Blue Ridge Parkway: The Virginia Side

Saturday, April 14, 2018

Foggy Pair

I actually wasn't planning on going anywhere this weekend, so when circumstances prompted me to plan a trip I was a little unprepared.  I started looking at the weather on Friday afternoon and began thinking about where I could go.  The cloud cover was supposed to be a pretty consistent 70% coverage through the day with warm temperatures and a slight breeze.  This held across the state from home to the mountains.  Looking at the sunrise forecast, there was a slight chance of seeing some color in the morning in portions of the state.  The trick was planning a place to go where I could take advantage of the weather.

I have been wanting to get some grand landscapes lately, but with the colors of Spring just starting in the mountains I wasn't exactly sure how that would work out.  I knew I didn't want to stick close to home because that would put me in the same places I have been so often through the winter.  I wanted to go to the Blue Ridge Parkway, and felt that with a chance for a good sunrise I should try Rough Ridge.  It has been some time since I have been there.  I started looking at timing and seeing when I was going to need to get up and get moving.  It then occurred to me that with the repairs to the Lynn Cove Viaduct that there might be some road closures in place.

Receding Trunks

I posted the question on one of the Blue Ridge Parkway groups I belong to on Facebook to see if anyone knew exactly where the road was shut down.  While I was waiting for a response, I started to look at alternatives.  The first thing that came to mind was the area of Doughton Park.  As quick as I thought about that, I decided against it since I always seem to end up there.  The idea of going to Groundhog Mountain in Virginia popped into my head and got some pretty good traction early on.  I double checked the weather to see if anything would be different.  The forecast was pretty much exactly the same with a slightly better sunrise forecast.  I was sold on Groundhog Mountain even though I got confirmation that Rough Ridge was still accessible.

As an added benefit, the trip to Groundhog Mountain was only a hour, whereas Rough Ridge was right around two hours.  I was going to be getting an extra hour of sleep which excited me more than I can explain.  However, when my alarm rang at 4am, I was no longer excited.  My first thought was to roll over and go back to sleep.  If I did that, I would be giving up on the possibility of some early morning color over Groundhog Mountain.  I begrudgingly checked my phone to see if the weather or sunrise forecast had changed.  Nothing was different.....Sigh.....

Crossing the Barrier

I got up and started to get ready.  I took comfort at least knowing that I could have already been on the road headed to Rough Ridge.  The extra hour was feeling a little better at this point.  This is part of what it is to be a landscape photographer.  You have to work really funky hours in order to get the shots that stand out from the crowd.  This is the part I don't like, but the results are usually worth the effort.

I was on the road by 5am headed North for a change.  The trip went quick, and when I arrived on the Parkway, I could see some really interesting clouds moving around in the sky.  They were actually moving very fast so I was excited to be able to do some long exposure shots of them streaking overhead.  The hope was they were going to be carrying lots of color with them as them moved.  I was getting very excited about the prospects of this trek.

Mini Me

When I arrived at Groundhog Mountain I was all alone in the park.  That is my favorite way to be when photographing a sunrise.  I love the quiet and the ability to listen to nature to see how it wants to be photographed.  I moved through the parking lot and started to scope out my shooting positions for the watch tower that was going to be my visual anchor.  I found a great spot to set up, but decided to look around to see if there was anything else that might be better, or would make for a good secondary location depending on what the sky did.

I got a couple of shooting positions determined and went back to the original one.  I had about 30 minutes before sunrise at this point and I needed to get set up so that I could do some long exposure shots as the color developed in the sky.

Speaking of color in the sky....

I'm sure that you have noticed that all of the images that I've posted so far are black and white.  You are correct.  Let me explain.

When I started setting up the camera, I noticed that there was a bit of fog moving in.  This could actually be kind of fun to work with if the sky lights up with some nice color.  I was looking forward to a bit of diffusion on the watchtower which I had at the end of a long cross hatched fence.  However, I was starting to see a bit of a problem developing.  The fog was getting thicker, and the sky was getting brighter.  There was no color at all.

