Jumpin' Off Rocks For Sunrise

Saturday, September 1, 2018

King of the Mountain

This was an odd trek to say the least.  It wasn't well planned, and was more or less a complete gamble.  I had been sick for the majority of the week and hadn't really put much thought at all into where I might want to go, and what little energy I had was spent working on the Behind the Camera feature that was released earlier today.  So when the weekend rolled around, I was feeling better and needed to start looking at where I might want to go.  Checking the weather, it was looking like the mountains were all going to be seeing about the same conditions with 70-75% cloud cover through most of the day, and the potential for storms in the mid afternoon.  These are definitely favorable conditions for photography as the unsettled atmosphere usually produces some really great skies and lighting.

The question was, where to go in the mountains.  What I was really waning to do was shoot Catawba Falls, but I had a feeling that the clouds were not going to be thick enough for that to work.  I kept it as an alternate in the back of my mind, but I was looking to focus more on landscapes.  I tossed around the idea of going back to the area of Boone where I always have great luck, but having recently been there, I opted to nix that plan.  There was always Doughton Park which I enjoy, but I wasn't really wanting to do anything there since I don't have any new ideas for compositions.  There was an overlook that I had been thinking about trying for sunrise at The Lump Overlook, and that wasn't too far from the house at about 1.5 hours away.  That was going to be my destination for the morning.

Amber Waves

My day started early as would be expected with the clock ringing at 3:30am.  As you know, I checked the forecast, and the sunrise was expected to be less than stellar, but the actual cloud conditions were looking promising for a sunrise.  The downside, was the cloud cover was showing to be thinning a bit as the day moved on.  Even more disturbing, the hourly forecast showed cloudy conditions currently, but the actual reported forecast was showing clear conditions.  This, of course, put the entire forecast in question.  OK, I know that my history with forecasts should put every forecast in question, and it does.  This time, I had evidence that things were not as expected already.  But...I was already awake, and my mind was going.  I figured I would give it a try, even if I went out and just stayed for a little while.

The trip went quick, and the entire way up to the mountains I could see the moon and the stars above.  It was not looking good at all, but I was going to be in the mountains and that is always a good thing.  When I hit the Parkway I could still see the stars, but oddly enough I was starting to pass through some fog here and there.  This kind of got me excited because I could work with fog in the valleys below.  I started to look out over the overlooks and wasn't really finding anything that caught my eye.  When I got to "The Lump" I drove around the circle and found one other car there.  That wouldn't be a problem.  I could see the hill that I was thinking about shooting, but for some reason it just really didn't catch my eye at all.  I wasn't feeling this location at all, and the lack of interest in the sky was not doing this location any favors at all.  I decided to abandon this overlook and go searching for something else.

Resting Easy

I started to head out towards Doughton with the hopes of finding something along the way that would work.  I pulled into several overlooks which had great views, but nothing really to anchor the image.  When I arrived at the Jumpin' Off Rocks Overlook I could see some nice fog between the rolling hills.  I knew that there was a short trail that lead to an overlook, but I didn't have the time to make that hike.  This was my last chance to catch whatever sunrise had to offer on this morning.  I was pleased to see that there were some clouds in the sky now which offered the possibility of some color.

I got the camera set up quickly with my 24-70mm lens with the Lee filter holder attached.  I was expecting some situations to present themselves which would mandate some ND Grads to be used.  I started to frame up compositions with the pale color in the sky just in case they got completely washed out when the sun came up.  Fairly quickly, I decided that 70mm was just too wide for the color that I was seeing.  I moved to my 70-200mm lens and skipped the Lee Filter Holder since I was seeing that the exposures were pretty simple so far.

One of the things that caught my attention was this one lone house atop the major mountain in this view.  Usually, houses won't draw much interest from me, but this one was different.  It was all alone in this grand landscape as the only visible house for miles and miles.  The tract of land that it was on was well cleared, and it was right on top of the mountain.  This really stood out to me, so much that I wanted to capture it in some way.  I had shot it a few times with the normal lens, but now that I had my telephoto lens on, I was going to be able to get in much closer.  What I found was the closer I got, the less impressive it became.  Then it came to me...Panorama!

I got the tripod leveled, and did a dry sweep to check plum with the camera.  I set the focus and double checked the exposure before starting my six image sweep of the landscape.  Each exposure was several seconds long because of the low light so I was really worried that the quality of light would change drastically between the start and the finish of the series.  According to my histogram, it all recorded as expected.  It was my one and only attempt at a panorama shot, and it actually worked out pretty decent.  

Foggy View

As the sun came up, I shot several more in hopes that I could avoid lens flare which is a weakness of my telephoto lens.  While I was shooting the sun coming up, I was watching my back to see what the light was doing on the other side of the ridge I was on.  There was some pretty dense fog over there and I knew that there were some other mountain ranges in that direction.  Feeling pretty good about what I had shot thus far I walked across the street to check that scene out.  There was this one tree that was set right next to cabin which caught my attention.  I got positioned so that I could place a distant mountain top in the background beyond the tree and I flipped the camera on its side for the shot.  It took a few tries to get this image because I wanted just the right amount of fog in the view.  The cabin needed to be visible, but not so much as to make you want to see the rest of it.  I wanted the soft covering of the fog over the entire image, and yet I wanted to be able to see off into the distance.  I had one frame that fit that concept.

While shooting this scene and some other compositions with the distant mountains another Parkway visitor arrived at the overlook and walked over to me.  He struck up a conversation and before I knew it I realized that I was talking to another Law Enforcement Officer.  He was from the Charlotte area and was looking to retire in the mountains.  Small world since that is my goal as well.  He was a bit closer to retirement than I am, but not by much.  There I was on the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway talking shop and the benefits of a 25 year retirement with a deputy while shooting a foggy scene such as this.  It was a bit odd but a nice conversation nonetheless.

Twists and Textures

Finding it increasingly hard to fight the fog on the other side of the Parkway I decided to go back over to the other side and see what the light was doing.  I found some nice morning light hitting one of the trees feet away from my truck that I decided to capture.  I left the telephoto lens attached and narrowed the depth of field a bit to capture this image. The slight twist of the trunk was pretty cool, and the extreme side light helped to accentuate that twisting.  I did a few different compositions of this tree but in the end I found that the more intimate capture was the one that worked the best.

