A Little Hike at Stone Mountain

Saturday, Sept 10, 2016

Early Signs of Autumn

I've been wanting to get out and do some landscape photographs for a while now.  Not the intimate ones that I've been doing, but some grand views of the mountains.  I've been watching the weather for a while and haven't seen much in the way of favorable weather conditions here of late in the mountains.  For the times that I could go, the skies were forecast to be basically clear.  This doesn't work for me at all, as I really enjoy clouds in my photographs, and for grand landscapes they are almost a mandatory feature.  It just so happened that as I was planning my weekend, I saw that Saturday was going to have 70% cloud coverage in Roaring Gap, and they were going to be low clouds at that.  This usually means some very dramatic skies, which work really well for Stone Mountain.

The clouds were not set to build until the afternoon, so I slept in with Toni and set out after she left for work.  As I went, the clouds were building, but it was more of a haze than anything.  There was very little definition in the clouds.  I started to get a little discouraged with my plans and pulled off of the highway and went through Yadkinville in search of a few other potential subjects.  What I found was not presented well in the existing light, so I continued to march on to Stone Mountain State Park.

When I arrived, I saw a lot more vehicular traffic than I was accustomed to, and actually saw all of the parking lots filled to capacity.  I know it's been a while since I've been forced to go to a park on the weekend but, I really don't recall seeing this kind of attendance when I've been there before.  I was hoping that whatever the activity was, that it was restricted to the front of the park and the trails that I was planning on taking would still be vacant...

No such luck

When I got close to the parking lot at the lower trail head, I found cars parked on the sides of the road because the parking lot was filled. Man, I'm just not batting a thousand here!  I did manage to find a spot to park in, and I tried to Google what was going on.  Of course, I did not have internet connection there, so I was still ignorant to what brought everyone out today.  I could see a bunch standing by the map and restrooms, and I could hear kids yelling and screaming already.  So much for a relaxing hike to the top of the mountain.  I thought about turning around and going home since I don't care for doing pictures when the park is filled to capacity, but since I had driven all this way, and the clouds were looking better, I stuck it out.

Taking a Foothold

I took my place in line for the trails and followed a family, with another one on my heels.  I had planned on going on the Stone Mountain Loop trail, but when I saw everyone else on that one, and could hear lots of commotion down the trail, I decided to take a detour to the right.  I didn't really care where it went because it was quiet.  It happened to direct me to Wolf Rock, Cedar Rock, and Blackjack Ridge.  I have been to all of these places before, and knew that there were a few things to photograph on that side of the mountain.  It was a bit of a hike with the majority of the trail being a steep grade which got me breathing heavy and sweating.  I was at least getting my exercise if nothing else!

I was fortunate to have chosen this route because I saw absolutely nobody except for a couple coming back down the mountain that said I was the first person they had seen in a couple of hours.  GREAT!!!!  When I got to Wolf Rock, I was still alone, and that gave me great optimism about finding some really good compositions.  The problem was, the sky was still rather hazy, and the sun was not in the best position for photography.  Most of the good compositions were shooting directly into the sun which would not have worked out very well.  What I was left with was a little on the drab side, but on the other hand the trees were already starting to show a little color.  The clouds were also better on the side opposite of the sun.  The sky was far from being 70% covered though.

I pulled out the camera and got it built using my 24-70mm lens for flexibility.  It has a decent wide angle coverage and can zoom in fairly tight as well.  I screwed on a polarizer to bring out what contrast I could in the sky since there was a lot of haze to deal with.  I started to pick out compositions that showcased the yellow leaves and the rolling hills beyond.  There was not much to choose from in terms of foreground interest, so I relied on finding interesting patterns in the rocky surface below me.  That turned out to be more difficult that it sounds since all of the leading lines I could find went in the wrong direction.  I did manage to find a decent patch of interest which provided the foreground for the opening picture for this entry.

I stayed around this area for a while before moving on to Cedar Rock to see if there was anything I could do there.  I know that there is one really good composition to be had showcasing Stone Mountain.  I was excited to get to it, but that excitement was short lived.  Once I got there, I realized that the patch of vegetation that I like to use as a foreground had grown over, and looked rather sloppy.  That wouldn't work for me anymore.  I wasn't all that upset though because the clouds were thinning out very quickly.  Even if the foreground had been there, I would not have been able to capture the picture that I wanted.

