A Road Trip Kind of Day

Saturday, March 10, 2018

No Tell Motel

The story goes like this...Toni was at work, Sierra was at a friend's house, and the weather was cloudy, with a good chance for a great sunrise.  How much thought did I put into whether or not I would be playing with the camera?  Not much, not much at all.  I did however, put a good deal of thought into where I wanted to go.  My first thought was Wiseman's View in the Linville Gorge.  With the possibility of a good sunrise, that would have been a good option, but if the sunrise failed, I wasn't guaranteed good clouds for landscape work.  Plus, I really wanted to wait until Spring to start doing mountain landscapes again.  The weather was going to be great for waterfalls, but quite frankly I was getting a little worn out on waterfall work.  I was really wanting to do some barn photography, and maybe find some old cars to shoot.

I tossed around my options, and considered the few cars that were close to me that I still had not photographed, but decided that those were going to wait until the trees filled in to block the background clutter.  Just in case the sunrise wasn't all that great I decided to stick close to home and go to Salem Lake.  After that, I was going to go on a road trip to the North.  I didn't really have a destination in mind, I was just going to drive.

Salem Lake

My morning when Toni got up to go to work.  I checked the weather and it was pretty much the same.  The hourly forecast was calling for clouds and some rain, while the sunrise forecaster was calling for a pretty good showing of color.  I weighed my options one last time, and got rolling with Salem Lake as my intended first stop.  Leaving at 5:15, I got there in plenty of time to capture all of the different transitions of sunrise.

I got myself set up near the playground and picnic area facing where the sun should be coming up.  I chose to use a spindly tree that was actually in the water as a point of interest for my visual anchor.  I opted for my 24-70mm lens so that I could capture as much of the sky as I could while still keeping the distant shore in proper scale to where I was.  I didn't add any filters, but I did screw on my Lee filter holder in case I needed a grad filter.  I started doing some test exposures at about 30 seconds, to see how things were looking.

There was a bit of faint color in the sky for these test shots, but nothing like what I was expecting in the next 15 or so minutes.  The exposures were showing more color in the sky than my eyes could see due to the long exposure.  It turned out that those test shots were the only ones I was going to get with any color.  The clouds were just too consistent with no breaks in them for the sun to shine through.  This is the first time my sunrise forecaster has been wrong.  At least I didn't drive 2 hours away to get this sunrise.  On the plus side, it was quite out there except for the birds chirping and the geese honking away.  It was rather relaxing after a long week at work.

Do You Dare

I went ahead and packed up the camera and walked back to the car.  I didn't really have a destination in mind, but started heading back towards home because the radar showed that there was rain about to hit.  It didn't, and I decided it would be safe to venture on down the road.  I went on through Walkertown, and up into Stokes County for a while without finding much that I wanted to photograph.  I was getting more and more lost, and found myself entering Rockingham County eventually.  Historically, I have had good luck in Rockingham so I was pretty excited about the prospect.

The funny thing was, I was seeing barns, and even some cars but nothing caught my photographic eye.  It was all just too mundane and stuff that wasn't appreciably different from the other images I've shot over the years.  I was looking for something different...something exciting.  The problem with different and exciting is that those opportunities don't present themselves that often.

Motel on the Corner

I'm pretty sure that I was on Hwy 770 and I came upon this nondescript hotel on the side of the road.  The office was a white building with a broken out door.  Nothing special to look at.  Then I went past it and saw the actual hotel part behind the office, WRAPPING its way around the intersection.  It was stone, and the rooms were all boarded up.  It was interesting, and unlike anything that I had photographed before.  It was different and it was exciting!  I turned down the street real quick and pulled off the road.  I grabbed the camera and got set up next to the building that was covered in vines.

Room Thirteen

There were so many textures with the plywood, stone, vines, brick, fixtures, and existing wood.  This was what I had been looking for all morning, I just hadn't known until now.  Just as I got the 24-70mm lens attached and mounted to the tripod a car pulled over in the "parking lot" alongside the road.  Uh oh...was I about to get kicked off the property?  That was what I was expecting even though I didn't see the sign indicating that I couldn't be there (at least on the outside of it).

A man got out of the car and started out with "I've got to ask...."  which is usually followed up with ...what are you doing, and why are you on my property?  Well, that was not how his statement went fortunately.  He finished by asking "...what are you seeing that I'm not seeing?"  He continued to tell me that he had seen several photographers out there taking pictures of prom couples and engagement shots.  He wasn't seeing what the photographers were seeing, and was genuinely curious.

Boarded Up

I told him that there were so many textures here that would appeal to a photographer and the vines that were overgrowing the walls were just cool!  I could see how this would be a fun backdrop for couples, but I was looking at it completely differently.  I was seeing lots of chances for isolations, and some door photography.  I wanted to capitalize on all that I saw here.  He introduced himself, and told me that the motel had been vacant for about 35 years.  It was a jewel in the area in its time.  He told me that its name was the Grogan's Tourist Court Motel.  He suggested that I go around back to see the back side of the motel as well.  That was already on my list!