Cradled in Fog

Before calling it quits at this location, I wanted to take advantage of the layers created by the fog in the valley.  In order to do this, I needed a bit more reach than my 200mm lens would offer.  I added my 2x teleconverter and zoomed in to 400mm to pick out some abstracts.  Since the light was less than colorful and the mountains were hazy and dark, I shot these images thinking that they would become black and white shots.  It did work out with the various shades of gray moving from darker to lighter.  This was my favorite of the intimate hill captures.  My eyes keep moving all around the image seeing every texture and taking time to appreciate every ridge near to far.

Golden Hour

One thing that I wasn't expecting at this point was any real color in the sky.  I was actually surprised to look over to my right and see some faint yellows still hanging around in the sky.  There was still a good bit of fog in the lower areas, and the clouds were doing some interesting things above the color as well.  I went ahead and trained my (extra) long lens in that direction to frame up this shot.  It was a strange phenomenon and one that I really can't explain accurately.  I can say that there were no filters applied to the lens for this shot, and Lightroom was only used to pull out the colors that were present when the shutter was released.  My favorite part of this image is the background which is largely hidden in the fog.  If you look closely though, you can see the distant ridges which are completely bathed in the warm light of sunrise.  I resisted the urge to really do much in the way of processing this image because I wanted to keep it as accurate as possible to the experience.

This did represent the last image shot from this location.  I had shot a lot of frames here and quite honestly wasn't sure if any of them would work as keepers.  Sunrises are so hard to really determine since the preview in the camera is set with no contrast and no saturation.  It gives me a more accurate histogram, but the cost is I can't really see how the colors are turning out.  Regardless, I was pretty sure I had a few that were decent from the experience, and I was satisfied with my morning.  It was time to move on to a different location to try some more shots.

Organized Field

As I started to dive North on the Parkway I was seeing that the clouds were all thinning out pretty quickly.  I was finding myself driving into a bright and low sun which said that the light quality was going to be pretty lousy for most directions at this point.  I did happen to pass by a field a few miles down the road which seemed to have a decent quality of light falling on it.  As a bonus, there was a mountain in the background with some of the low fog right at the horizon.  The composition wasn't a classic one, but it was worth trying a few frames out.

I got the camera out and set up with my 24-70mm lens since I wanted to include the broken fence in the foreground.  I added a Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer to help bring out the colors in the grass and sky as well.  I started to work on compositions, but the trees on either side of the field really made things difficult for me.  If I included both banks of trees then the image seemed very compressed and didn't have room to breathe.  By flipping the camera and shooting a portrait shot, I was able to include the fence, the distant mountain, and only one of the banks of trees for balance.  This was the only composition that I felt worked for this scene.  It had a very nice flow and the lighting was fair for it.  I really liked the different textures as your eyes moved through the scene.

This was going to be my last set for the day.  I had full intentions of sticking around for a while and shooting some different areas, but the lack of clouds had other ideas.  My options were to kill a few hours and wait until mid afternoon when the storms were supposed to be rolling in, or head back to the house.  I chose the latter since that just made more sense to me.  It was a fun few hours on the Parkway and I was very happy that I got to the mountains for a bit.  I would have loved to have been out there longer, but I was happy having shot 83 frames in this time.  The days images aren't spectacular, but they do represent a little bit of experimentation with techniques which is always worth while.

We have officially reached that part of summer where I am ready for the fall colors to get started.  Everything is just so green with all of the rain that we have had this year.  I need something to break that up!  Soon...very soon.

Sunrise at Rough Ridge

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Appalachian Daybreak

Does anyone remember the last time I went to the Blue Ridge Parkway?  It seems like forever ago to me.  Looking back in the blog, it appears that it was May 19th when I last visited the Parkway.  That is much too long for one of my favorite places to go when it comes to photography.  I've been wanting to get back there for a few weeks, but my scheduling has been such that I just couldn't dedicate that kind of time to a Trek.  That changed a bit this weekend with Toni at work, and Sierra with her Uncle.  I finally had the time that I needed to head West to the High Country.  The only thing left to determine was where to go exactly.

I looked at the weather, and it seemed that the chances of clouds were going to be better around the Boone, and Linville areas, while further North it was looking more like clear conditions.  Of course, we all know my track record with the weather forecasts so I really wasn't all that sure of what to expect.  The plan when I went to sleep was to get up at 3am and head out to Rough Ridge for a sunrise attempt.  Looking at the sunrise forecaster, I didn't have a lot of high hopes for any color, but there were clouds in the forecast and they were showing to have a low ceiling.  This meant that I might be able to do some woodland work along the Rough Ridge Trail.  Either way, I wanted to get an early start to the day.  From there, I was going to go where the conditions dictated.

Color on the Ridge

My day started as planned, way too early for my liking.  I checked the weather before getting out of bed and it looked like nothing had changed from the forecast that I had seen the night before.  The chance of a great sunrise was going to be slim, but the clouds were looking good for most of the day with a slight chance for a storm around mid day.  I went ahead and got things together and started my drive out to Rough Ridge.  the entire way there, I was seeing stars in the sky, and was really getting worried about the conditions I was going to be faced with soon.  I knew that whatever was going to happen, I was going to be in the mountains with my camera so it couldn't be too bad.

When I arrived on the Parkway, a familiar dynamic started with me.  One minute it was clear as a bell, and then all of a sudden visibility would drop to nothing due to fog and clouds.  Weather like this makes for some very interesting photography and I was getting excited.  I started looking for a good place to set up for sunrise in case a target of opportunity presented itself before I arrived at Rough Ridge.  As luck would have it, nothing really fell into place, and I found myself nearing the parking area for Rough Ridge.  Well, I was here, and there was only one other car in the parking lot.  Let's do this!

I grabbed my gear and started the dark (and rather soggy) hike to the boardwalk where I was planning on shooting the sunrise.  The hike went quick enough, and I was really happy that I had brought my waterfall boots in case the weather dictated that I start looking for cascades to shoot.  I slogged my way up the trail and found the rocky outcropping just off of the boardwalk to be completely empty which was a nice treat.  I went out on the rock and got set up on the smaller section closest to the boardwalk.