I started to look around for other compositions and found some eroded drainage lines from the wood line above.  I was luck enough for this feature to have a terminal point with a patch of vegetation which would make for a terrific foreground.  The background was not all that spectacular, but at least the sky was pretty interesting here.  Using my same 24-70mm lens, I got in close and went wide to exaggerate the foreground.  This worked out pretty well, and was the first composition I was actually excited about.

Eroded and Stripped

From there, I continued to look for ways of getting a shot of Stone Mountain.  While I was working my way back to the trail, I found my spot.  There was a small sapling growing from a crack in the rocks which gave me a little foreground interest, but mainly provided a visual block for the eyes following the slope down and out of the frame.  The lighting wasn't too bad here, but the clouds were nearly gone at this point.  I was able to capture a few of them just minutes before they cleared the horizon.  Once they were gone, it was time for me to move on as well.  I tried to follow where the clouds went, out to Blackjack Ridge, but found more expanses of blue sky.  It was starting to get late anyway, so I decided that it was time to head on back to the truck.  It was around this time, I met another three hikers.  I sure can't complain considering how many people were in the park.

I continued to search for different subjects and compositions, but could find none that would work with the clear sky, and low sun.  All that changed when I got back to the parking lot and found that the cloud coverage I was expecting at 4 was now rolling in at 7.  The low sun was even putting on a bit of a show with some color in the clouds.  I looked for a picture, but the parking lot made for a terrible element for the sky, and there was not time to hike back up to the top again.  I just enjoyed the sight for a moment and loaded the truck up to head home.

I had a total of 30 frames exposed on this Trek.  Most of them were nothing special, but I found three that deserved a little bit of processing.  While not what I was hoping for out of this Trek, I actually found that those three had merit and deserved to be shared.  Two of them have found their way into the Landscapes Room even.

A little change to the site

You might be noticing some changes around the gallery.  For years now...TEN years to be exact, I have been known through the name of 446 Photography.  That moniker will always hold a special meaning to me, and to Toni.  But times change, and it was time to move away from that name.  For simplicity, and for a little bit more of a professional approach, I have started using my name, officially relating to my photography.  This is a little more than just "hanging a new sign" though.  It really symbolizes a shift in my approach to things related to my photography.

I really want my photographs to speak for themselves.  I figure if my photographs are good enough for me to put my name on the back of each print, I should feel confident enough to put my name at the top of my website.  I want you all to get to know me, through my pictures, and through my blog entries about how I created the images.

You will also notice a much more streamlined appearance to the gallery.  While I liked the old layout, I decided that it was a little bit busy, and lacked focus on the images.  I've toned down the textures, as well as the color pallet and have improved the presentation of the images, or so I hope.  Please feel free to offer suggestions to the gallery so that I can continue to improve things, and make this a more enjoyable place to spend some time.

One other thing that has changed is the addition of another page.  I have been very hesitant to list prices because I have not been focusing on selling images for several years now.  However, I have been asked a number of time how much I would sell prints for.  You can now view that by visiting the "Prices" tab to the right and see the basics.  I'm still not in the business of selling my prints, but I am always very happy when folks decide to bring my art into their home or business.

I hope you enjoy the new layout, and especially the photographs found within these pages.

Greg

Just trying out the new workflow

Down to Earth

OK, so I have started working with a new workflow here in the studio.  I'm like a kid in a candy store at this point for several different reasons.  I've never been much of one for post processing of my images, and have spent countless hours learning how to get the image right in the camera.  Part of that is capturing all the available information I can when it comes to exposure latitude.  This means I am working with RAW files...or a digital negative.  For years, I've been working in various versions of Photoshop to do the basic conversions and tweaking of the images.  I've been pretty happy with my results from that workflow, right up until the time of printing.  At that point I was not as excited about the product, although I found some work arounds that seemed to work most of the time.