Repetitive Pickets

I was rather upset thinking that I had woken up for absolutely nothing.  I either should have slept in, or gone somewhere else.  But then again...I do like working with fog, and the light was low enough that I could get some pretty cool shots of trees.  There were quite a few trees that were visually interesting around the parking lot.  I went ahead and fitted my 70-200mm lens.  This would allow me to pick out the trees without a lot of extra visual clutter.

I started to shoot different scenes in the area and found that the fog was getting thicker and thicker.  I was having to wait for a break in the fog before I could shoot most of the trees.  I would wait about 3 minutes before making a 10-25 second exposure.  As the light increased I decided to give the trees a break and start to work with the fences that surrounded the watch tower.  There were at least three different styles of fence that were used, but the one that really caught my eye was the one that looked like a row of jacks left behind.

Serrated Barricade

This fence was very interesting to look at, and possessed the repeating patterns that make for great photography.  I started to pick out compositions that struck me as unique.  I had made the decision many frames before that I was going to be shooting black and white shots this morning.  If I wasn't going to have any color in the sky, then I didn't want any color at all.  Everything that I shot was based on patterns, textures, contrasts, and light.  The fence added such a great element to the foggy morning and I was having a great time shooting it.

However, I was seeing some other possibilities that I had not considered earlier.  I could shoot the fence with the trees!  For this, I was going to need a slightly wider focal length to really make it work.  I swapped my 24-70mm lens and got in a bit closer to the fence.  I was able to rack the lens out to a moderately wide angle which really allowed me to make the fence stand out in the composition, as well as include the trees around the fence.

Palisade

I was really getting in the groove of this, and was enjoying shooting monochrome.  For the most part it is the same as shooting color, but I find that I have to be a little bit more selective at the compositions that I choose.  Without color, all I am left to work with is light, shapes, and textures.  The grass, trees, and sharp lines of the fence were filling the bill for black and white photography.  The fog helped to eliminate the background and make everything stand out so much better.

I tried to get the watch tower, but the composition was just too mundane without some interest in the sky.  I decided fairly quickly to let that subject go and concentrate on what was working for me.  I found that with just slight changes in position, the composition would change significantly allowing me to shoot an almost infinite variety of images.

Keyhole Trunk

As much fun as I was having, the fog was starting to roll in once again with a vengeance.  I decided that it was probably best if I moved on from here and tried a different location.  I was hoping that if I changed altitude that I could get out of the fog.  With the sun well up at this point (nearing 8am), the sky was becoming too bright to work with.  That was ok, I was pretty sure that I had everything that I intended to get from Groundhog Mountain...except for a colorful sunrise that is.

When I got back to the truck, I decided to continue North on the Parkway to see what else I could see.  I did notice that the fog would vary wildly depending on the elevation I was at.  The lower I got, the clearer things became.  Since I had ridden this section on a bicycle several times, I knew that the Mabry Mill was a good bit lower in elevation and might provide some good compositions.  That was now my destination barring something jumping out at me while headed that way.

Silent Echo

When I arrived at the Mabry Mill I was thrilled on two counts.  First of all, I could see the mill clear as a bell, and the lighting was really good.  The second surprise was that there was nobody in the parking lot.  That meant that I wasn't going to have to worry with lots of folks walking around and getting in my shots.  I hated to get excited about the Mabry Mill since I had told myself a while ago that I wasn't going to photograph this any more.  But I was excited.

So, why did I decide not to shoot this mill again?  In a word (well sentence), it is the most photographed subject on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Everyone and their brother has shot this mill with everything from a Polaroid camera to a large format rig.  Honestly, there isn't much that I can do that hasn't been done before.  But, I was alone, and the conditions were great.  I went ahead and got the camera built with my 24-70mm lens with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer attached.  I started out by doing the standard compositions from the opposite shore.  I was focusing on reflections to start with, but had intentions of moving on to other things soon enough.

Mill Wheel

I worked my way along the path to the back side of the mill.  I took a little detour to the water wheel though.  I noted the sign that warned to not cross the fence to stay out of the way of other photographers, and for you own safety.  I looked around and saw no other photographers, and since the wheel wasn't in motion I decided to cross the fence.  I wanted to get some intimate shots of the wheel.  The water soaked wood was so richly colored, and there were streams of water leaking from the top of the wheel that I wanted to try to capture.