We chatted for a little while and then he bid me a good day and went on about his.  Now that I knew a little of the history of the place, I was really feeling excited about getting some images.  There was a diner across the intersection which was still being used for a business, and there was another section of the motel across the street where I parked.  I knew how they all fit together now, and that really brought the setting into a complete light for me.

Paint the Town

I was having so much fun working this motel, and I found myself switching lenses back and forth between my 24-70mm and my 70-200mm depending on the composition I was working.  Since it was really cloudy, and there wasn't that much glass to worry about reflections, I shot bare with no filters attached.  That made it very easy to swap out lenses.  Each building had its own character, and the section across the street was of newer construction and painted white with red doors, and even garages attached.  I could see this being a really high end motel in its day.  Of course the red doors caught my eye, and I had to get something to show those off.  The colors were just so amazing out here, and the light was nearly perfect.

Shrouded in Mystery

While the colors were great with the warm tones on the brick and stone contrasting the plywood, I also had the opportunity to shoot a monochrome image on the back side.  Earlier in this article, I shared Do You Dare which was one of the images I shot from the rear.  It was the only one that I liked when I was culling the images once I got home.  I was drawn to the repetitive patterns on the back wall.  There was obviously a walkway missing for the upper floor which added to the questions the viewer would ask.  There was a single door open in the lower right which I almost ventured in, until I saw the sign posted right at the door "No Trespassing".  This wasn't the safest thing to do, and adding in the legal issue, I opted to stay outside, but the question begged to be asked "would you dare?"  I mean the back side of this motel looks like something out of a horror movie to be quite honest.

Creeping Vines

I was a little disappointed with the rear of the motel after having so much fun with the front.  It was just too grown up back there to get in close to do much.  I did continue shooting different compositions along the front of the hotel, and even managed to get several that showcased the wraparound nature of the motel.  It might be silly, but I really liked that design element and that really made this motel unique, and visually interesting.  The stepped rooms added a diagonal element to many of the compositions which added to the visual tension within the frame.  All very good things when shooting something that is essentially two dimensional by nature.

Roadside Motel

I think I was there for about an hour and a half, although I really did lose track of time.  It felt like about 10 minutes when I was all done.  I went ahead and packed the camera up and got back on the road.  I was still looking, but after the fun I had just had at the motel I wasn't really up for much else creatively.  I cruised around and decided that it was getting a little late in the morning and I had better get headed back home...plus I was needing gas.  I decided to let my GPS take me home since I really had no idea where I was at.

I came down Hwy 220, back into Stokes County and then ended up on Hwy 65 back into Forsyth County.  I was starting to get the itch to bring the camera out once again, but I was getting close to home at this point.  There was one barn that I had photographed many years ago which set just off the roadway.  What the heck, I'll give it a go.  The last time I was there, it was full on Spring and the trees had already fully bloomed.  I was a couple of months earlier this time, so I knew the trees would be largely bare which would make for a different feel for the photo.

Harvester of Sorrow

I found the barn just as I remembered it.  I went ahead and pulled out the camera and fitted my 24-70mm lens with the Singh Ray Color Combo Polarizer to keep the glare off of the tin roof, and to help saturate the wood tones in the siding.  I started off as I would normally do by taking full on shots of the barn.  I did some with a tree as a foreground, and I did some up close and personal.  They all seemed to have merit, but I was falling short of my want for different pictures today.  The answer came in the form of my 70-200mm lens.  I was going to get in close and do some isolations with the wood to show the textures and the aging of it.  Of course, I kept the same filter attached as it does a great job at bringing out the colors.

Sweet Amber

This was the ticket.  I was now in a position to create an infinite amount of photographs from this single barn by picking parts of it out from the whole.  I was looking for lines, and textures for these compositions.  Most of them came from the front of the barn where the wood was the most interesting.  I would frame the shots up so that they had the most visual impact, and in some cases I went into full on abstract mode to compose the shot.

The Struggle Within

I made it a point with all of my compositions to find a section that actually said something to me.  The interplay of the different elements or textures had to have some sort of meaning to me.  One of the things that I really liked to feature was the angles of the wood.  I would capture areas where the wood was placed in different orientations, and in the case of this picture, I shot at an angle to introduce a strong diagonal.  Since I was at the corner, I still had the edge of the barn as a visual reference to give the correct perspective.  This was a hard image to compose, but I think it is my favorite one from the intimate wood captures.

Disturbed

One of the features that I found interesting was on the side of the barn.  It appeared as though a limb was actually growing out of the siding.  I couldn't really explain it, but I found it quite fascinating.  I got in close and framed the shot countering the limb with the warm tones to the right.  The drab wood below the limb was the perfect highlight to the change in texture of the photograph.  This works well as an abstract because the visual clues are so confusing once you start looking into the picture.  Had I not explained what I shot, I'm betting you would still be scratching your head.