Bridging Colors

I had been running different compositions in my head while hiking up to the boardwalk and knew that I was wanting to try out my 16-35mm lens to get a little different perspective from my normal 24-70mm choice.  I started out with no filters at all, but quickly realized that the compositions that I was wanting to shoot were going to need some exposure help.  Starting out early, I added my Lee Filter Holder and a 3-Stop Singh-Ray, Daryl Benson Reverse ND Grad.  this helped the exposure in the sky right at the horizon, while letting the sky further up expose a little bit more.  that was just the trick that I needed to get the exposures as close to correct as I could.

While I was shooting the opening series of the new day, a couple came hiking up the trail and joined me on the rock.  He was apparently a photographer as well since he pulled out a camera and tripod.  He set it up to shoot intervals as the sun came up.  While the camera was firing off frames he got a drone ready, which he sent up to view Rough Ridge from the air.  It was quite an impressive display, but I just sat there and worked my compositions one at a time.

As the sun came up and the colors started to fade towards the East, I decided to swap out lenses and use my 70-200mm lens to get some isolations of the clouds in the valley below.  Since I wasn't shooting into the bright part of the sky, I opted to leave the filters off of the lens and just shoot as the scene appeared.  What I found was as the color faded to the East, it started to pick back up to the West, and I had a lot of great color in the sky to play with.

Vibrant Viaduct

Something that I am always seeming to photograph when I visit Rough Ridge is the Linn Cove Viaduct which is visible from many portions of the trail.  With the 70-200mm lens, I can just about reach out and touch it.  With the colors that were developing in the Western sky, I was able to photograph the Viaduct in a way that I hadn't been able to before.  I was actually getting sunlight on the side of the mountain and the warm light was doing really cool things with the clouds above.  As I worked this unique situation I noticed that there was another element that was working its way into the frames.  There was a thin cloud coming between me and the Viaduct, and as it reached the frame it provided a really nice layer of fog to the image.

The Viaduct wasn't the only part of the landscape that was looking really nice.  The sky to the East was actually starting to erupt in color again and since the sun was partially hidden, the exposure looked very workable without any filters.  I trained the camera back around and framed up a shot at 70mm that included part of the boardwalk as well as the sky above.

Tanawha Tales

My main purpose in this shot was to get the sky, but I wanted something interesting in the foreground to anchor the image.  Not wanting to lose the light, I shot it with the long lens and made due the best that I could.  As it turned out, the little hint of the boardwalk and the rock made for a great foreground, and didn't weigh in too heavily at all in the composition.  The colors in the sky were great, and the low clouds across the mountains in the distance really added the depth to the image that I needed.  There was still the slight haze from the passing clouds which gave the image a dreamlike quality that I really liked.

With all of this back and forth, I was starting to become overwhelmed at the list of potential subjects.  As I was finishing up the shot over the Tanawha Trail, I happened to look back to my right and saw something that I can only describe as amazing.  While the sky above was starting to settle into the normal hues, there was a large bank of clouds that was on the way across the mountains that was bathed in an orange and pink hue from the sun.  I'm not quite sure how that happened, but it was just too cool for words.

I decided that was going to be my next shot.  I just had no idea how to capture it.  I was still shooting with my long lens and I was able to get a few shots of the clouds, but nothing that I really liked.  I decided that I would try a panorama of it.  I flipped the camera on its side, and leveled the tripod.  I made a quick sweep to confirm that the camera was going to be level the entire trip across the image.  I set my focus and exposure and shot a six frame series that I later merged in Lightroom.

Blue Ridge on Fire

This panorama isn't one of my best ones.  It lacks the prior planning that most of them really need.  It is a great documentation of of the cloud that I saw which was just so freaking amazing though.  The clouds above and below this one bank of clouds were all pretty much normal hues by this point, but this one cloud was like watching a flame move across the Blue Ridge Mountains.  It was just incredible, and I'm glad that I thought to make this a panorama shot since swapping lenses would have allowed the light to be lost more than likely.

A Ginger Sky

When I got done shooting the panorama, I went back to shooting single frame images of the cloud in an attempt to capture the unique look of this situation.  I followed it all along its path until it was pretty well hidden by the peak to the East of the trail.  As the cloud moved on, I could see that most of the color was now gone in the sky except for a small area to the South.  I could see some remaining color in some of the clouds above the mountains and figured that I would give them a shot as well.  They were far enough away that the long lens was a fine choice to capture them.

Feeling Peachy

The composition here was a simple one.  I was focusing on the low clouds in the valley below and using the clouds as a framing element and pretty much the only color in the image.  I thought about doing this as a monochrome image, but that hint of warmth really helps the clouds stand out from the valleys.  After shooting this image, I was starting to see the blues really coming into play in the sky, so I decided to swap out my lenses one last time.  I put the 16-35mm back on and added a 2-Stop Singh-Ray, Galen Rowell hard edge ND-Grad filter to the front.  This was going to take the place of a polarizer since I didn't want to cause uneven blues in the sky which is a risk using a polarizer.  This would also allow me more flexibility in darkening the sky regardless of my angle to the sun.

Sun Drops

When I got the camera all put back together and ready to shoot I noticed that there was another bank of clouds moving across the valley that looked very similar to the earlier ones.  These were a good deal lighter since the sun was still climbing in the sky, but the color was still there.  The ND-Grad did an excellent job at bringing that color out by avoiding overexposure.  I shot about four frames with this concept, but slightly different compositions.  This was the one where the color showed the best, and the composition felt slightly better than the other ones as well.  Honestly, this was the first image that I shot from the morning that I really felt good about.

The funny thing was, I thought that I had shot about 45 frames during the sunrise.  As it turned out, I had shot 79 frames in about an hour and a half's time.  My how time flies when you are having fun!!  It was time to move on to other things though.  I went ahead and packed up the camera and started moving my way back down the trail to the truck.  When I got there, I could see that the clouds were mostly clearing out at this point.  It was also that strange time of day after the golden hour when the sky is just white.  I wasn't looking to do much in the way of landscapes at this point until the sky got better again.

What I decided on was taking a little drive to a road that I had seen on the map earlier.  It was Roseboro Rd, and it was just a little beyond the Viaduct.  I had spotted this on the map because it looked like a good secondary road to find some old barns on.  When I found it and turned, I found that it was a typical gravel mountain road.  Oh well, I needed to spin the 4WD for a few miles this month anyway, I dropped into 4Hi and continued on down the road.