After my computer crash a few months ago, I was forced to upgrade my Photoshop since CS4 was no longer available.  I ended up with Adobe Creative Cloud, which included the most current version of Photoshop, and also Lightroom.  I had mixed feelings about Lightroom, as I had read a lot about it in the past indicating that it was the preferred photo editor these days.  I was used to Photoshop though, and don't much like change, so I was reluctant to move into a new editor, especially since Photoshop CC was very familiar in terms of looks and operation to what I was used to.  However, I wanted to give Lightroom a try to see what the fuss was all about.

The first time I used it, I have to admit, I got so frustrated with it, I gave up and moved over to Photoshop to finish the editing of my batch of pictures.  The next time, I tried again, and figured out a little bit more about what the program could do, but got bogged down in the adjustments.  I didn't care at all for the final product.  This was not due to the program being bad, but rather me making adjustments without knowing what I was doing, and how they worked.  It was time to learn about Lightroom, and quit messing around.

I looked into taking a class on workflow, so I could work this part out.  After talking to the instructor, I decided that I would be better off watching videos and and teaching myself as I had with everything in photography.  Well, I watched a couple of hours of videos on the subject, and learned more than I ever knew about Photoshop.  I was ready to roll with the new workflow, and managed to edit a series of photos rather efficiently with Lightroom for the first time, and actually found that I was able to squeeze out all that detail that I had trained myself to capture in the field with the camera.

Dairy Barn in the Summer

This image turned out very well, but when I printed my proofs as I typically do, I was less than satisfied.  There were color casts that I didn't like, and had not seen on the screen while processing them.  This was not a new problem; in fact, it was a problem I had been facing since I started photography back in '05.  I had done the prescribed monitor calibration, and profiled my workflow, including getting specific drivers for the printer based on the papers I was using.  Theoretically, my prints should be exactly what I was seeing on the monitor every time...but it was hit or miss.  Even when it was good, it was not quite what I was expecting.  This really bothered me with my new workflow because I was actually producing some really nice colors and detail as seen on the computer, only to be let down by the print.

I started to do more research (UG graduate here, University of Google) on the topic and found out a step that I had been missing since day one.  I was not disabling the computer's printer driver in favor of having Photoshop manage the colors.  I learned how to do that, and with a couple of button clicks, and slider movements, I had turned over control to Photoshop.  I printed out another proof, and the difference was amazing!!!!

So, with this new bit of knowledge to my photography, I set out looking for a new color picture to print out to enter in a competition that is taking place at the end of the month.  I thumbed through all of my pictures and just couldn't decide on any one particular one.  The picture of the barn above, had already been printed out in monochrome for the same competition, so I didn't want to duplicate the subject matter.  I had been wanting one from my Old Iron collection for my office at work, but none of them really stood out for this particular competition.  There was one truck that I liked though...

Rolled Flareside

This was the image that I was considering, but I wasn't happy with the deep shadows under the roof panels.  The colors were good, even though the grill was a little blown out.  This just wasn't the right picture for a competition, but I still liked the scene.  I happened to be going through my old RAW negatives (which I keep archived) and found a few alternate views of this truck.  These had not been processed because I was unable to get them looking the way I wanted through my limited knowledge of Photoshop.  However, with my new workflow in place, I decided to give one particular one a try, just to see how powerful Lightroom actually is.

As you can see in the last picture, the shadows are very...very deep under the roof.  I tried to lighten them a little bit in Photoshop, but any more than this started to look unnatural.  This was the limit of what I was able to do with Photoshop.  Now, if you look at the opening picture, you can see that the shadows are opened up quite nicely, and even the highlights are much more controlled.  The colors are much more vibrant, and actually required no adjustments to the saturation levels to achieve the look.  All that this photo represents is a basic conversion from RAW.  It took about 5 minutes to process and get ready for print.

I was so confident about my new print ability that I decided to forego printing a proof and went straight to the big print for framing.  When it came out of the printer, I realized that I had finally overcome the one hurdle I have had as a photographer for all of these years.  My prints were now spot on what I was seeing on the monitor with no extra manipulations needed.  A new chapter is starting, and I'm excited to see what happens next!

