Where Did All the Water Go?

Saturday, November 19, 2016

It feels like it's been forever since I've gone out on a Trek!  Between work, travel, and the fact that the weather has not cooperated with me over the last month, I just haven't been getting out at all.  But wait...the weather has been beautiful.  It's been warm and sunny which is very odd for November in NC.  Well, those sunny days don't really do a photographer any favors.  We typically enjoy when the weather turns bad.  Clouds and strange weather patterns are our bread and butter, and my plate has been empty for a while now.  The lack of clouds and rain also have brought about another problem....drought.  What was working into a nice and colorful Autumn, has turned into something less than colorful over much of the state.  Add to that, most of the rivers and streams are drying up.  With my motivation being waterfalls here recently, this was a huge problem!

Looking at the weather for the weekend, it seemed that I had a good chance of getting some good cloud clover in the mountains, while it was still supposed to be mostly sunny here around the house.  The weather was right for waterfalls, but the lack of water was going to cause many problems with finding waterfalls that still had water flow.  Add to that the wildfires that are burning up a good portion of the Western portion of the state.  I knew of one place that was likely to still have some decent water flow, and it happened to be one of my favorite places to go...Big Creek, in the Great Smoky Mountains.  There are two named waterfalls along the trail, and lots of rapids that are pretty deep for the most part.  There is even a Duke Energy plant on the river which indicates that it should have water in all but the most severe droughts.

Not So Big Creek

As I tend to do, I started my day very early at 4am, and I was on the road by 5.  The trip to the trail takes just a tick over three hours from home.  This is a huge investment of time considering that I didn't know how much water was there, and whether the wildfires would cause me any problems.  Add to that, the sky here at home was completely clear for as far as I could see.  I trusted my instinct that this was where I needed to be heading though, and drove West.  It wasn't until I was past Hickory that I started to see clouds above.  Not until about 30 miles from Big Creek did I see the rain that was forecasted.  It was actually a nice soaking rain, but I was sure it was not lasting long enough to do any good for the fires, or for my purposes.

When I got to the exit off of the highway, I was quickly greeted with a sight that I wasn't familiar with...Instead of aqua colored rapids, all I saw were lots of large rocks.  There was some water running, but it was very low.  I was really hoping that this was not indicative of what I was going to find inside of the park.  I continued down the road, not seeing a sign at all of the powerful river that usually paralleled the road.  I was getting nervous, and was thinking that I just wasted my day, but I was here, so I was going to go hiking at least.

Once I started in on the trails, you can see above, there was precious little water in the riverbed.  There were bits and pieces of rapids that I could see from the trail, but early on, I was unable to hike down to get to them.  it was not until about a mile in that I was really able to scramble safely down to the water.  Gone were my big rapids with the awesome aqua colors.  Instead, the water was replaced by a riverbed of large rocks.  The landscape was completely changed, and I wasn't sure quite what to do with it.  The more I considered my options, the more I realized that I was going to be shooting a good deal of intimate shots, rather than all encompassing landscape shots like I enjoy with this location.

Stones of Bronze

Most sections were no more than three feet to six feet in size.  I had to get creative with my compositions, and focus on using my 70-200mm lens.  I tried to get reflections where I could, and I played with the white balance a bit to achieve some different effects than what I normally get.  As you see above, there were some interesting textures in the water, but I wasn't really satisfied with what I was seeing.  I was starting to think that I had chosen the wrong location to shoot today.

Copper Falls

One area that I was working for a bit held a surprise for me, just over my shoulder.  As I am in the habit of doing, once I was finished with a particular scene, I start looking around to see if there are other subjects that I could work with.  I happened to find this one just downstream, and I didn't even have to change my vantage point which was a very good thing.  you see, I was perched atop one of the many rocks in what was left of the stream.  By just rotating the camera, I was able to capture this abstract shot.  The best part of this one is that it is about the only one that shows the aqua color that I love so much with this water.  I was fortunate to have the leaf on the one rock for scale.  It adds a little more to the "what am I looking at" quality.  I also liked the rich tones in the surfaces to the lower right.

This was just about to be the last picture taken today as well.  The angle at which I was operating, and the fact that I was right on the edge of one of the rocks caused me to lose my balance ever so slightly.  With nowhere to fall that would end well, I grabbed onto my tripod and the long lens on the camera.  Fortunately, that gave me just enough balance to keep me from falling off the rock.  Water photography is tricky sometimes!

The Lounge

I was lucky enough to find some areas where the water flow was significant enough to allow for some more typical landscape shots.  I found this scene which showcased a small group of rapids, and they were balanced out by this one rather large rock to the left.  In the shadows, you can barely make out the aqua hue in the water.  I tell you what, when the conditions are right, this is one of the prettiest places around for water photography.  When water is scarce, there is still a certain character that remains here, and I was starting to get in that frame of mind.

Part of my photography has always been previsualization.  Simply put, I have certain pictures in mind before I even get to the location.  I know what types of pictures I will be looking for based on my destination.  Today, I was caught off guard by the lack of water, and it took me a while to get in the right frame of mind for Big Creek.  Once I got there, and knew what I was looking for, things started working out much better than I was thinking they would.