Conflict

I have to admit, I had a lot of fun picking elements to photograph within the "big picture."  Textures are just so much fun to photograph.  Speaking of which, the upright supports under the awning at the front of the barn had some really neat features to isolate.  Since they are natural wood, both supports had a number of knotholes in them.  This was going to be another chance to shoot some really cool textures, and since there wasn't much difference in colors, I was going to shoot them as monochrome images.

Soul Searching

In an ironic twist of fate, these afterthoughts of a composition turned out to be some of my favorites of the day.  The black and white really made the images pop, and showcased the wonderful textures of the wood.  The knots were perfect visual anchors which also caused the lines in the wood to curve around them.  The way the lighting was creating shade was another big plus to these images.  There was just so much going for them photographically.

Fissure

When I got done with my knotholes, I packed the camera up with a total of 93 frames shot.  Without having much clear direction for the day, I was totally thrilled with the outcome.  By the time I had gone through the images and culled out the less than acceptable images, I had 17 images from the day.  That makes this one of my more successful treks in a while.  The amazing part is that the images were from only three different locations.  Sticking around to work a scene really pays off in the long run.

Now my biggest problem....I've got to figure out how to fit some of these in the gallery rooms here.  Not a bad problem to have, but I'm going to have to make some hard cuts I think.


A little movie I found about the hotel which was built in the 30's.

Anniversary in the Mountains

Wednesday, Jan 10-Sunday, Jan 14, 2018

Winter Flurries

Each year, Toni and I try to get to the mountains for an anniversary trip.  During these trips I usually try to get out for a bit and get some pictures.  While we were in Jefferson for three full days, the weather didn't do us any favors at all.  I'm actually happy that I was able to get anything at all, and most of these are from the back deck of the cabin that we stayed at.

So, here is how it all went down.  First of all, we started off at the cabin that we had originally selected called Creekside Waterfalls.  Hmmm, sounds like something a photographer might enjoy, right?  Well, that wasn't the reason that we selected the cabin.  We wanted something smaller than we had been used to in the past, and wanted something in a slightly different area.  Turned out the area wasn't all that much different, and when we got to the cabin, it was a bit smaller than we were expecting.  There were some other small issues that were there as well, but nothing too terrible that we would be opposed to staying.  However, we have a great relationship with High Mountain Cabin Rentals, and they came through in stellar form.  Within the hour, we were actually upgraded to another cabin that they had available.  Off we went, and found that the new cabin, although a bit more expensive, was off the charts nicer.  We had found our new home away from home.

Of course, by the time we got the accommodations figured out it was too dark to do any photography.  That was no problem since I had the rest of the trip to play with the camera.

I checked on the weather for the following day and saw that there was going to be rain on and off for most of the day, and that there was not going to be much of a sunrise.  That meant that we got to sleep in a bit which was nice.  After we got up, we saw that it was raining pretty good.  Toni still wanted to out and do some shopping so we packed the camera up and headed out to see what we could see.

Clouded Ridge

We did a good bit of driving around and found a few things of interest, but the lighting was not right, and the rain was a little too hard for me to do much with.  After we did our shopping, we headed out to the Blue Ridge Parkway for a quick drive.  The rain kept fluctuating in intensity, but it would never completely stop.  I had pretty much given up all hopes of getting any pictures from this drive and was just enjoying the scenery as we drove through the mist and fog.  Then I saw it.

Wait, what did I see just past the Grandview overlook?  I'm pretty sure it was a very prominent tree standing out in the fog.  Could I be that lucky?  I got the car turned around to go check it out.  As I came up on the scene the tree looked awesome, and the lighting was just right.  I had a great composition in mind already.  The only problem...it was still raining pretty hard.  The composition that I wanted was going to necessitate my 24-70mm lens which has a fairly shallow lens hood on it.  This would not protect the front element nearly as well as the one that I have for my long lens.  I about gave up on the shot until Toni reminded me that she was a Mom.  No....that's not what I meant.  I know she is a Mom, but part of being a Mom is she is always prepared for anything from a runny nose, to a ballistic missile.  She reminded me that she had an umbrella in the trunk.

Being a guy, I'm not a big fan of using an umbrella, so I don't ever think about them at all.  Since she brought it up though...  I figured the composition was good enough to give it a try.  I got out of the car and felt the rain pelting me in the face.  This was going to be interesting for sure.  I built the camera under the hatch of the car with the 24-70mm lens.  I didn't use a polarizer because I didn't see glare being much of an issue, and I wanted simplicity more than anything.  I got into position, and deployed the umbrella before removing the lens cap.  I had to have looked funny standing on the side of the road fully in the rain while my camera was under the cover of the umbrella.  I got the composition framed just as I had previsualized it, and released the shutter.

