captured everything that there was to capture.  I was very happy that I had listened to Toni and stopped at this rock.  I was starting to feel its potential as the sky moved around it, and I was able to work on different shooting positions.  I found another angle that gave the rock some nice front light with some very tall trees in the background.  The sky was still primarily blue in that direction with some puffy clouds.  It was worth a few exposures I figured.  As I was setting up, the sun came out and bathed the foreground in a nice warm tone (thanks to the Singh Ray polarizer).  I quickly finalized the shot and released the shutter.  I got the moment that I was after, and it was a fleeting moment to be sure!

After that composition, I decided to call it quits.  I pretty much numb from head to toe at that point, and was having a very hard time manipulating the camera.  I loaded everything back up and Toni and I started back towards town.  she was hungry so we stopped for lunch in Jefferson.  While we were eating, she suggested that we continue down the road that the McDonald's was on in search of more to photograph.  She is so cool, and so supportive!  We set out for an unknown destination.  I could see a lot of barns along the road, but none of them yelled out to me with the current lighting.  Then I caught something out of the corner of my eye.  Could it be?  Was it what I thought it was?  Is it even possible?  Yes....it was a group of old buildings along the side of the road complete with barns, homes, and a small stream!  It was cluttered, and bunched together, but the cool factor of it being on the side of a mountain was too hard to pass up.  Toni even gave it a 60% thumbs up.  I pulled into a church which was beside the driveway leading into the "compound".

Hillside Farm

Looking at the property, I couldn't imagine that anyone lived there, but just in case I didn't want to infringe on anyone's privacy so I stayed at the entrance to the driveway.  I set the camera up and started to make some images using only a polarizer with my 24-70mm lens.  After about 3 frames, I saw a man come out of the white house making his way toward me.  Hmm, I guess somebody does live there.  We introduced each other, and he gave me full permission to photograph around his property.  He told me that he had lived there all his life (he was born in 1942), and this was the family tobacco farm years ago.  He told me about who lived in the house which is up on the hill to the right, and told me about the old barn that was caving in at the top of the hill.  He even told me about the stream that floods every spring when the snow from the mountain melts.  It was a very informative conversation to say the least, but most importantly, I had free reign to photograph on the property!

Mountain Mansion

From the road, one of the most interesting parts of this property was the large house up on the hill.  You can see from the angle of the foundation just what kind of slope this farm was on.  I just couldn't get over it!  The stream was pretty much dry today, but there was a little trickle of water running down the mountain.  As an added photographic bonus, there were some very small waterfalls along its path.  I worked every composition that I could muster with the confined space I could work in.  I found it it very difficult to make simple compositions of the buildings, but was able to find some very creative ways of isolating the interesting elements that I was after.

Window to the Past

I really liked the stream that went through the property, and I tried several different compositions to make it work.  This was one that I wasn't really convinced I would like, but it turned out quite good when I saw it on the computer.  The stream is the most important part of this shot, but the window is the visual anchor.  The eye candy is the barn in the distance.  Everything really worked out well here, and the title brings it all together I think.  I tell you what, I was in hog heaven on this hill.  Even though I was having a hard time keeping my footing, and compositions were a creative exercise...I was having a blast here!

Divided We Fall

As I was working on the compositions involving the stream, it became very apparent to me how this very definitively cut the property into two halves.  Toward the back end of the property it was almost a division of home and work with the houses on the right, and the barn on the left.  The only safe crossing was courtesy of the bridge that had been built across the stream.  Of course, the title was a natural with the division in the land, and the current state of the structures.

Abandoned Project

Abandoned Project in B&W

The Reality of Time

Probably my favorite structure on the property was the old barn at the top of the property.  There were lots of little details about this one that made it stand out.  Most obviously, it was falling in on itself, while one side was still very much in tact.  If you look closely, there is a pile of timber there that appears to have been left to help shore up the weak side some time ago.  I guess that project wasn't started in time, and the side fell in.  Another little detail that caught my eye was a rock that was in close proximity to the the building.  There was even a little plant growing out of a crack in the rock that gave a nice pop of green in front of the image that I was composing.  It wasn't until after I was done editing the picture that I really figured out why I liked this shot so much.  It was all about time.  The rock is a constant through time, while the plant is fleeting.  The barn was built with longevity in mind, but age has taken its toll on the old wooden structure.  Yes, the barn was there long before the plant, but the rock existed before either, and will most likely remain long after the barn and plant have changed.

Hillside Barn in B&W

After what I think was about an hour and a half, I made my way back down the mountain and thanked the owner one last time before packing the camera up and loading it back in the truck.  It was time to head home as the light was quickly fading away.