As I was setting the shot up, I knew that I was going to be doing some long exposures since the area I was shoot was well in the shadows, and the wood was dark to begin with.  The long exposures started to cause problems with light sneaking past the lens hood.  I ended up having to use my hat to provide shade for the lens in order to keep the contrast good throughout the entire image.  It took some doing to resolve a composition that I felt worked and captured the spirit of the wheel.  I ended up with several strong diagonals, framing elements that were parallel to the side and bottom, along with an arch for visual tension.  Blending together with the textures I knew I had something special with this one.

Into the Woods

Feeling pretty satisfied with my composition of the water wheel, I continued on the path to see what else was in store for me.  This is the benefit of being here all along.  I can take my time and set up shots that I really like without having to maneuver around people.  I even took the time to photograph the trail itself.  There was one of the buildings which had some interesting aging on the wood that I wanted to shoot, but I wasn't able to get a good composition of the building.  The trail was interesting going into the woods, but needed something else to anchor it.  I figured that the two elements might help each other out so I started working on a composition.  I found that using a portion of the building satisfied my want to capture the textures, and by using about half of that building, I now had a great visual anchor for the trail that I wanted to photograph.

I was on a roll at this point.  It might be time to reconsider my no Mabry Mill rule when it comes to photography.  I was actually having more fun shooting this than ever before.  Granted, I think it was because I was all alone and able to really connect with what I was photographing.  Speaking of connecting, as I was working my way around the historic sections I started to really notice the trees.  More specifically the bark and textures of the trees.

Converging Textures

Wooded Locks

There were a couple of great trees by one of the old buildings set up well behind the mill.  I forgot about everything else and started shooting some intimate captures of the trunks.  I went back to my original mindset from Groundhog Mountain and started to shoot black and white images.  I looked for how the textures interacted and where the compositional flow was.  In all of the times that I have been here, I've never paid attention to the trees like this before.  I don't know what grabbed my attention, but I'm glad my eyes found these trees.

Of course while I was working on the trees I was starting to hear voices coming near me.  There were now two families walking the trails.  Still better than how this usually goes so I couldn't complain.  They also were just stopping to check things out as nothing was open.  They were gone almost as quick as they had appeared.  I was solo once again, and was still feeling creative.

Gears

Since I was still feeling motivated here, I decided to swap out my lens for the 70-200mm so I could get some different compositions.  I went back to the water wheel and got in a different position right on the edge of the bank.  I had seen the drive gear before but had been unable to get a decent composition including it.  I figured that the best answer was to make a composition around the gear and see how that would go.  I used the reach of the long lens to isolate the drive gear as the teeth meshed with the wheel.  The whole thing started to take on an abstract quality with the shapes and lines.  I thought about doing this as a monochrome image, but decided that I really liked the warm tones of the wood much better in color.

Mabry Wheel

Speaking of the wheel, I wanted to try an isolation of the wheel from the opposite bank now that I had the long lens on the camera.  At 200mm, I was able to make an entire composition out of the wheel. I loved the bonus textures of the stone wall with the grasses laying over the side.  You might be interested to know, that ledge was where I had been standing for the shot of the gear drive.  I was feeling pretty good having full access to the mill today.  I was able to go just about everywhere I wanted to go.  In the process, I was making images that I had not even considered before.

Venerable Mill

While I was on the opposite shore, I figured I would go for another standard shot of the mill with the long lens.  I was able to crop in tight to the mill this way and really focus on the textures of the wood and stonework.  Despite the fact that countless photographs have been shot of this old mill, it is still quite beautiful.  I may not be doing much different than has been done before, but I can say that the images that I was capturing were better than images that I had shot before.  Improvement is always a good thing for a photographer.

I tried some other compositions around the area and across the Parkway, but the rest of them didn't really feel all that great to me.  That was usually the sign that it was time to move on.  I had shot all the goody here I was going to find.  My creativity was now bored with Mabry Mill.  After about an hour and a half, I would expect nothing different.  I loaded the truck back up and continued on my Northern march through Virginia.