The Greensboro Dairy Barn

September 4, 2016

Dairy Barn in the Summer

This Trek was a little different from ones that I've done in the past in a couple of respects.  First of all, I was wanting to go out and really try a new workflow with my image processing.  Second of all, I wanted to go and have the goal of getting one good picture instead of trying for volume.  In a lot of respects, I have succeeded with both of these goals with this Trek.  I'm hoping to fine tune what I've learned on this one, and apply it to others, while still tweaking what my intentions are for pictures.

Let's look at the first goal.  After a recent computer crash, I have been getting used to a new version of Photoshop, which is now referred to as simply "CC" for Creative Cloud.  With this program, I am no longer purchasing the software, but subscribing to the service each year.  With the subscription comes quite a few other Adobe Programs, most of which I am not planning on using.  However, it was the first time I have been able to use Lightroom which is a program I have been hearing a lot of great things about over the years.  Since I now had it, I wanted to use it.  This was primarily because it was more dedicated to photography, while Photoshop was getting into much more than just photography, and has become rather complex over the years.

I have been reading about Lightroom, and watching many videos on the subject trying to get my work flow ironed out.  Over the past two or three Treks, I have played around with Lightroom, but ultimately ended up processing in Camera RAW and Photoshop.  This is not to say that I am doing a lot of editing in software, because I still feel strongly about capturing the scene as it is, and not manipulating nature.  What I am doing is starting from a relatively flat RAW file (digital negative) that has very little contrast and saturation in the interest of capturing as much information in the digital file as possible.  From this, I am processing it to bring out that detail and bring the saturation and contrast back into the final image.  There is no slight of hand in what I am doing, and even when I am doing a lot of tweaking of the image, I am still nowhere near the "photo manipulation" end of the spectrum....but I digress.

This Trek marks the first time I have been able to come back, and actually import the RAW files into Lightroom, and start to work on them from that program.  It took a little trial and error in some of the windows, but I actually made a final image that I was happy with on a first try.  I then imported it into Photoshop for just a little bit of polishing because I was used to how that worked with my printer.  I also made a B&W conversion of the above picture that I really liked from this shoot.

Dairy Barn in the Summer in B&W

Of course, the subject here is a barn that I have visited many times in the past.  I have shot it under stormy skies, blue skies, and even in the dead of night under starry skies.  Each time, I have captured a different feeling with the images.  This time, I wanted something a little different.  I have been wanting to get this barn with the white fence of the neighboring yard for some time.  My previous attempts have been rather blah because of my compositions.  Either I have been too far away and the fence was a bigger element than I wanted, or I had come in close, with a wide angle lens which has had the same result.  In my attempts to stay away from a "normal" view, which is what I usually end up with when I shoot with my 24-70mm, I decided to use my 70-200mm for some scaling properties.  With this lens, I would be able to keep the visual scale similar between the barn and the fence, and I had decided that I was only going to include a small portion of the fence to keep the balance in place.

It took a bit of time to set up a good point of view where the fence made sense, and the barn was still dominant.  This was part of my second goal.  I was no longer worried about making as many good pictures as I could.  I wanted to capture just one image that represented what I was thinking at the time.  I think that the images above (still only one image) captures that very well.  The clouds work nicely to keep the sky visually interesting, and the fence works with the barn instead of against it as it has in the past.  The rolling grassy field keeps the foreground interesting and feeds into the fence, helping it to make sense, and not look like an added in element.

As I was trying to perfect the composition, I shot from far away all the way up to a point where my 70mm focal length would not capture the entire barn.  This actually turned into an interesting view where I cropped out the long side of the barn, for a more intimate view.  It is this view that Toni enjoyed the most, and I also like how it presents.

Bricks and Boards

As you can see, the clouds are less of an element in this image because there is so little sky above included in the frame.  I was lucky that there was a cloud formation directly above so that the sky wasn't rendered as a stark blue void.  While I like this composition, I think I am still partial to the openness of the other composition.  Either way, I have finally done a full photo shoot, start to finish with a new workflow in place.  It took a little bit longer, but I can see some promise to using Lightroom, and plan on tweaking this workflow over the coming Treks.