Commanding Presence

The exposure was a little off with some highlights that I didn't want.  I reevaluated the composition and framed it ever so slightly differently, and fired it off again.  This time, the exposure was spot on, and I had all the information that I needed to have according to the histogram.  Just in case, I did a few extra exposures just in case I had anything blowing in front of the camera at the time.  I was satisfied that I had what I wanted, and saw that rain was starting to blow under the umbrella onto the lens.  That was my sign to hit the road.

I had a total of five frames from this one tree, but knew that I had a winner out of that group.  There were no more pictures that day because the rain was just getting harder and harder.  I decided that Friday was going to be the best day for going out to get more pictures since the forecast was for off and on rain with clouds and fog.  I was excited about the prospects for the next trek.

Well, Friday came and it was pretty much a steady rain all day long.  There was no fog to speak of, and the lighting was just flat and lifeless.  I don't think the camera moved in the cabin all day long.  When we finally left for dinner, I didn't even take it with us.  By that time, the rain was so hard we could hardly see in front of the car driving.  I still had my tree picture so I was happy though.

Saturday was a completely different story all the way around.  It was cold...like single digit cold.  It was windy...like hold onto the railing windy.  But it wasn't raining.  It was flurrying, and there was some accumulation to be seen.  By this point, Toni was tired of me (I think I'm kidding) and wanted me to go out on my own to get some pictures while she stayed in the cabin to relax.  Ok, I'll give it a go.

I spent the next two hours driving around in a heavy flurry with gusty winds of near 40mph.  I wasn't having any luck at all finding anything to photograph.  The few things that I found fell into two categories.  First of all, the out in the open scene where I couldn't keep the camera steady, or grit from blowing all over the lens.  This was just too dangerous to try, and the subjects I found were not worth the hassle honestly.  The second category was the more intimate scenes where I had protection from the wind.  However, due to the nature of the area I was in, there was nowhere to pull the car over where it would be out of traffic.  Again, the scenes were not quite good enough for me to get creative with my parking.  In short, I spent two hours driving around to find basically nothing.  I still had my tree though.

Give Me Serenity

I returned to the cabin empty handed.  I was a little disappointed honestly, but it was no big deal.  I was there to spend time with Toni, and since she was staying at the cabin I didn't want to be out driving aimlessly alone.  It wasn't long after I got back that we had to deal with that ballistic missile I mentioned before.  It was then we realized that her cell phone wasn't able to make outgoing calls.  After we found out that the missile was a erroneous alert and a lot of fuss for nothing, she spent the next couple of hours on the phone with our cell provider.  While she was on the phone, I was looking out the back door at the mountains behind the cabin.  They had caught my eye as the clouds cleared from them earlier, but now the light was doing some nice things on the ridge.  The day long flurries had created snow capped mountains that made for a nice contrast to the bare trees in the foreground.

Since Toni was on the phone, I decided to put the camera together and see if I could work the scene a bit.  I wasn't thinking apparently and only put a jacket on.  I left the 70-200mm lens fitted to the camera and used no filters since the sun was to my back anyway.  This allowed me to use the lens hood which was a good thing since the snow was still coming down.  I started to pick out compositions as the light moved across the mountains.  After just a few minutes I remembered something.  It was cold!  No two ways around it, I was freezing my arse off.  I had grabbed a few shots and figured that I had enough so I went inside.

As I was about to break down the camera, I looked and saw that the light was doing other things, and I wanted to try a panorama shot of the ridge.  It was too clod to go back out there though.  I added a hoodie, and a pair of gloves and went back out in the shade to try this again.  I got the camera set up and did a mock sweep of the scene before setting the focus and exposure.  I fired off five vertical images at 143mm that would be later stitched together in Lightroom to create the opening image of this entry.  There was more depth than I had expected with the bare trees in the foreground blending into the more distant, softer textures of the mountain.  It was a nicer picture than I had though, and I was very glad that I had gone and tried this shot despite being very cold.

Snow Capped

Did I mention that I was cold?  Yeah, my skin isn't near as thick as it used to be.  But I still managed to stay outside for about 15 minutes and shot a few more images as the light danced across the mountain.  I even shot this one minimalist picture that showed three distinct textures with very little context.  Each section did have a blending element to the next which was one of those interesting things that drew me to the shot.  The mountains faded into snow which transitioned into cloud.  The thick cloud gradually blended with the blue in the sky to which it changed over to.  Each section has its own visual weight in the image that seems to work.

At this point, I was so cold I couldn't think anymore.  It was time to come inside and start cussing at the cold.  Well, Toni was still on the phone with the cell provider and all of a sudden I realized that me being cold wasn't so bad.  As I thawed out, I got the camera stowed away to warm gradually.  I had shot 20 some new images, and was hoping that a couple of them would come out well enough to keep.