Compadres

After leaving the mill I noticed that I was starting to see a bit of blue in the sky.  This was exciting as I was really wanting to shoot some grand landscapes.  The problem with this section of the Parkway though, there are very few overlooks.  The ones that I passed were all on the Eastern side of the mountain and provided too much contrast under the rising sun.  The good light was to the West, but there were no overlooks facing that direction.  I also noted that the Virginia section has a lot more residential areas on the mountains compared with the North Carolina side.  The areas that I could shoot had houses and farms and such which didn't go with the look I was after.

After a good bit of driving, I found one of my beloved Parkway Fences with a couple of bare trees at the ridge of the field.  I could make use of this without a doubt.  I pulled off to the side of the road and grabbed the camera.  I opted to use my 24-70mm lens with the Color Combo Polarizer attached to bring out the color in the sky.  I had a hard time working a composition that would make sense with this.  I had cows to contend with to the left (just outside of the frame), which were too far away to make a meaningful addition to the composition.  I had the road to the right which restricted too much in that direction as well.

A Beautiful Day

I worked my way up and down the fence, and moved side to side, as well as changing the elevation of the camera.  I eventually found a few compositions that would work to tell the story I was trying to share.  After all of that was over, I was walking back to the truck and saw yet another tree that was looking pretty good under the cloudy sky.  I set the camera up once again and found that this shot happened much easier that the previous composition.  With that, I was done here and ready to continue onward.

Bus Stop

A few more miles up the road I saw a nice little farm off to the side that showed some promise.  As I was thinking about turning around, I saw this interesting house which had an old school bus as an entryway.  It was painted red white and blue so it really caught my eye.  Now I was thinking about two different locations to shoot as I passed a large Forsythia bush in front of a red barn.  Now I had three locations that I wanted to shoot.  I got turned around and pulled off the road.  I wasn't sure what was occupied and what wasn't so I decided to play it safe and used my 70-200mm lens for the extra reach it provided.

I started out with the little red barn behind the Forsythia.  It was interesting to look at, but sadly the photographs did not do it justice.  I shot a handful here, and even some just of the bush.  When I got home, I didn't like a single one of them.  I went ahead and walked down to the next sight, the bus attached to the home.  I shot a couple from the street, but I wasn't all that pleased with them since there was a power pole behind the house and power lines that ran along the top of it.  I continued on to the little farm with high hopes of getting something there.

Well, I was foiled by power lines and power poles once again.  There was also a barbed wire fence in front of the split rail fence which kind of ruined the look for me.  I tried several compositions but none of them really worked.  In the end I trashed all of those as well.  On the way back, however, I went in closer to the school bus and started shooting some different close in compositions.  Oddly enough, out of the three locations, I had the least hope for the bus.  That was the subject that actually worked out thanks to being able to get in close.

Tobacco Barn

It was getting very close to the middle of the day at this point and I decided that it was time to start heading home.  The clouds were leaving me and the light was getting a little harsh for my tastes.  I keyed in home to the GPS and started that way.  Of course, based on where I was, the route took me a completely different way home by way of Route 8.  I actually saw quite a bit of great subject matter along the way, but the lighting was not good enough to bother asking the property owners if I could go and photograph them.  I did add these to my wish list for later treks though.

Shortly after I got into Stokes County I found a nice little tobacco barn sitting up on a ridge under some really great clouds.  It was worth a shot or two so I turned around and pulled off to the side of the road.  Again, not wanting to bother the owner, I opted to use my 70-200mm lens with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Filter attached.  I was able to get a variety of compositions with this lens at the distance I was next to the road.  In the end, I found that the closer shot was the better one, and it really highlighted the barn quilt on the side as well as the banner hung from the awning.  The warm colors of the barn contrasted nicely with the blue sky above.

The tobacco barn turned into my last photographs of the day.  The clouds cleared and the sun became much too harsh to continue.  I did see quite a few subjects that I wanted to come back to with different conditions so stay tuned for those.

When it was all said and done, I had shot nearly 180 frames.  That was the most I have shot in a single day in a long time.  I was able to find 20 of them that I really liked and wanted to share.  Now comes the hard part where I find places to put a few of them in the gallery.