A Rainy Morning on the Blue Ridge Parkway

 August 21, 2016

Carpet of Clouds

Here of late, I have been wanting to get back out and do some photography.  My schedule has been quite busy and I have been tied up on my off days with other interests.  However, the time had come for me to grab the Tamrac and head out in search of some more sights to put in front of the lens.  The weather on Sunday was an interesting thing.  On one hand, it was nearly perfect for a long morning bike ride at home.  On the other hand, the mountains were looking pretty good for some dramatic skies, and the chance for some intimate shots under heavy clouds and light rain.  Since I had chosen the bike a few days before, I decided to take my chances in the mountains and see what I could get.

I started my day off very early with the hopes of getting a sunrise in before getting started on other subjects.  I was running a little behind and was hoping to get to Carol Gap which has a nice viewpoint to take advantage of low lying clouds which I had experienced on the way through Wilkesboro.  As I arrived on the Parkway, I came across a viewpoint near the Elk Mountain Overlook which gave the view that I was really interested in so I decided to abandon my original plan and see what developed.

I arrived a bit later than I normally would want to, and there was already a good deal of light in the sky, but we were still about 25 minutes from sunrise so I set up very quick and started to grab pictures.  The sky was moderately interesting with clouds, and there was an overall reddish tone to the atmosphere, but the clouds below really captivated me, and they changed constantly over the half hour I was there.  To make the best advantage of the light that was there, I used my ND Grad filter and nothing else to keep the sky from over exposing and losing the color that I was seeing.  While I got a large number of shots, the one that worked out the best between composition and exposure was the one that opened this entry.  It was the third shot of the morning after I had fine tuned the original composition to my liking.  I was really hoping for a better sky, but I have to work with what I am given.

As the sun came up, the light was lost, and the clouds below started to get very bright causing too much contrast.  It was time to move on to see what else I could find.  My ultimate goal was to scout Flat Rock Trail for a possible sunset on another day, but there was lots to see between here and there.

Crumbled

As I was headed down the Parkway, I came across a fallen tree that Toni had pointed out years ago on a Trek we did together.  I always look at this tree when I'm in the area, but it hasn't had that same magical appearance for me until today.  The way the clouds were rolling across the sky, and the early morning light on the field really captured my attention so I turned around and got the camera set up to see what I could do.  As I was building the kit, a herd of cattle started to approach from the other side of the field.  This was not overly alarming as there was a fence between me and them, but I wasn't really happy with the possibility that they would be walking through my shot.  While they were getting used to me being there, I set up several test shots for composition and worked on finding something different than I had done in the past with this tree.  I was having a real hard time with the exposure due to the sky, and having the cows walking in front of me constantly was not helping matters at all. I decided to move over to the other side and see if maybe I could incorporate the cows, but all they did was follow me around.

I decided to let that work for me, while I looked at other compositions.  When they all came over to my location, I quickly moved back to my original spot and found the field of view to be clear once again.  I was able to snap a few quick exposures with a 3-stop ND Grad attached to control the sky.  The moody feel of this image really appealed to me as it captured what I had been after with this tree since I had seen it driving by.  I wasn't done yet though...I had found another view I wanted from the other side, but the cows were still there.  I went across the street for a bit to see if they would lose interest.  They did in a few minutes and roamed on to the far side of the field, far away from the tree, and from me.

What Remains

Knowing that the sun was going to be coming up over my shoulder, I was interested to see how things would illuminate when the time was right.  As the sun peeked over the trees and through the clouds, I was met with a nice surprise.  There was a cluster of trees in the background with exposed trunks that made for a perfect counter element for the fallen tree. With the sun on them, they really popped from the greenery, so I re-framed the shot and got this grab with just a minute or so of light to work with.  With the ND Grad still attached, the sky exposed perfectly without being too bright in the clouds.

With this picture, I was pretty much done at this location.  I got back in the truck and headed South, looking for Flat Rock Trail.  The clouds had pretty much taken over the sky, and it was misting, at times heavily.  I was starting to think about doing some waterfall photography, but I wasn't really in position to do any new falls which was what I would want to do.  I knew I would be close to Linville Falls and Crabtree Falls which are both fun, but ones I've done a number of times in the past.  The same conditions that make waterfall photography so fun also work for intimate landscapes, which was what I was hoping for at Flat Rock.