When we got home, I started to cull the image, 33 in all.  I found that a good portion of the deck shots were actually pretty good considering.  They do hold a special place in my heart, so I was a little easier on the delete button than I normally would be.  The panorama worked out very well, and that would have been enough to make it worth my while.  However, there were a few others that showed decent potential.  While editing, I was really impressed with the tree I shot in the rain on the Parkway, and it is by far my favorite from the trip.  I couldn't help but think that it would be a great study in monochrome as well.

Commanding Presence in B&W

The black and white version captured everything that the color version did and then some.  I'm not sure which I like better, but I like them both enough, and I think they both stand on their own enough to include them both here.  The fog did an amazing job at allowing the tree to stand out from the crowd.  The element that drew me to the scene in the first place is so evident as well.  This tree is the only one with prominent branches that do diagonally.  The background trees are all quite vertical and boring.  This tree demands your attention whether in color or monochrome.

I've had more successful treks over the years, but this one was still one of the more enjoyable ones.  We had adventure, we had just about every weather pattern as the days went by, and had a lot of fun in the mountains!  We are already looking to go back, and I'm going to have to suck up my pride, and start carrying a small umbrella which made my favorite shot possible.

A Little Smoke

Saturday, December 9, 2017

Ghostly Visitor

Yes, I went out this morning on a very fun walk through the neighborhood.  Yes, I came back with a bunch of pictures.  I wasn't quite finished yet though.  I've been thinking about doing some studio work for a while.  This includes things like lighting, and taking control of the entire setting.  I've done a little bit of that with my "Badge on Thin Blue Line" photographs, but I wanted to branch out a little more.  Something that I used to do that was a lot of fun was photographing smoke.  Seems simple enough doesn't it?  Well, there is a little more to it than meets the eyes.  First of all, it requires the use of off camera flash, which I am more than a little rusty at.  It requires working in total darkness, and then hoping that the slight movement in the air you create does something great with the smoke.  It's been about eight years since I've done this technique, and it was time to give it another try.

The Waltz

I got everything set up and fitted my 24-70mm lens which was as close to a macro lens that I could muster.  When I did this before, I was using a 180mm macro which was a phenomenal lens, but I sold it when I got rid of all of my gear in 2011.  Oh well, as a photographer I make due with what I have.  For a backdrop, I used to use some black velvet fabric, but that is apparently gone as well.  Sticking with the theme of making due, I grabbed a black sweatshirt from the closet and draped it over the chair in the office.  That made for a perfect backdrop, and it absorbed the light...well, kind of.

I had forgotten a very important step in the setup of this shoot.  I needed a deflector set up on the side of the flash to keep the light from illuminating the backdrop.  For this, I used a piece of black paper.  It did the trick just right, and put the backdrop into total darkness.  The only thing that received any light was the smoke when the flash fired.

The Shift

What I enjoy so much about smoke photography is that there is an infinite number of possibilities for compositions.  It all depends on what the wind does to the smoke.  The idea is to get a totally still environment with no breeze.  That means windows are closed, doors are closed, and the HVAC is off.  Once you get everything still and light the incense, the smoke should go straight up.  By moving your hand near the smoke, you can get all sorts of interesting patterns developing.  Some are simple and some are very complex.  I used to gravitate to the simple ones when I was doing this before, but for some reason tonight, I liked the complex ones.

The Scroll

This is one of those types of photography where you can really play around with the photograph in post production.  While the photo is captured in a low key environment, by playing with the curves, you can actually flip over to a high key shot.  With the white background, you can then adjust the hues of the smoke to get pretty much any color that you might want.  Here is an example of what can happen when you let yourself go wild with the colors.  For the most part this time, I seemed to like the original versions much better, and just adjusted the color temperature to get the tones that I wanted in the smoke.

An Interrupted Dream

The classic look of the smoke fit the bill for what I was after this evening.  I proved to myself that I could still do creative studio work, and got a little more familiar with the flash again.  I'm working myself up to a project that I have been wanting to try for some time now.  I'm hoping that I'm up to the task when the time comes.  It is nice to know that I'm not a one trick pony when it comes to the camera though, and that is a nice thing to find out.

Autumn at Hanging Rock

Saturday, November 4, 2017

Streaming Cascades

It seems that the last handful of times that I have been to Hanging Rock it has been a quick trip before work, or just slipping it in for a quick outing.  I feel that I haven't been giving Hanging Rock its fare shake lately.  There is a lot to photograph out there with about a half dozen or so waterfalls in the park, not to mention many trails that lead to overlooks.  There is just so much to do there, but since it is close I get out there quite a bit usually.  However, this year my time there has been in hour long segments with a handful of pictures that are the result.