Anniversary Trekking in Ashe County

January 08-12, 2016

This is my first Trek of the new year, and I was able to do it side by side with Toni as we celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary.  Each year we head out to Lansing, NC to stay at our favorite little cabin in the woods.  If time allows, we also typically go out and explore in the area, and if I'm lucky, I find a few subjects to put in front of my camera.  This year wasn't any different, but the weather refused to really cooperate with us when it came time to trip the shutter.

It seemed that daily, the weather forecast would change, and that pretty much left us with no idea what to expect for the long weekend.  We got in after dark on the eighth, and we relaxed in the cabin until the next afternoon when we struck out to see what was out there.  I thought that I had explored most of the directions away from the cabin, but that wasn't the case.  We found a lot of new roads very close by and started scouting.  The lighting was very good with heavily overcast skies.  The down side to that was that the clouds were bringing in rain which would come and go.  We found a lot of different subjects, but with the rain, there was little that could be done, and the sky needed some visual interest for these subjects to work.  After a couple of hours out scouting, it was clear that this was not going to be the day for the camera.  We grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the cabin.

The next day was a little more of the same with heavily overcast skies, but instead of rain, there were snow flurries.  The biggest part of the weather story was the 20-40 mph winds that were supposed to be around all day long.  Normally, I wouldn't head out in that kind of wind, but I really wanted to get some pictures, and I was excited about all that we had seen yesterday.  Once we left the cabin, my excitement dwindled as the wind chill was in the single digits.  This was not going to be fun.

Days Gone By

The wind was shaking my truck as we curved through the mountain roads.  We made some new turns along the way and saw a lot of other really outstanding barns, but for one reason or another, they all seemed to be plopped right next to modern houses, or other visual distractions.  I was coming up with nothing as we drove around, until we crested a hill and made a slight turn.  Toni and I both saw it at the same time and saw that it was isolated well enough for a photo attempt.  The biggest issues I had with this particular barn was that there was a house across the street with a few cars in the driveway.  It was far enough removed that it wouldn't bother the barn, but I really wanted to incorporate the roadway as a leading line in this composition.

I got out of the truck and started to set my camera up in a shelter next to a graveyard in an attempt to get out of the wind.  It only marginally worked, and I had a very hard time putting things together with the gusts.  I was able to get everything mounted and I started working my way down the road grabbing different compositions as I walked.  Within minutes, I could no longer feel my fingers, and my nose was pretty much running non-stop at this point.  I continued to dial in the exposure settings on the camera the best I could, and tried to time the shutter releases between gusts to get the sharpest images possible.  My favorite composition from this location was one that incorporated an old house in the background just to the side of a second leading line.  All of the elements were there to pull the viewer into the scene.  As I got closer, I lost a lot of the depth to the image.

I tried a couple of other subjects in this area as well, but I was just unable to make them work, partially because I was starting to suffer from frost bite.  The other reason, I wasn't able to mount any other filters on my lens because I needed the hood to keep the snow flakes off of the front element.  Knowing that I was getting very close to losing all fine motor skills I went back to the shelter and broke down the camera and tripod.  That was a trick and a half considering my fingers no longer worked beyond about 50%.  Once back in the truck, my fingers were stinging as the blood started to occupy them once again.

Rust and Splinters

After I regained the feeling in my fingers, I was once again on the hunt for a photograph.  I had grabbed the official first shots of 2016, and I was hungry for more.  The snow was getting heavier, but the wind was seeming to die down a little, or maybe it was just on the other side of the mountain.  Either way, I was feeling better about being outside of the truck with the camera.  I was doing my best to get us as lost as possible in the back country roads of Ashe County.  We were well into farm lands, and there were so many barns out there I was getting overloaded.  I decided that I could be picky about what I was shooting at this point because there were so many worthwhile subjects along the roads.

This next stop is a prime example of why I love having Toni's company on these motorized Treks.  As I was navigating a new traffic pattern as a bridge was being repaired, my attention was right on the road (where it should be).  However, Toni was free to look around and she got excited when she saw a barn to our right.  I turned just in time to get a quick glimpse of it.  I wasn't able to see detail, so I filled in my visual blanks with questions to Toni.  Everything sounded wonderful about this barn, so we got turned around.  There was not much in the way of shoulder to pull off on, but there was enough room between the orange barrels that I was able to get safely out of the roadway, and in a position to work the barn.  This was now my first time seeing it, and I have to say, Toni picked out a perfect location!