Monday, January 20, 2014

I was tickled to say the least at what I had captured the day before.  I would have been happy if I didn't pull the camera out another time while we were in the cabin.  Monday, we had plans to go into Boone and do some shopping.  Toni suggested that I bring the camera.  I figured that it wouldn't hurt to do just that...just in case.  We made the short trip into Boone, and ultimately Blowing Rock to get some shopping done.  We had a great time, and we finished a couple of hours before sunset.  That was enough time to work on some pictures before dinner time.  I had seen a barn on the way up that I had wanted to photograph before, but had never given it a try.  The problem with this barn is that there are all sorts of buildings all around it that really make for a difficult composition unless you want to include stores, commercial buildings, or a brick house in the frame.  However, I figured I had nothing to lose by giving it a try.  I scoped it out quickly and decided that I could work a composition that included the trees in order to block some of the surrounding clutter.

Framed in B&W

I found out rather quickly that using the trees was a good idea and it helped me isolate the barn.  My main problem now was there was absolutely no character to the sky.  It was just a blah blue, but I was here, and I meant to photograph this barn.  Fortunately, the trees helped to give me a little texture to the sky which really helped my compositions.  In fact, the trees had a lot of character on their own.  While I was fighting with the barn, Toni directed my attention to a tree beside the vacant house behind me.  The sun was hitting it just right, and it was creating a nice warm silhouette against the blue sky.  I pointed my camera that way, and worked on several compositions.

Naked Surrender

 What I found was a nice and intimate shot of the tree seemed to work out the best.  A full on view was nice too, but there was no denying the impact of the close in shot.  Toni and I just loved the warm tones against the cool blue sky.  Bare trees are a natural at this time of day!!!

In the Shadows

After I was satisfied that I had the tree, I directed my attention back to the barn.  Thanks to my compositional choices with the bare tree, I was now looking at the barn in a vertical perspective.  Huh....this might just work.  I was now showcasing another tree, but not as a primary element this time.  It was a secondary foreground element for the barn that I was really wanting to be the focus of the image.  All of a sudden it all came together, even the shadows that seemed to be creeping up from the ground trying to envelope the old barn.  This was the shot that I wanted from this barn, and I don't know why I didn't see the portrait orientation before, but I'm glad that I had the vision for it now!

When the barn was done, it was time to head back to West Jefferson to get some dinner and get back to the cabin for some more relaxing.  I might have just photographed one location today, but I was pretty sure I had a few good images from my short time there.


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

Toni and I awoke to what we were expecting to be a snowy day.  Instead, there was no signs of snow at all.  Oh well, we were planning on staying around the cabin anyway after a couple of days of driving around.  We had a lazy breakfast and watched some television as it was starting to flurry outside.  Before long, the snow was starting to stick and the sky was starting to do interesting things.  Still wanting to photograph the cabin we were in, I felt that this was my chance.  After we had about 2-3 inches on the ground, I grabbed my gear and went out in the driveway.  Because it was still snowing, I had to act quick since I was using a 2-stop soft edge ND-Grad filter to keep the sky at bay and show the delicate colors I was seeing.  Every second I had the camera set up, I was getting more snow falling on the filter.  I had to make a concentrated effort to keep it shielded, and to keep any snow wiped off.

Winter Getaway

I wasn't out there but about 5 minutes.  I tried several different compositions, but I settled on this one.  What I love about it is the overall cool color tones thanks to the blue sky, and white snow covering about everything.  There are two distinct pops of warm tones that balance everything out.  The cabin obviously, and the small tree with the leaves still attached bring a nice complementing element to the composition.  The framing is loose enough to allow the trees room to "grow" and breathe which gives this image a very airy feeling.  I'm really happy that I was able to get this image and continue with my tradition started on my honeymoon of photographing the cabin.  Now that I had the image I thought would work, I quickly headed back to the warmth of the cabin to let the camera dry off, and to clean up the filter.

Winter Storm Approaching

While I was thawing out, I could see that the sky was doing some really cool things on the other side of the cabin.  It was still snowing, but I figured that I owed it to myself to run outside real quick and give it a try.  I kept the camera set up like I had it, but swapped the soft edge filter for a hard edge ND-Grad.  I tried several different locations before I settled on this composition.  I think that it really describes how the weather is in the Appalachian Mountains....We went from a nice clear blue sky, to some fluffy clouds, followed by some dark gray snow clouds, all in a very short amount of time.  That is part of the fun, and frustration about living out here.  The weather is constantly changing, but that is part of personality of the region, and Toni and I embrace it!


That pretty much sums up the photographic end of my anniversary trip.  Toni and I had a great time, and we can't wait to get back there soon!  Thanks for reading all the gritty details of how my images came to be this week, and I hope that you enjoyed them!