With the work week coming to a close, I was itching to get out and do some photography, but I wasn't really sure what kind of weather I should be expecting.  For the most part it had been sunny throughout the week which doesn't make the greatest of conditions for a photographer.  When I looked at the forecast on Friday, there was going to be a lot of clouds in the foothills and mountains with some occasional rain.  This was my kind of shooting conditions!

I started to look at places that I could go.  The Blue Ridge Parkway has been done to death by myself and other photographers for the last six weeks or so, and quite frankly, I was a little tired of making that trip.  Stone Mountain was next on my list, but the clouds were going to be a wild card.  If they were thick and lacking definition, I wouldn't be able to shoot dramatic landscapes from the clearings I like to hike to.  There aren't that many waterfalls there that I enjoy photographing, and I had just done Widow's Creek Falls a couple of weeks ago.  That meant that Stone Mountain was out.  That left Hanging Rock, which worked out pretty good.  I could concentrate on waterfalls and woodland images if the sky was boring, and if it got interesting, I could hike up to a couple of different points of interest.  Hanging Rock it would be!

Haunted Lagoon

I started my day early so that I could get to the park when it opened.  By the way, that was 7am, about 30 minutes before sunrise.  I wasn't going for a sunrise opportunity because I knew that there would be no color this morning.  I was just looking to get an early start because the park was having several different programs throughout the late morning and into the afternoon.  I wanted to have plenty of time to be by myself and concentrate on photographing rather than dodging other hikers. 

I did get there before first light and that meant that I would be hiking with a flashlight.  My first destination was going to be the Upper Cascades because that was going to be the first program destination and I wanted to be done with it before that started up.  When I arrived at the falls, it was still pretty dark and I got to thinking that I might want to try doing a little light painting at this one.  I went ahead and set the camera up with the 16-35mm lens and got in close to it.  I composed the image with the aid of the flashlight and set it to bulb so that I could just have the shutter stay open until I was done.

I tried several different times, and finally got one that I liked.  The one above was 60 seconds of exposure during which time I painted the waterfall with my flashlight.  I hovered over the pool at the bottom as well to give it an ethereal feel.  Of course the white balance was all over the place with the ambient light, and adding an LED flashlight.  I had to do a little work to balance the colors out when I got home.  For my first attempt as light painting a waterfall, I'm actually pretty happy with this.

Rocking Fall

As the sun was coming up I started to look around to see if there was any Fall color in the park.  I was quite pleased at the amount of color that I saw, but realized that there was none in close proximity to the waterfall.  There were some bright trees to my rear though, and they caught my eyes.  There were two large rock outcroppings that complimented themselves, and a nice tree trunk at the end of one of the outcroppings.  In the background there were some brilliant trees.  The trick was going to be dealing with the sky which was pretty much featureless.  I decided to crop in close and use my 24-70mm lens with an intensifying polarizer attached.  The composition that I chose showed a nice "S-Curve" through the picture leading the viewer to the colors in the background.

The exposure wasn't too difficult as the sun was barely up at this point.  Everything was quite even in tone, and it was just a matter of getting the composition right with the camera.  That took a lot of moving around in order to get the right angle on things.  The one that I decided I liked the best was one of the tighter compositions and really had an intimate feel to the whole image.

From here, I started to move around the scene a little bit.  I wasn't all that impressed with the water flow, but I decided to get an overall shot of the Cascades.  I moved back into the water and framed the shot to show the full waterfall in the morning light.  This is the opening image to the entry.  It is one of my favorite exposures of the waterfall, but unfortunately the flow let me down.  Without more water, the photograph kind of feels flat in comparison to others I shot.  But...it was still worth a press of the button for sure!

Seasoned Slopes

As the sun continued to rise, the lighting quality changed all around me.  I started to focus my attention back on the seasonal colors down stream.  This time, I went further back and got a wider view of the scene from a slightly different angle.  There is more context here and I personally like the image more than the intimate one.  There is still a great deal of detail in this image and the trees in the distance really stand out.  The interesting tree trunk in the foreground is still an important part of this composition, as is the "S-Curve."

I tried to shoot some isolations on the waterfall but was unable to get anything that I really liked.  I tell you...when the waterflow is low, this is just not an impressive waterfall.  I decided to call it quits here and move downstream to the unnamed cascade a few minutes off of the trail.  It isn't too bad of a scramble to get down to it, but having the camera still mounted to the tripod made it a little more difficult to do.

A Subtle Melody

I've only photographed this waterfall one other time, and the lighting was not quite the best.  Today, the lighting was much better.  I just had to hope that the flow was decent.  When I got down to it, I found that the water was actually flowing quite nicely over the rocks.  The water was shallow enough that I could get right up on the falls as well.  I left the 24-70mm lens attached and got in really close.  I chose to use a rocky wall as a natural frame for the waterfall which I was unable to do last time.  This allowed me to keep the actual waterfall completely uncovered.  I went very wide for this shot and got really excited with what I was capturing.  I tweaked my position a couple of times to really fine tune the composition.  The lighting was nice and consistent so the exposures were all the same and looked great!