I was still contending with snow, but the wind was not nearly as bothersome as it had been.  Between the roadway and the barbed wire fence, I was restricted in my possible shooting locations, which affected my compositions and my lens choice.  Due to the distance, I was happy leaving my 24-70mm lens in place and found that to be the perfect range for this subject.  Using only my polarizer filter, I was able to keep the lens hood on to protect the glass from the falling snow.

I started with the basic full on 3/4 shot that we had seen from the road.  This worked out very nicely because there was a skeletal tree to the left, and a small shed to the left of the tree.  These three elements worked together almost seamlessly to form the above composition.  The textures in the wood, trees, and the tin roof with rust told the story of hard use, and rugged conditions.  I was almost happy with this composition, but decided that since I could still feel my fingers, I would keep going and see what else I could work with.

The Dilapidated Duo

I had noticed another barn that was rather...well...blah to the far left of the barn I had been photographing.  As I walked to the left, I started to see some potential in that barn.  While it wasn't strong enough to be a primary subject, it seemed to complete the story of the larger barn.  The surrounding trees helped to minimize the impact of the second barn, and also help to push the eyes to the centerpiece of the image.  There was another bare tree to the right which then framed the larger barn, and kept the eyes from leaving the scene.  Yeah, this composition would work out nicely!

It took but a few moments to get the camera positioned right.  Everything just fell into place, and even though my primary focus of the scene was in the background, the trees along the foreground bring your eyes right to it.  Something that rarely happens in Winter was also happening in this shot.  There were a lot of green trees in the distant background which was very beneficial considering my main subjects were all more or less natural wood colored.  The difference in colors really helped to bring a visual separation to the elements.

Little Secrets

While I was working that composition, I happened to look at a little small shed off to the side.  I had seen it before, but it hadn't really captured my attention at the time.  It was still not something that I wanted to photograph, but from this particular angle, the tree that it was sitting under was magnificent.  Before moving from this location, I flipped the camera on its side and twisted the polarizer a tad in an attempt to capture what I was seeing.  The composition fell into place without even a hesitation.  The tree added visual importance to the shed, and the shed added visual importance to the tree.  The added contrast from the polarizer gave the tree just enough oomph to stand out from the trees in the background I thought.  This one shot was all I felt I needed, and I thought that I had nailed it.

After I shot this one frame, I picked up the camera and started to move to a different location to try another angle on the big barn.  As I passed the truck, Toni caught my attention and suggested that I do something with the little shed.  It doesn't happen often, but I got to tell her I had already seen it and shot it.  Normally, we are drawn to slightly different subjects.  That's why I like having her with me.  She will point out things that work very well, that I might miss from time to time.  This time, I just beat her to it.


Side note...

As much as I liked this image in the field, and on the LCD, I knew it was going to take a bit of massaging to make it work in a print.  The tree that caught my eye was thicker and visually heavier than the competing trees to the rear.  However, I was going to have to work with the tones of the image in order to get it to really stand out.  There were not much colors to work with, so it was all going to be lighting, shadow and highlight.  I worked up the color image and felt that I had a very strong image in front of me.  When I made up the proof print, my thoughts were confirmed, yet there was something that was missing.

Little Secrets in B&W

Knowing that I had processed the image with a concentration on light and dark, I figured that what was missing was a lack of color.  When I made the monochrome conversion, I liked what I saw, but it wasn't all that different.  I discarded the idea for a little while and then came back to it.  I made some custom tweaks to the green and red filters after the conversion, and then fine tuned the contrast once again.  When I printed out the proof, the final image was exactly what I had envisioned at the time of capture, I just didn't know that I was seeing it in black and white.  My initial reaction from the weekend was that this was my favorite image of all that I shot.

Back to the story...

Things were going great, and the weather was getting a little bit better.  However, it was starting to get late, and we were needing to wrap things up.  Admittedly, I took the scenic route back into town, but I saw nothing else that caught my eye.  I had managed to work two different scenes and felt really good about what I had captured.  I had shot less than 30 frames and was excited about pretty much all of them.