Roseboro Falls

In an interesting turn of fate, I didn't find a single barn that I wanted to photograph on this road, but I did find a waterfall that to my knowledge is unnamed, and possibly only here during high rainfall times.  Conveniently, there was a pull out on the side of the road a short distance from the waterfall which leads me to believe that this waterfall is a fairly typical feature.  At any rate, I grabbed the camera and loaded the 24-70mm lens along with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer.

With this waterfall right off of the road, my compositions were limited.  I tried some isolations, but the moving vegetation proved too distracting for the isolations to work.  By capturing more of the falls, I was able to minimize the motion blur issues to a point.  The composition that I settled on was one that actually included the sky peeking through the trees above the waterfall.  I was worried about the exposure, but my histogram was telling me that I wasn't blowing out too many pixels by shooting this composition.  It actually was a pleasing shot of this odd waterfall stuck on the side of the road.

I didn't have long to work with this waterfall though.  Remember how I said there were no clouds in the sky after I finished up at Rough Ridge?  Well, the sun was now starting to shine through the trees and it was hitting the waterfall in a splotchy fashion.  After maybe 15 minutes, I packed up the camera  and continued down the road in search of a barn.  I did find one, but the lighting was no good for it, and the setting was a little bland as well.  I passed on the chance to do anything with it.

Keep it Together

I did my normal get lost thing in hopes of finding a good barn to photograph.  As luck would have it, I didn't run into anything promising before finding my way back to Hwy 221 and eventually the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I started my way North hoping to find a few things to shoot before getting on the road home.  As I was passing through Julian Price Park, I happened to notice that there were some clouds moving into view over a field that I enjoy shooting near the red barn that is so famous.  I went ahead and pulled off on the side of the road and grabbed the camera.  For this situation, I wanted my 24-70mm lens so that I could shoot up close and wide angles as well.  I added my Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer as well to really help the clouds to pop against the blue sky.  Since I was going to be shooting roughly ninety degrees to the sun, the polarizer was going to work very well.

Summertime Blues

As I was shooting, the clouds were getting thicker and thicker.  I was so glad that I stopped since I really like having these kinds of clouds in my photos.  It just adds so much life to the image.  I was shooting composition after composition.  I slowed long enough to let traffic pass by when I was shooting from across the street.  I did have the opportunity to watch about a dozen cyclists ride through the area which made me remember the several rides I had done on the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I knew the struggles that they were involved in, and I kind of missed it...But, I had pictures that I needed to be working on, so I got my mind back in the moment and worked on more compositions.

Split Rail Dreams

For longer than I can remember, I have enjoyed photographing this one lone tree in the field.  That is usually the reason that I stop here when I do.  Something else that I really enjoy doing is photographing the fences along the Parkway.  While I was setting up shots I decided that I would probably do well to include both of these subjects in a composition.  I flipped the camera on its side and framed up a composition that had good visual balance, and took full advantage of the fence as a visual anchor.  The clouds were really starting to come in nicely by this point, and I was having a lot of fun picking out views to put under the clouds as they appeared.

Time Well Wasted

I wasn't going to let this great fence get away from me.  The overgrown weeds really created the perfect story for this fence, and I found a section that was very easy to isolate.  I managed to work compositions in both vertical and horizontal orientations to go along with the tree in the background.  The textures and colors really stood out, but that was what I was really liking about this fence and the field where it was standing.  The greens of the weeds and grasses complimented the yellowing sections quite well.  The bleached wood of the fence maintained its own visual weight despite being largely consumed by the vegetation.  But was color really all that necessary for these images?

Monochrome Malaise

I wanted to find out, and actually set up a shot as a black and white image.  What made this one different from the others in the series was the sky.  There was a section of blue that was completely surrounded by clouds.  This was the perfect scenario for a black and white conversion since I like to render my blue skies as dark grey.  By putting a single post in the bottom right third, I was able to visually anchor the image.  I shot it in color, but I had full intention of making this one monochrome when it came time to edit it.  After I did the conversion, I could see that my previsualization worked just fine for this image.  It all came together so nicely as a black and white image.  The clouds popped, and the textures of the weeds and wood really stood out with the color stripped from the image.

Mountain Motorway

What's a day on the Blue Ridge Parkway without actually shooting the road itself.  Well, I admit that is a new thing I'm doing these days.  Years ago, I would occasionally shoot the roadway, but here in the last year or so, I have found that some of my favorite Parkway images actually include the road.  The sweeping turns really do make fantastic leading lines for a sense of depth to the image.  Of course, the fences that line the Parkway make for some outstanding complimenting elements as well.

Melancholy Barn

As luck would have it, the sky that was pretty much void of clouds an hour ago, was now getting overloaded with clouds.  Those clouds were bringing some rain as well.  It wasn't enough that I was having problems shooting, but it was enough to get me thinking about packing up and going down the road to see what else I could find.  Before packing up the camera though, I wanted to try shooting the barn once again.  I've shot this thing in pretty much all seasons and in all conditions.  There wasn't anything overly special about it today though.  The lighting was flat by this point, and there was a bit of cloud interest above.  The only thing that really stood out was the barn itself.

I decided to include the fence in my composition as a leading line and a bit of foreground interest.  I really wasn't all that excited about how the picture was coming together, but pressed on regardless.  When I got home and started to process it, I wanted to include it in my day's collection, but it just wasn't really speaking to me.  The barn wasn't standing out at all in the field when I did my normal edit on the image.  I started to think about what I could do to really make it pop and decided that by reducing the vibrancy of the image I could dial in the saturation on the red siding and really get it come together as an image.  When I was done, I was actually rather impressed with how it came out.  While not an award winning picture, it does capture the essence of how I saw the barn at the time of capture.  There is enough blue to balance out the red, and the green is rendered almost neutral with this edit keeping the attention in the image where it needs to be.

Sidewinder

I did move on down the road and ended up a little ways further up the Parkway near the Thunder Hill Overlook.  This is one of my perennial favorites for sunrise, but I have shot here at all different times of day.  As I came around the corner, I noticed that the clouds were looking pretty good here and decided to pull off to the side of the road.  I went ahead and fitted my 16-35mm lens along with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer since I was planning on shooting at an angle to the sun.  