Cascade Cliffs

One thing that I had not done with this waterfall was to shoot isolations on it.  Since I was up close and personal with it, I figured that I might as well give it a try.  I found an interesting segment that had a bit of visual drama, and also had a counter element of fallen leaves that gave a different diagonal line.  It was also the splash of color that the image needed to keep me from shooting it as a monochrome composition.  I had ideas of doing the conversion when I got home, but when I saw the image, the splash of color really set the photograph off.  Black and White wasn't going to do this one justice.  After about 30 minutes, I decided that I had shot everything that I was going to here.  For the climb back up, I packed the camera back in the bag to keep it safe and started back up the hill to the trail.

I hiked back past the rock garden but didn't find anything that I particularly wanted to photograph there.  I got to the main parking area and looked for interesting trees, but there was just too much visual clutter to be able to get the trees that I wanted.  The colors were really nice though and I wanted to shoot some woodland scenes.  As I worked my way down the next trail to the Hidden Falls, I passed by the picnic shelters and started to look at using them in some compositions.  Nothing really worked out for me though, so I was starting to get a little discouraged.  The last shelter that I passed by changed my mind though.

Getting in Step

As I was passing the last shelter, I saw the stairs leading up to it, and saw this really cool diagonal tree that complimented the stone railing quite well.  The color behind the tree was amazing so I decided to set up the camera to see what I could do with it.  Since I was wanting to work on shapes and textures, I chose to shoot this scene with my 70-200mm lens with a polarizer attached.  I framed up a landscape composition and liked it, but all of my visual interest was to the side.  I flipped the camera and recomposed to get the stairs and the one tree.  It was a simple composition but one that I was pretty excited about.  It got me motivated once again to keep looking for those woodland shots with the trees looking so brilliant.

That was short lived though.  The further I got down the trail, the less vivid the colors were.  Oh well, I was about to be at the Hidden Falls which I always enjoy photographing.  I had to wait to turn down the trail because there was a family hiking out and continuing down to the Window Falls.  That left me all alone at the Hidden Falls. I was rather excited!  But when I got to the falls, that excitement left me really quick.  The waterflow was dismal and there was no color in proximity to the waterfall.  I could have shot isolations on this one, but quite frankly, there wasn't enough water to make it worth the time.  I went back out to the main trail and started to look for woodland compositions once again.

Nature's Sigh

There wasn't anything really standing out to me, and I actually caught up with the family.  Once I got past them, I decided that I would go ahead and get on to the next waterfall to give myself time to work it before they got there.  When I arrived, it was empty which was great.  The waterflow was not that exciting, but I was planning on shooting isolations anyway.  I still had my 70-200mm lens attached and started to frame up shots from the base of the falls.

One of the nice things about this waterfall is that it is just a drop and there are interesting points at the top and the bottom that work well in photographs.  The lighting was excellent so I was in a happy place with this waterfall despite the lack of water.

Twin Streams

For the first time in several years I was actually moved to shoot the top of this waterfall. I'm not sure what drew me to it, but I had to act quick.  There was a light rain falling and having the camera angled up left my glass exposed to the elements.  I just couldn't resist though with the water just gently flowing over the cliff.  It was rather soothing to me.  I still prefer the terminal end of the drop though with the little mini cascades that result.  I always tend to gravitate to those compositions more than the top of the falls.

A Cavern's Whisper

One of the things that I love about photography is that you really control how the image is presented.  This waterfall is pretty basic, and there is nothing all that special about it, but when you start doing isolations with it, you can change the entire look of the environment.  The way that I framed this particular picture makes it look like the water is falling from a hole above and into a cavern.  The rocky wall to the rear appears to continue all the way around. The light looks like it is concentrated through that hole that the water is flowing from.  This is so not the case with this waterfall though.  The visual tricks are what makes it fun to work with though.

After a few minutes of working on this waterfall, the family arrived and gave me my space which I greatly appreciate.  Not wanting to prevent them from enjoying the waterfall, I went ahead and packed the camera up, and decided to go up to the unnamed waterfall that is above the Window Falls.  It is not difficult to get to, but requires a little bit of rock crawling to get up to the upper section.  Once there, you are treated to almost a cave cut into the rocks.  It is a very cool place to be, especially the first time you see it.

The Forest's Cry

For this subject, I decided to swap in my 24-70mm lens and get up close to the waterfall.  There wasn't much flow to it, but there was enough to capture my attention.  With the help of a polarizer, I was able to get the contrast of the scene just right even in the tricky lighting of the cave.  I worked my way around the water and tried compositions from both sides.  The most effective ones were the ones that were shot directly to the falls, which is what I decided to stick with when I was editing the photos.