Flat Rock Trail

When I arrived, the rain had all but stopped, but the clouds were still thick above me.  I grabbed my gear and started on the relatively easy hike.  At the beginning of the trail I found an interesting tree surrounded by the lush leaves of the rain soaked vegetation.  It was worth a shot or two, so I set the camera up.  I used my polarizer to remove the glare from the moisture and started to compose the simplest images that I could.  After I shot this one, I started to see a need to shoot vertical to show off the size of the trees that lined the trail.  I flipped the camera and recomposed.

Giants of the Forest

I think I kind of like this one a good bit better than the horizontal version.  The trail and trees work out great to lead the eyes through the frame, and the textures of the trees are a nice touch as well.  A nice cloudy and wet day is the perfect time to photograph the interior of a forest.  So much detail is able to be recorded.  I really like the lush green of the background as well.

As I continued on, I came to the overlook in a very short amount of time.  The view was pretty good from what I could see, but the clouds were too low, and lacked enough visual contrast to work for a shot at this time.  Checking on the directions, I think it will make a really good sunset spot that I am looking forward to sharing with Toni in the near future if scheduling works out.  As I continued down the back side of the trail, I came across another one of those scenes that always draws my eye...

Slowly Reclaimed

Starting years ago, I studied the works of Mark Lucock (an Australian Photographer) who was amazing at capturing scenes of decaying wood in a bed of lush vegetation.  I've often times tried to use this technique, but don't have much luck finding the right scenes to work with.  Today, I stumbled across just such a scene and had to take full advantage of it.  At this point, the rain was falling pretty heavily, and the wind was starting to blow.  For anyone that knows about photography, I'm sure you realize with the heavy cloud cover, my shutter speed was extended to a very long time.  In fact, with the proper aperture, I was shooting around 13 seconds.  In that time, the ferns were blowing around wildly, and blurring too much.  I wanted them reasonably sharp for this shot; so for the first time, I jacked my ISO up to around 800 in order to get my shutter speed in a more appropriate range.  This worked out well, and I was able to capture the image I have been after so many times before.  Fortunately, my camera handles these ISO's very well, and still produced a noise free image.

It has been a while since I've been out on a Trek where I've been really happy with the results, but this was one.  I didn't get as many images as I would have liked, but the ones that I got I'm really happy with, and feel like the trip was worth my time.  I'm actually looking forward to my next Trek, and hope that it comes along soon.

Be sure and check out my Landscapes Gallery and see the new arrivals, as well as some of my favorites from other Treks.

An Early Morning at Rough Ridge

July 3, 2016

Rough Ridge Dawn

Months ago I decided that I wanted to go back to Rough Ridge along the Blue Ridge Parkway and try another sunrise session.  Back then, sunrise was around 7-7:30 in the morning.  That was no big deal considering the travel time was about 2 hours from home.  As Spring sprung, I found myself staying home for the most part and not doing much with my photography.  I started to get the itch to get my camera out of the bag toward the end of June, and with the weather for the July 4th weekend looking kind of rainy, I decided to give it a go.  This morning was supposed to be rather wet around home, but only intermittently cloudy in the mountains.  The weather patters appeared pretty good for a sunrise attempt, and I was still wanting to try Rough Ridge again.  I started to do the math and realized that in order to get up there, and hike to the vantage point I had chosen, I was going to have to wake up at 2am.  Wow!  That's early.  Sunrise was at 6:18, and I wanted to get there in time for the blue hour, around 5:30 or so.

It was hard, but I got woke up a few minutes after 2 and slowly got ready to roll out.  Our dog, Mystic, looked at me like I was crazy for letting him out that early, but he went without a whimper.  A little before 3, I was headed West in the rain.  I wasn't quite sure what I was going to get, but this was going to be my best chance and I wanted to take advantage of it while I could.  The trip went pretty uneventful, and I pulled into the parking area at Rough Ridge at 5am as planned.  I gathered my equipment...and a flashlight for the hike through the woods.  It didn't take me long to get to the rock outcropping that I wanted to set up on.  It was still very dark and there were a lot of clouds overhead.  I delayed getting the camera out because there was a little breeze, and this rock has already claimed one of my lenses years ago.  As the blue hour approached, I could see some promise in the clouds, so I set the camera up.