I started out working some compositions of a section right next to the MST, but wasn't really liking how the lighting was working out.  I decided that while I was waiting for the lighting to chance, I would go ahead and shoot the Parkway headed towards the main overlook.  I used the Parkway as a nice swooping leading line cradling the fenced field, and ultimately sending your eyes to the mountains range in the distance.  To be completely transparent about this image, I have flipped it left to right to allow the eyes to read it better.  I don't really count this as image manipulation as it doesn't change the content, only the direction.

High Country Clouds

While I was shooting the road I noticed that the behind me, the clouds were really looking crazy beautiful.  I changed my position and framed up another image that took full advantage of the clouds.  I used the Parkway once again to be the leading line which carries the eyes through the frame.  These clouds really didn't need much help, but I liked effect the road added.  Again, when I was processing it, I decided to flip the image left to right to improve readability since our eyes are designed to enter a page on the left and carry through to the right.

Dreaming in Color

With the clouds really coming to life, I decided that it would be a good idea to try my original shot once again.  The clouds really made the image completely different from what it had looked like previously.  The lighting was a little better on the landscape as well.  It turned out that this final image was the one that I ended up being the most happy with.  Shortly after this shot, the sky turned mostly overcast as had happened down the road.  It was time to load up and head back to the house since it was about to be noon.

I got everything packed away and I started heading North once again looking for 421.  As luck would have it though, I passed by one of my favorite locations and the lighting looked really good.  Yeah, I had to get turned around to give it a try once again.  This is another location I have shot in pretty much all seasons and in all types of lighting.  Some I have liked better than others, so there was no reason not to give this a try again today.

Dreaming Field

The clouds were looking great overhead so I wanted to make sure I was going to be able to capture a good chunk of the sky.  I went ahead and fitted my 16-35mm lens along with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer.  I started to work my way up and down the road in an attempt to find the right spot.  The weeds growing at the fence made for a very difficult time getting the right composition.  There were only a few places that I could shoot from without getting tall weeds in the frame.  Fortunately, the clouds lasted a good bit of time and allowed me to get several different variations on this image.

At the end of this series of shots I really did call it a day.  I went home with a total of 193 new frames shot.  I was really thinking I had done more like 130 or so.  I really am having a hard time estimating my shutter clicks on these treks.  It took me about five hours to cull the images and then edit the remaining 33 images.  When it was all said and done, I had found 21 images that I liked enough to keep in my collection.  The rest of them went out with yesterday's trash.

Since it is so late already, I will be waiting until tomorrow to figure out which images are going in the gallery, and to start posting to social media.  At least the biggest parts of the Trek are done.  I have been going strong since 3am this morning.  I have put in 20 hours or work, driven over 250 miles, and still have a bit more to do tomorrow.  The life of an artist, it is a labor of love.

If You Don't Like the Weather...

Saturday, May 19, 2018

Talking About Spring

As the saying in the North Carolina Mountains goes, "If you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes."  Having spent quite a bit of time in the NC Mountains over the course of my life I can say that there is a good deal of truth to that statement.  Today's trip tested my understanding of the weather patterns though.

The day started like most others, I got up with Toni at around 4am so that I could get an early start for what was supposed to be a pretty good day in the mountains.  The weather was calling for some morning showers which would be replaced by partly cloudy skies for the majority of the day.  The clouds were showing to be low, but there was only 40-70% coverage so I was thinking that there would be a great deal of drama in the sky as the current front moved out.  The plan for the day was to start out at Hawksbill Mountain doing a little bit of hiking before getting some great grand landscape shots of the Linville Gorge.  If the sky held out after that, I was going to move over to Wiseman's View to get the other side of the gorge.  In the event that it was too cloudy, I was going to shoot some waterfalls and possibly try a new one in that section of the Parkway.

Pink Crown

The weather was staying pretty consistent from Friday night through to Saturday morning.  The chance of a good sunrise was slim to none, so I wasn't worried about getting into position for a sunrise first thing in the morning.  Actually, that was pretty nice since I am usually racing to get set up before first light.  I had a nice easy morning and a relaxing drive to the mountains. I ran into some light rain, but I was expecting that and was expecting those showers to move out of the area around 8am.

Springtime Duel

As I started the ascent up Hwy 183, I ran into a different problem.  It seemed that the clouds were lower than I expected and I was actually driving through them.  Visibility was not great, and the rain continued.  The closer I got to Hawksbill, the less I wanted to make the hike to the summit for what I was sure going to be a wall of clouds.  I pulled over at the Brown Mountain overlook and checked the weather.  The forecast still showed the bad weather moving out, but it was now looking like 9am.  I figured that I would just come back to Hawksbill when the weather started to improve.  In the meantime, I started looking for a plan B, since I wasn't ready to commit to hiking to waterfalls just yet.

I ended up near the road to Wiseman's View and passed by the quaint little cabin that I had photographed not too long ago.  It was looking really good today with everything in full bloom at this point.  The rain had stopped, and the low clouds were gone for the moment so i pulled over.  I grabbed my camera with a 24-70mm lens along with a Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer.  I started working the little cabin up close and from the road.  I was having better luck with compositions because the rocking chair was no longer in the front yard, and what had been bare bushes were now full of color and excitement.  It was a much easier time this go 'round for sure.  I even got in close and shot some of the blooms.  Why? You ask.....Because Spring, that's why!

In the Pink

My enjoyment ceased fairly quickly though as I started to feel the distinct splats of rain drops on my hat.  It was time to call it a day for this location.  I had gotten everything that I wanted to get so I didn't argue too much.  By this point, I was starting to tell myself that if I just wanted five minutes that the weather would change.  I could do that....I continued on my way looking for other subjects that would work out with the conditions.  I went ahead and hopped on the Parkway to see how things were looking up there.  I went South since I knew that just a few miles North the road was closed for repairs.

Dewy Slope

At some point traveling down the Parkway I came upon a ridge to the right of the road that had a handful of trees growing.  They each looked pretty interesting in the fog of the morning so I pulled off the road and grabbed the camera.  This time, I used the 70-200mm lens and went to work on compositions for the trees.  The fog makes it very easy to photograph trees since the background is usually obscured for the most part.  There was a fine mist in the air, but for the most part the rain was holding off....for about five minutes.  Yep, you guess it.  After I had been shooting for about five minutes the rain came back with a vengeance.  I was forced back to the cover of the hatch on my 4Runner.  I waited about 10 minutes to see if the weather would change, but apparently the weather never got the memo.  I went ahead and packed up my gear and hopped in the truck.