The next day, and our final full day, Toni and I headed back out once again to see what else we could find to photograph.  I was out looking for some old iron as that was what I was really wanting to photograph.  Unfortunately, we found nothing at all that caught our eyes.  We went into Boone and had our anniversary dinner before heading back to the cabin.  On the way back, I was thinking about anything that I could try in the night hours before we got back to the cabin.  I got this wild idea to try an old tobacco farm I had photographed a couple of years ago which I thought had at least one street light in the middle of the property.  It was kind of on the way back to the cabin, so we decided to give it a go.

The Mountain Man Can

This farm is unlike anything that I have ever seen before.  It is set up on the side of a pretty steep hill, and has structures from many different generations.  I'm not sure about currently, but in 2013, there was still a resident in the house to the lower left who had worked this farm since he was a kid.  I had so much fun photographing this farm in the daylight, and I was really looking forward to seeing how it played out at night time.

When we arrived, I immediately saw it from the road which was a great sign.  Not only was there one light, but there were two within the property.  This provided a lot of great lighting to the scene, and allowed me the ability to photograph it in the pitch black of night without the need for additional lighting.  Since I was going to be a good bit further away than I was last time, I mounted my 70-200mm lens for that added reach and compression.  There was no need for any filters, but I did use my lens hood to block the element from the street light I was standing under.  This lens worked out perfect for the scene.

My biggest problem was that the street lights had to be part of the composition due to the pitch of the property.  That lead to really bad lens flare along the lower left corner of the image.  The lights were also mismatched being both tungsten and white fluorescent.  The two different color casts really didn't work well for the scene unfortunately.  I shot this with the intention of converting to a monochrome image, knowing that to be the best way to deal with the color temperatures.

The scene had a total range of lighting as well.  There were the lights which were easily blown out, and then there were dark shadows.  It was difficult to get a good exposure using the light meter, so I decided to wing it.  I set the camera to bulb mode, and dialed in a medium aperture for full depth of field.  I then tried a 1.5 minute exposure and followed up with a full 2 minutes when I saw that things were still a bit dark.  On my second attempt, I found the right exposure for the image which was pretty impressive since my last long exposure shot was a couple of years ago.

I only took four frames as I was starting to get too cold to function once again.  There wasn't much I could do with the composition either unless I tried to make contact with the owner to get permission to get onto the property once again.  It was too late for that, so I decided to pack it up and head in for the night.  Ironically, I thought that this particular scene would require the most work due to the lighting issues, but the processing went surprisingly fast.  I was able to crop most of the lens flare out from the bottom (by design) and was able to clone out the rest without having to work within any structure.  The monochrome conversion went very smoothly as well, and I was able to retain much more of the shadow detail than I had suspected.  I'm not sure how much I like the image, but it does have merit.  More importantly, I'm happy that my off the wall concept actually worked out so easily.

The tobacco farm was my last image from the weekend as we had to head home the next day.  There might not have been a huge amount of pictures created over the long weekend, but I have to say, what I did capture, I'm very pleased with.  Of 32 exposed frames, I am looking at six proofs on my desk.  That is about a 20% keeper percentage which is pretty darn good.  The vast majority of the pictures I owe to Toni's eye though.  She is really great at spotting subjects, and most of the time, I can translate her vision into a working composition.  I'm just really happy that she can join me on these Treks!

A Barn Needs Clouds

June 5, 2014

Today's trek actually started over the winter while I was driving around the local stomping grounds trying to find some good subjects to photograph.  If I remember correctly, there were very little clouds in the sky, and I was focusing mainly on scouting locations.  I managed to find several possible subjects in Southeastern Forsyth County near Union Cross Rd.  There was a barn tucked back in an overgrown field on one side of a school and another barn set off to the side of a field on the other side of the school.  Both were interesting and I filed them away in my memory for another time.

In March, I went back out during an overcast morning to shoot the one barn that would allow me to have some diffused front lighting.  This shoot went well, but there were some lighting difficulties to deal with.  The sky was pretty much a blank slate of white.  That meant that I was not going to even attempt the other barn which would include quite a bit of sky no matter what composition I was to use.