For this shot, I wanted to include the boardwalk, the oddly shaped rock to the left, and the horizon in the distance.  The only way to do that from this location was to affix my 16-35mm lens which included everything quite nicely.  I also used a reverse, graduated neutral density filter to hold back the sky in the event that the color was brilliant.  I grabbed a quick test shot and determined that a long exposure would work at this time of morning, so I set an exposure for three minutes and let it go.  The result is what you see as the opening picture to the entry.  The 5D MkIII does a great job at extracting all the available light from a scene.  It was still rather dark when this shot was made, but there was plenty of detail in the foreground to compliment the sky above.  An added benefit to the long exposure was that I was able to show motion in the clouds which is always a nice touch I think.

Hole in the Sky

As sunrise neared, there were several other photographers that happened by, each looking for their own vantage points for the start of the day.  I think that we were all in the same boat...hoping for the best, but starting to doubt that it would happen as the clouds gained thickness.  I had my composition set, and I was waiting on the burst of color, but it never really came.  The best that I got was a splash of color above the lower line of clouds which was luckily positioned even with the boardwalk, and framed against the rock to the left.  It was all I was going to get, so I took the shot.  It turned out better than I was expecting, but it was nothing like what I was hoping to find on this early morning.

It seemed that each of us were doing about the same thing.  Sunrise had passed, and we were all just standing around hoping that the clouds would do something interesting to salvage the morning.  The low fog was really nice, but the clouds and mist robbed the scenes of contrast, and color.  I tried a few compositions but couldn't come up with anything that excited me.  With the clouds starting to overtake the mountain, I decided to pack it up and head back to the truck.

Beginning of a Journey

On the way back down the trail, the bridge caught my eye.  I have photographed this bridge a number of times, usually in the fall.  Today, however, the play of light and dark caught my eye and I decided to give it a quick go.  I pulled the camera out with my 24-70mm lens, along with a polarizing filter and started to work different compositions.  I probably took a half dozen or so shots of the bridge from different points, and with different focal lengths.  This was one of my earlier ones, and I think it has the best balance out of all of the compositions.  The lush green was a nice change to the normal colors of Autumn that I mostly get here.  The sun peering through the canopy is what makes this a solid image.

Beginning of a Journey in B&W

Since the major players in this image were the lighting and shadows, I decided to give it a try as a monochrome.  While I like the color version better, the B&W does have a certain mood to it.  I think that it stands on it's own as an image and has been added to the catalog along with the color version.

After leaving Rough Ridge, I wanted to try some other locations, but honestly, I was too sleepy to do much more driving.  I pulled off of the road and took a nap.  When I woke up, the weather hadn't really improved much, and I was out of good ideas.  It was time to get home so I could spend a little while with Toni before she went to work.  I'm glad I chose that option because she had to go in early which would have meant I would have missed her completely if I had stuck with my original plan of getting home around 1 or so.  While it wasn't a tremendously successful day, I did come back with some decent images, and one that I could add to the gallery.  Not bad considering it has been a month since I last went out with the camera.

Spring at Doughton Park

May 30, 2016

Carolina Blue Sky

So I went with "Plan B"....no wait, that was "Plan C"......uh no, "Plan D".....well, actually I went with "Plan E."  I kid you not, my day started out with wanting to ride 100 miles on the bike, but when I woke up, the window of good weather was reduced to where I only felt comfortable going on a 62 mile ride, so I adjusted my route plans in time to see that the afternoon storms were supposed to start even earlier.  Now I was thinking about a 50 mile route.  Then I looked at the weather and it showed storms starting in less than an hour.  Oh well, lots of rain lately, cloudy skies could only mean going out to shoot waterfalls.  I quickly altered my plans for the day and grabbed my camera.  I loaded up the truck headed for Stone Mountain so I could shoot Widow Creek Falls.  As I turned onto Hwy 21, the clouds parted and the sun started to shine.  Well, that just won't work at all.  I decided to head out to the Blue Ridge Parkway and see what was going on at Doughton Park to take advantage of the clouds.  By the time I got there, most of the clouds were gone, and there had been no rain at all.  So much for the weather forecasts...I could have ridden my long route today, or I could have ridden on the Parkway for how nice the day turned out.