You guessed it, the minute I cranked the truck up and hit the wipers, that was it for the rain.  Oh well, I had a few images of the trees in the fog and that was enough.  I continued South looking for mile marker 322 where English Falls is supposed to live.  There is supposed to be a little parking area near that mile marker which I was looking for.  It would seem that the parking area isn't well marked or even really established because I drove right on past it, and saw the marker for 323.  Oh well, it was now raining again anyway.  I just kept on driving down the road.

Royal Veil

I continued past Crabtree Falls which I thought about shooting, but the hike would probably take longer than I wanted to invest in things since I was hoping for a break in the weather.  It was looking like great waterfall weather though.  I opted to continue on to Roaring Fork Falls which has a short and very easy hike to get to.  I could hustle on this one if the weather decided to get better.  It didn't take too long to get to the falls, and in that time, the rain would start, and stop almost as if to taunt me.  When I arrived at the parking area for the falls I was thrilled to be the only one there.  I grabbed my gear and went on the half mile hike to the falls.

Awash in Cotton

The entrance to the falls off of the trail was really obscured by the trees and I almost missed it.  Fortunately, I saw the caution sign at the stream and found my way through the low hanging tree to actually get to the waterfall.  I could hear the force of the water and was looking forward to seeing how Roaring Fork was looking with all of the rain that we have been having recently.  I had seen the water very swollen downstream on the way to the falls and had very high hopes for the main event.

I wasn't disappointed with the condition of the falls.  There was a lot of force here, and fortunately, I was still able to rock hop to get into my normal positions to photograph it.  The difference was, I had to be very careful about where I placed the camera.  The water was moving with such a force that in most sections there would be too much vibration for a sharp long exposure image.  I couldn't brace the tripod against anything since there was a large log which was wedged at my position and was visibly moving.  That movement would have translated through the tripod for sure.

Spiritual Glow

I will typically shoot this waterfall with my 24-70mm lens, but that is because it usually doesn't have the size to really show that well at the top.  This time, I was pretty sure that the water volume would support the wider angle, so I loaded up my 16-35mm lens with a Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer and hopped out to the artist's rock in the middle of the water.  I started to set up shots from here and found that the base of the waterfall was a great foreground with how the water was broadcasting from the final drop.  I did the typical horizontal and vertical layouts here before moving to isolations of the falls.

For the isolations, I swapped over to the 70-200mm lens to really pick things out.  I had a lot of fun with the isolations, but the water was flowing very quickly which removed a lot of the subtle details of the route.  I was able to pick out a few down at the base as well as one up at the top.

Speaking of the one at the top, if you look at the image above, you can see what I was starting to see happening.  Yep, the rains had stopped, and the clouds have moved on.  That warm glow at the top is the sun shining through the trees.  Looking up to confirm, I could tell that the clouds were now thinning and leaving the area.  This was the weather change that I had been looking for!!!  It took more than five minutes, but it was worth the wait.  I could now get back on the mountain and get those grand landscapes I was looking for.

Presentation

I maneuvered back to a safe area to break the camera down.  As I was doing that, a hiker came down the path.  My timing was excellent because historically, if there is somebody else here, I will have to deal with them being in my shot just about every time.  I was glad that I was done here, and I was actually pretty happy with what I had gotten here as well.  On my hike back to the truck, I was hustling since I knew I could make it back in less than 10 minutes.  In that time, I passed another eight people that made me very happy that I had been there when I was.  Not to mention that the sun was too bright now for any good photography of the falls.

I didn't waste any time looking for altitude once I got in the truck.  I could see bits and pieces of the sky from down in the valley and was really happy with what I saw happening.  There were low gray clouds, high cumulus clouds, and lots of movement in the sky.  This was exactly what I was looking for!  I was excited right up until the five minute mark hit.  That corresponded with me arriving at the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Yep, here comes the clouds again.  In a period of about 30 minutes I had come full circle.  I was again driving in the rain along America's Favorite Drive.  Oh yeah, the fog was back too.  My hopes for a grand landscape were dashed yet again.

I figured that this was going to be the tempo of the day, and I might as well embrace it.  I decided to go to Crabtree Falls and shoot that one, although honestly, I wasn't all that excited about doing that waterfall.  There are only a few compositions that I like there, and I've shot it many times over.  The water flow doesn't make that big of a difference there either, except for my ability to get into position to get a foreground that includes the water flow.

When I got to the falls, I went to park and saw that the parking lot was about half full.  That was a very bad omen because this is one of those waterfalls where people can really get in the way quickly.  With my frustration over the weather still pretty active, I didn't want to add in that further frustration so I opted to continue going back up the Parkway.

I went ahead and dialed in the destination to English Falls just to see where the parking area was.  GPS took me right to it, or at least a little area off to the side of the Parkway.  I could see a trail leading from that parking area, but it didn't go anywhere.  It was drizzling and very foggy, but having seen pictures of this waterfall, I really wanted to try it in these conditions.  I pulled up Kevin Adam's description of the falls and the hike to it.  It sounded a little dicey, but I was willing to try it since I had never been here, and there were no others around.

I followed his description of the trail and found the access point which lead me down a really steep section that was rather slippery with the rains.  I continued to read and saw that there were cliffs and the need for ropes (which I had read were left there by other hikers).  Seeing how much difficulty I was having with the "easy" section of this hike, I decided that I had better wait until I knew more about the hike, or had somebody with me that was familiar with it.  The last thing I wanted to do was get lost in the woods, or slip and get hurt.  I was up there alone, and nobody knew where I was.  The only clue was my 4Runner sitting on the side of the road at MP 322.  Another time English Falls....another time.

The Water Calls

The hike back up the trail to the truck was not the easiest of things, but I made it with no problems.  The earth was very soft with the rains, and it just wasn't worth it to me to continue down to the bottom.  I got back up on the Parkway and did a little walking to see if there was anything that I could do with the foggy conditions.  There wasn't anything that jumped out at me, so I decided to go to Linville Falls and do a little shooting there with the increased water flow.

My goal was not to photograph the upper cascades or even the main drop because too much water, while impressive, looses that aesthetic quality that I love about waterfalls.  What I was wanting was a chance to photograph Dugger's Creek Falls under some different conditions.  When I arrived, the parking lot was about half full, and I could see a lot of families milling about at the visitor's center and on the bridge going to the upper falls.  There were nothing but empty spots on the side where Dugger's Falls was, and that was a good indication that I might get lucky and have it to myself.