Quiet Thoughts

My favorite composition was a portrait shot of the waterfall.  It took advantage of the flow that was there, and had a nice visual flow through the frame with the rocks below providing a nice barrier for the eyes.  By far, this is my favorite composition that I have shot at this waterfall which is usually quite disappointing.  Now, I can't remember the last time that I tried to photograph this waterfall, so my skills have improved quite a bit since that last time.

About the time that I was getting into the groove and was about to switch out to my 70-200mm for some different compositions, I realized that there was a scout troop that was working their way up the rocky wall to join me.  Well, this was the end of the road for me.  There were just too many people milling around at this point so I packed up my camera and worked my way back down to the trail.

I kept my eyes out for any woodland images, but there were just too many people and distractions at this point so I started to lose my eye.  The fact that I was hiking uphill and getting tired didn't help matters either.  I didn't see a single thing that I wanted to photograph on the way back up the trail.  I did decide that I was going to get back on the road when I got to the truck since the park was getting rather full of people enjoying the leaves.

Cozy in the Forest

When I got back up to the shelters I again started to look to see if I could get anything to use as a visual anchor in a composition.  I did see two small buildings off in the distance away from the shelters, tucked in the woods.  I was a little disappointed to see that they were restrooms, and I really didn't want to use those in a photograph.  However, the colors were just too good, and the wood and stonework on the structures were just too good to pass up.  I worked around until I found a possible angle to shoot from.  

I was lucky to find an area where there was a little bit of a clearing so that I didn't have to shoot through too many trees to get the composition I wanted.  I did choose to use my 70-200mm lens with an intensifying polarizer to compress the scene and focus on the repeating shapes of the trees and the contrasting lines of the (we're going to call it a) cabin in the woods.  I decided that the most effective composition was going to be picking only a portion of the cabin to give a sense of story to the image.  The main element was going to be the color in the woods.  It took about four frames to get settled in on the composition that I wanted.  The end result looks really warm and cozy as you can see the...ahem...cabin overlooking the colorful surroundings.  It's a cabin, and I'm going to stick with that story.  It works in the picture, and makes the whole scene make sense....until you realize that there is a roll of toilet paper by the door.  Made you look!!

Well, the parking lot was in sight, and so were droves of people and dogs at this point.  It was time to cut bait and leave.  I was hoping to find a barn or two on the way home since I was still wanting to shoot more.  I even took the long way home and wend down Hwy 8 which I don't usually do.  The rain was starting in earnest at this point and I was glad that I was not still out hiking.  At least I could look for something else to shoot in the dry.

Mail Call

About halfway home, I passed a property that I have driven past many times before but this time something caught my eye.  It was an old Postal Jeep.  Not exactly the classic car that I like to shoot in the last stages of life, but something about this old Jeep struck a nerve.  I turned around and took a second look.  Yeah, there was rust, and it was in front of a barn.  It was worth a frame or two, and what was best was that I would do better shooting it from the street than on the property.  I pulled off the road and opened the hatch to get the camera.

Before I even got the tripod out and leveled, I heard an ATV coming down the road.  Yep, I know what was about to happen.  He stopped across the road from me and we both said hi.  I went ahead and beat him to the punch and asked if this was his property.  He replied that it wasn't, but he knew the owner.  I went across the road to engage him in a little conversation.  He said that he didn't think that the owner would have a problem with me photographing from the road, and he pointed to where the house was where he lived.

Now, I'm not lazy, but the house was a little further than I wanted to walk leaving my 4Runner on the side of the road.  It was way too close to justify cranking it up and driving it over there.  Since I was planning on shooting from the road, I decided to save the aggravation and the potential for missing a rain free opportunity.  We concluded out chat and I went back to setting the camera up.

American Icon

Since I was shooting from the road, I put the 70-200mm lens on the camera with an intensifying polarizer attached.  I stayed true to my word and remained close to the road so as not to encroach on anyone's property when I wasn't sure if they minded or not.  The compositions actually came pretty easy.  There was a tree and some type of old farm implement right next to it that helped to add some context to the story.  The barn, while not a typical barn had a little bit of character and the vertical boards on it made for a very nice contrast to the horizontal stripes on the old postal carrier.

I was actually surprised at how good these came out.  Normally white vehicles don't photograph all that great, but the white really made it stand out from the background and made a rather impressive composition.  I'm sitting here looking at the picture now remembering the days gone by when these Jeeps were all over the roads delivering the mail.  They had character, unlike the mail trucks of today.  In fact, this old Jeep still has a lot of character, and it is instantly recognizable to anyone above the age of 30.

Well, the rain was returning so it was time to get on home to finish processing the images.  During the course of my day I had shot 113 frames between Hanging Rock and the Postal Jeep.  I was feeling pretty good about things, and when I got finished editing the pictures I was really happy to find that 15 of them managed to make the cut.  It was a really great day, and the weather was perfect for what I was shooting.