But....I was here with my camera.  I decided to give it a try and see what I could come up with to record in photographs.  There were quite a few people in the park, so I had to be rather careful in order to avoid getting anyone in the corners of my pictures, but I didn't have too much trouble for the most part.  I knew that I wanted to spend some time up on the hill with a lone tree that has always captured my attention over the years.  With the sun up pretty high in the sky, I had to be careful with my compositions to avoid deep shadows.  Fortunately, the clouds were usually in the section of sky that I needed as a back drop.

Motion in the Air

There was a pretty good little breeze atop the hill.  I would have liked to captured a long exposure showing the clouds moving, but that would have blurred the tree too much.  I found this composition as a compromise.  With the converging lines formed by the clouds and the ground leading off to the right, it gives a sense of motion that compliments the tree nicely.  While a tack sharp image, there is a sense of movement and excitement in this frame.  I tried several other compositions around this tree to no avail.  I moved around and looked for other subjects as well, but was unable to find anything suitable.  I decided to move towards the other side of the parking lot to see what the main trail had to offer.

Wooden Rails

On one of my last trips out here, I had found this fence right behind the parking lot and spent some time photographing it.  I decided to give it another try today as well since the clouds were kind of interesting in this direction now.  The sun wasn't doing me any favors, but thanks to the exposure latitude of my camera, I was able to record both shadow and highlight details in a single frame without the need for an HDR attempt.  With the receding trees and the leading fence, there is a nice pull to this picture, and the slight hill on the right helps give a nice visual balance to the image.  While editing through this set of pictures, I started really thinking about doing this in a monochrome conversion.  I found another one with a little more drama to the sky to do the conversion to.

Boundaries

This one is a bit more tightly cropped, and the clouds are a bit more emphasized.  The exposure on this one also lends itself more for the B&W touch.  With just a little bit of tweaking on the contrast, I had an image I was relatively happy with.  I'm always looking for those images that can make for a successful conversion, mainly because Toni has always preferred the B&W images and I like to make her happy.  This was the only one from today's shoot that made a good mono shot though, the rest looked much better in full color.

Doughton Park Trail

When I made it over to the other side of the parking lot, I was met with a field of wild flowers.  I was wishing that they were a different color than white, but they did a nice job at breaking up the green of the grass, and happened to frame the trail which helped to form a leading line into the picture.  I was really liking the sky here, and had to make use of my ND Grad filters to help control the contrast due to the sun's position in the sky.  It turned out OK in the end, but I was really worried that it was going to be a failure when I was clicking the button.

From here, I moved on down the trail and did something that I don't normally do.  I utilized a man made trail marker as an element in a photograph.  usually, I try to avoid these in my pictures, but for some reason, today, it made sense to add it in.  I left my ND Grad attached and got in really tight with it, using a fairly wide angle focal length, and really made the marker an important part of the photograph.

This Way

As you can see, they have painted the arrow yellow, which makes it stand out, and it is quite literally pointing you down the trail, and leading your eyes in the same direction.  It isn't a normal composition for me by any stretch, but I really think that it works in this situation.  I'm happy that I spent the time to get this one to work out so well.  When I was done, I continued on down the trail...hey, the marker told me to!

I started looking at several trees that I have photographed in the past, but the lighting wasn't right for them today, so I had to keep looking.  I did find one tree that I have never photographed before because of the light, that actually looked pretty good today, especially with the clouds behind it.  I worked for a while to figure out the best composition, and focal length to use, and I think I found the winning combination.

Mountain Meadow

The hint of pink provides just enough color, and helps to link to the island of vegetation to the left of the frame.  The texture in the sky provides a bit of relaxation which completes the composition.  It is not an "in your face" kind of shot, but it does set a nice mood I think.  That was kind of the theme for the day actually.  It was all about getting away and finding a bit of relaxation.  Even though I didn't get to ride my bike, I did find some meditation time doing something that I enjoy.  That makes it a win of a day in my book.