Dugger's Creek

The hike out to Dugger's is a simple one that basically counts as a nature walk.  When I got to the bridge, I noticed two things.  First, I noticed that the water was flowing at a rate I have never witnessed before.  The dainty little waterfall was now a full on waterfall with the associated loud roar as it dropped.  Second, the trees were blocking much of the view of the waterfall from the bridge (which was getting more and more bouncy it seemed).  With this flow, I was actually really wanting to shoot from the bridge and get that perspective.  There was no way to do that with the trees the way they were.  I wonder if they ever come through and trim them back?

I hiked down to the base below the bridge and found that the water about knee level on me.  The only way I would be able to get into my normal position was to strip my feet and wade out there.  I didn't have anything to put on my feet to protect them, so I opted to skip it.  That was partly because I didn't see a real clear shot to the falls here either because of some of the vegetation.  Also, much of the character of the falls was lost because of the high flow.  Looking downstream, the water flow was showing some promise though.

I went quickly back out to the parking lot and followed the exit around the corner to where the creek runs under the road.  I know that you can access this section fairly easy from the road and I had forgotten to look as I came in to the parking area earlier.  Yeah, this would work out nicely.  I actually set things up on the top of the concrete culvert.  I used my 24-70mm lens with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer and started to pick out compositions.  As with the Roaring Fork Falls, I chose to make my foreground interest the final bit of drama as the water spilled over the rocks.  The patters of the water over the rocks was just glorious here, the best I had ever seen.  I shot a few different compositions here, including some isolations.  In the end, I thought that the overall mountain creek shots were the strongest.  I think that it works as both a landscape and a portrait shot, which is nice.

At this point, I figured that I might as well go and see what the upper cascades looked like since I was here.  Wait a minute, has it been five minutes already?  The sun was peeking out again.  It looked as though the sky was going to clear.  I knew it would be temporary, but I was excited.  Looking at the people coming into the parking area in droves, I decided that I would avoid the crowds and look for that grand landscape once again.

Flat Top Rock

I got back out to the Parkway and started to check out the fences in the area.  You know I love some fences!  None really looked ready to have their pictures taken so I continued on down the road.  I could see hints that the sky was looking good, but I was not finding anything I could put under it.  I knew I was getting to the end of the road...quite literally since all traffic was detoured just North of Beacon Heights.  As a last ditch effort, I pulled over into the Flat Top Rock parking area and found that there were only two other cars there.  I had done this hike once before and knew it was simple.  I grabbed my gear and started my way up the mountain.  I could see movement in the sky, and differences in the clouds.

My hopes were high for the first time.  When I got to the top. I could see definition in the clouds, but more were rolling in.  I started to look around to find something that I could put in the foreground.  There was less to work with up here than I recalled, but the last time I came it was in the early Spring and there were more bare trees around.  I finally settled on an area where I could see off in the distance for a good way.  There was a little bit of character to the clouds, but they were getting darker and denser by the moment.

At this point, I figured "why not?" and put the Rokinon 14mm lens on the camera and positioned myself in a way that captured the rocky surface of the bald that I was on as well as the mountains off to the distance.  It was not the image that I was hoping for, but it did have a lot of depth, and some visual trickery thanks to even lighting that made it look like the rocks at my feet just trailed off to the distant mountains without actually going through a valley at the base of Flat Top Rock.  The clouds were ominous to say the least, and there was a strip of bright light at the horizon which helped to bring the attention to the distant mountains.  It was a slightly different image from me, but one that I think has enough merit to be included here.

I kept the Rokinon attached and went back to the trail where there were some really cool trees.  The wide angle of the lens made for a perfectly cool composition, but the sky in the background was just too featureless and white to really work for what I was wanting.  It is a great concept and it works well with the wide angle.  I'll be back to try that shot again some time.  As I continued to look around, I realized that it was starting to rain once again.  It was getting harder and heavier too.  I took that as my cure to get back to the truck.  I loaded everything back up in the bag and started the return journey.

By the time I got to the truck, it was starting to pour.  I tossed everything in the back and hopped in the driver's seat.  I got back on the Parkway going North just to see if the road was still closed.  Yep, fenced off and everything.  There was a detour that took me to Hwy 221, which was going to take me to Blowing Rock.  I noticed as I made the turn that there was a lot of debris which had been brought into the roadway by the flood waters recently.  The rain was really picking up now and the clouds were back hanging over the road like a fog.  Visibility was poor, but good enough to see that Hwy 221 was closed not far from where I entered it.  So let me get this straight...the detour was closed?  Yep, that was the size of it.  The rain was getting harder and harder.  It was after noon, so I took that as my cue to head home.  I was needing gas anyway.  My day was done.

As I got to the base of the mountain the rain stopped and the sky cleared.  The clouds looked awesome, but they were still low.  I've fallen for that trick already, and I was about at Bingo Fuel.  I wasn't able to get back into the picture game with the gas that I had available.  I was tired, wet, and completely unsure if anything that I had shot was going to turn out.  I had thrown in the lens cloth.

But wait...there's more!

Chevy Sedan

There I was driving down the road listening to something on the radio completely disengaged from photography and I happened to look over one of the side roads visible from US 421 on the edge of Yadkin County.  I saw the distinct round rear end of a '40's era car.  It was parked at the edge of a parking lot.  OK, this was interesting.  I made the next exit and picked up the side road at the next intersection and went to looking for it.  I found it in a very large commercial area with a big parking lot.  It was placed for sale at the road.  I started to look around.  There was a Toyota for sale to its left that I had no interest in, there were buildings behind it, and RV's and dump trucks in front of the buildings.  The sky however was awesome!  The patina on the car was nice, but I'm not a big fan of white cars for this kind of photography.  The patina on the back was pretty nice though, and the car had character.  It was worth giving it a shot to see what I could do with it.  I parked the truck and hopped out.

Holy crap!  It was hot here!  After being used to the mountains all day, I wasn't expecting the sun to be so hot, but it was.  Oh well, I was here and needed to get to work.  I pulled out the camera and opted for the 24-70mm lens which is a great automotive lens for the flexibility that it offered.  I also knew I was going to need to get tighter than 50mm to omit the clutter in the background of the car.  I wanted enough angle of view to capture the sky and clouds though.  With the white car, I needed the blue sky to tone it down, and the white clouds would make for excellent complimenting elements.  To make sure that I had good contrast in the sky, I fitted my Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer to the lens as well.