Since then, I have driven by that barn under many different weather conditions, and have determined that I needed to go out in the afternoon when the sun would be at my back, providing some front lighting, with some very dense, and textured clouds overhead.  Essentially, I was going to need to find a storm front to come through during a very small window of time.  I wasn't asking for much....not much at all.

All in a Row

When I arrived at the barn, everything was pretty much flat when it came to the lighting.  The clouds were perfect, and there were even some fresh crops growing.  I could see some breaks in the clouds, but nothing where the sun was.  I could see the glow of the sun, and at least I knew it was in the right position for what I wanted to work with.  I made the decision to go ahead and get things set up and find a composition that worked in hopes that the sky would open up long enough to snap some pictures.

Composition was going to be difficult with this barn.  There was a solid metal shed to the left in the tree line.  There was nothing but wide open field to the right, and behind the barn was the top of a church, as well as a couple of houses in the background.  None of this did I want to include in my composition because I wanted to focus on the barn, and possibly the crops that helped to tell the story of the barn.  This meant that I was going to need to shoot low to keep the other buildings below the slight ridge that the barn was built on.  I was also going to have to find a visual balance between the visual weight of the trees to the left and the nothing to the right.

All of these constraints left me with only one choice for a lens which was a benefit. I was going to need my 24-70mm which would give me a wide enough angle of view without being so wide as to include the metal shed to the left.  Looking at the colors involved, I decided that using an enhancing polarizer would also be a good choice as it would deepen the blue sky, as well as the colors of the barn.  Normally, I would want to use an ND Grad to help control the sky, but there was no good division point on the horizon that would allow me to apply the filter with any benefit.  That was my need for the sun at my back...it was going to bring out the detail in the foreground and in the barn while I was able to keep the exposure correct for the sky.  This is exactly what I mean when I talk about previsualization!

Something Brewing

Because of the layout of the elements, I was able to shoot both landscape and portrait modes with success.  While the shooting position was within a few feet from one another, the focus of the image as well as the story behind it, changes significantly in my opinion making both compositions stand on their own.  In both compositions, its the sky that gives the much needed drama to an otherwise blah scene.  I had never seen this barn in these conditions, but I had imagined it many times over in the past few months.  Every time clouds started to roll in, I would consider going out to this barn, but I was never given the much needed breaks in the clouds at the right time of the day.  Today, I lucked out, and the conditions were perfect.  In fact, when I returned home, I told Toni that if the pictures didn't turn out good, it was totally my fault because I was working in nearly perfect lighting conditions.

In about 30 minute's time I shot a little over 40 frames with slightly different light qualities due to the passing clouds.  I knew that I was over shooting, and that my target of a 10% hit rate was going to fall short since at best, I was going to have only two significantly different compositions.  There were just not that many angles to work with because of the environment.  However, the clouds were great, and I know from experience that dramatic skies make for really good monochrome conversions.  With that in mind, about halfway through the session, I started to really look at things in a B&W frame of mind.  I could see how the different tones would work together, and the range of tones that were present.  I figured that this would make for a very good candidate for a conversion when I processed them later.

Something Brewing in B&W

When I got done processing the color versions of the two that I liked the best (I was hoping for two and got just that), I decided to back the process up, and reprocess as a monochrome.  As I started to play with the tonal relationships, I started to see just what I was seeing in the field, and I became quite excited.  The texture in the wood really started to stand out, and the clouds were presented in such an ominous manner I knew I had a winner with the black and white presentation.

All in a Row in B&W

 While I like the intimate nature of the horizontal composition, I can really appreciate the depth of the vertical orientation which includes the rows of crops.  It also make for a more dynamic sky in my opinion.  Of course, I'm a little biased, so its always nice to get a second opinion from my photo wench....Toni.  When presented with all four images as printed proofs, she picked All in a Row in monochrome as her favorite.  I find it very hard to argue the point with her, and find myself agreeing the more I look at it.

These pictures have been months in the making, and in a 30 minute window of time, 1/25 of a second at a time I had four images to show for the work.  I'm beyond happy with how things turned out today, and even happier that it was so close to the house, and was so easy to make happen.  Sometimes things just fall into place.  I like those times...

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!