Four Star Chevy

There wasn't much that I could do isolations on with this car.  The white paint really hampers my creativity for these kind of shots.  I did find a few nice lines on the front of the car that I could work with.  My only isolation that I felt like keeping was this abstract one with the hood emblem.  By going off to the side, I was able get this angle up high which made the chrome grill a complementing element to the emblem which was much higher than the grill.  More importantly though, my shadow was not in the picture at this angle.  I liked how the patina framed the image to the left along with the rust on the bumper to the lower corner which helped make the grill stand out.  It was an odd image and I wasn't quite sure how I would like it, but the more I look, the more I really like what I shot here.

Time Passes

Since I was starting to have a lot of fun with this car, I opted to go a little crazy with it.  I had been thinking 50mm or tighter to avoid the clutter around the car, but I also realized that by going wider, I could minimize the size of the background to where it was no longer intruding on the car.  I swapped out to my 16-35mm lens and shed the polarizer.  One thing I have learned with wide angle lenses, they don't like polarizers when shooting a blue sky.  The sky polarizes differently depending on the angle you are shooting, and with a 90+ degree angle of coverage, you will get some strange effects in the sky if you aren't careful.

I found a few compositions that I thought worked, and one that I really liked in a portrait orientation.  The clouds had all but left the scene and the sky was rather boring above the car.  I looked up to see if more clouds were on the way.  I could see movement indicating that there would be a few more coming overhead shortly, and they were moving at a visible pace.  Hmmmm, that could be a nice addition to the image.  Moving clouds over this car with a dynamic perspective.  I needed to do a long exposure on this one.

I grabbed the Lee Filter Holder and my Singh-Ray Mor Slo 10-Stop ND Filter and mounted it to the end of my 16-35mm lens.  This reduced the light a full 10 stops, and by stopping the lens down to f/22, I was able to get an exposure of 20 seconds.  It wasn't much, but it was going to have to do.  Short of adding my other circular ND filter which would then force me to go to a tighter focal length due to vignetting, I had no other choice.  I waited for the clouds to come over and shot a series of four long exposure images.  This is the one where the clouds were precisely in the position that I was wanting.  The LCD showed that I was in pretty good shape with movement, but just to be sure, I pulled the filter off and set the exposure to compensate and fired off a normal shot that froze the clouds.  That way, if the long exposure didn't work, I would have one to fall back on since I really liked the composition.

On a Break

After that series, I was feeling pretty good, and had been looking around.  There was an old '40's Ford pickup parked against the building that I was finding pretty interesting.  With the wide angle lens still attached, I decided to go and have some fun with this old truck.  My goal was to get in front of it (hence having the wide angle lens) and shooting it with the clouds to the rear.  As I approached it though, I found that the scene that was unfolding was kind of interesting with the truck parked next to a bush with the water stains on the pavement  pointing towards that bush.  The truck was also pointing it would seem.  I set the camera up at the back corner of the truck and found that the side of the building with all of the doors really looked odd, and I was having to include the roof and sky above.  This was just too complicated, so I moved in a little and tightened up the shot.  I purposely cut off the back of the truck and made the wheel and fender the dominant foreground.  Using the truck in the fashion really provided a nice balance of elements in the scene and kept it simple.

Not having a polarizer attached wasn't a problem either since the truck had no glass, and there wasn't too much glare on the paint either.  That mint green was a very cool shade and worked nicely with the color tones that were present.  I was looking forward to seeing how it would look against the blue sky above.  I moved to the front of the truck and tried to find the right angle.  No matter when I put the camera, I wasn't able to get a suitable perspective on the front of the truck.  Everything looked like I was trying to do a fisheye shot of the front of this curvy truck, and that was just too much.  I abandoned my attempts at getting the front of the truck.  Had it been moved back even five feet things would have been different though.  It was OK, I was really feeling good about the Chevy I had just shot, and it was actually getting late in the day.  I was already looking at getting home a little after 5 at this point, which is a full 12 hours after I had left.

It had been a really fully day, and one where I had seen monsoon rains, fog, clouds, sun, and clear blue skies.  The patterns developed with the routine of a Magic 8 Ball.  I still wasn't sure about what I had captured.  I was hoping that they turned out well, but I was really worried about it.  I hadn't gotten what I went out to get, but found so many things that I wasn't really considering photographing.  It was a day of go where the wind blew and shoot what presented itself.

Chevy Sedan in B&W

When I finally got around to starting to process the images it was after 7pm.  I had already decided that I was going to be happy with six images out of the day's pictures. I believe I had shot a total of 136 frames during the day, and that would be about five percent.  I moved through and tossed out more than half of the images in the first pass.  I finally whittled them down to about 25 images that I would start to process and work with.  I tossed out another nine of those images because there were elements that I didn't like in them.  The remaining 16 were pretty good, but one of them deserved another run through the processing engine.  That simple Chevy under the clouds was screaming for a monochrome conversion which I did.  I loved how it turned out, and with a few tonal tweaks, I felt became its very own image.  Both the color and the black and white stood on their own and I really liked how they both turned out.  This has now become image number 17 for the day.

I can't express how happy I am that I have so many keepers from the day.  I spent the entire time thinking that I was shooting junk except for just a few images that I was kind of excited about.  It was a real surprise to get home to find that so many of them came out so well.  The bad ones weren't even really that bad.  Slight composition shifts make the world of difference though, and there were a bunch where the shifts I made didn't work as well as I had hoped.

At midnight, I found myself writing here and falling asleep at the keyboard.  It was time to call it a night.  I always try to get the blog entry done on the day that I shoot the pictures, but it wasn't happening.  I mean seriously, who wants to read an entry that looks like this.

• So, with the clouds coming back, I startendnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn tso s set he camera upa     apllllffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff

So, here we are on the following morning and I realize that I still had about two hours of writing to complete the entry.  There was no way I would have been able to pull that off.  So, thank you for your patience, and I hope that you enjoy reading about my day trying to stay ahead of the weather and failing miserably.  But at least I managed to take what I had available and make the best out of it.