Mouse Creek Falls

One of the areas I was looking forward to was Midnight Hole, which was a small waterfall about a mile or so it.  I found it...what was left of it.  I had never even knew that the falls were obscured by rocks before.  The flow is usually strong enough to be much more prominent making me think that it wasn't actually obscured.  Well, this time, I could barely see it, and was unable to get out in the middle of the stream enough to photograph it.  I had to chalk this one up as one that got away.  The other waterfall on the trail is the major attraction for the park, and it is called Mouse Creek Falls.  I have photographed this once before, but never really liked the result.  I wasn't expecting much different this time with the reduced water flow.

However, when I got to the second falls, I was pleasantly surprised with what I saw.  There was not much water, but what was there, had a lot of personality.  In fact, this one looked better than when the water flow was generous.  I was unable to get the vantage point that I wanted from the trail, so I started to scramble down to the base.  When I got there, I realized that the boulders at the base obscured my view, and made a good photograph impossible.  I started to work my way up the embankment, and found that about half way up, I had a great view.  In fact, I was even able to put the lower section into the "V" of the rocks.  I set the camera up as carefully as I could considering I was on a very steep hill.  It was another awkward position, but I made it work.  I was able to place each element in the photograph in exactly the right position.

Freshly Fallen

Not only was I able to get the entire waterfall, I was also able to zoom in and get a few intimate sections like this one.  While I normally prefer my waterfalls to be full, this one seems to work very well with only a trickle cascading over the rocks.  The trick here was waiting for the wind to die down so that the branches weren't moving enough to blur in the picture.  I believe that this was about 8 seconds worth of exposure.

While I was working on intimate views of this waterfall, I had the crazy idea to flip the camera over to horizontal and work a composition that included some of the landscape around the waterfall.  As I mature as a photographer, I've found that waterfalls look really good with some context around them.  Not only does it give a sense of scale, it also gives a sense of place for the falls.

An Autumn Blanket

In a surprise twist, I found that I liked this version much better that the entire falls, or any of the isolations I shot.  Again, the biggest challenge was waiting for the wind to die down enough to make the branches stop moving.  The trunk to the left frames the shot very well, and it adds the much needed third vertical element to the image for a nice balance.  The fallen leaves provide the color balance to the green moss, and the water gives great visual interest.  At this point, I knew that I had a keeper from the day, and I could tell that my eye was in tune with my surroundings.  That motivated me to continue moving along in search of other scenes.

Creek Textures

With my recent success with Mouse Creek Falls, I started looking for more large vistas, but they were few and far between.  I did find a number of isolations that I was able to frame and photograph.  Doing these intimate shots in a very random rock garden is harder than it appears.  Creating order and balance becomes the biggest consideration.  First, you find a potential subject that has visual interest.  Then you look at what is around it, trying to find complementary elements.  From there, you position yourself so that you can include only what you intend on having in the frame.  One advantage of doing these types of images is that you really get a feeling for the textures of nature.  Getting in this close makes it look like you could just reach in and touch the soft moss, feel the spray of the water, and bump up against the rough rocks.

A Bit of Drama

Every once in a while, I get a good idea.  Today was one of those times.  Normally, I Turn around at the carriage bridge, but today, I decided to continue on.  I did not have any particular need to get on the road quickly today, and I was enjoying the very Fall day.  Not long after passing by the bridge, I came across a fairly nice sized cascade in the middle of the stream.  It was not exactly easy to get to though.  If memory serves, I took about five minutes of scrambling to make it down the bank to get into position to be able to see this.  Of course, I had to make my way back onto a rock which got precariously small once I got the tripod set up.  I was finally in a great position to use my 24-70mm lens to capture the background and to really show a sense of depth.  I would love to say that this took a lot of trial and error to produce, but I shot a total of 10 versions of this scene, and the one that I liked the best was the first trip of the shutter.  It had everything that I wanted in the picture.

Of course, my favorite aspect of the shot is the cascade in the foreground.  This was what drew my attention in the first place.  In order to contain the eyes, I used a bit of the rock in the lower right corner.  Because of that rock, the eyes are forced back into the frame, and then they are lead back up streak to what appears to be a tunnel in the bare trees.  I'm not sure what this setting would look like on a normal day, but I think that the reduced water flow actually made this one possible.  With a normal amount of water, I'm pretty sure that the drama would not be here, and there is a good chance I would be unable to get on top of the rock I was shooting from.

Cairn on the Trail

While I was shooting the previous scene, I happened to find some stones stacked on a neighboring rock.  While I had seen a few of them out on the trails today, this one caught my eye.  It reminded me of a snowman with sticks for arms.  There was a nice balancing element with the yellow leaves to the left, and I thought that it was worth a shot.  Knowing that I was going to want to really make the cairn stand out, I shot with the lens wide open at f/2.8 to blur the background.  Once I started to process it, I did a good bit of dodging and burning to get it just right.  I wasn't sure whether or not I would like this picture when I shot it, but I have to say...it has grown on me.  It is definitely something different from what I normally do.

Rock Hopping

Another one of my favorite images from the day came from the return hike.  I had passed by this location a few hours before, but it didn't speak to me.  I'm pretty sure that was because the sun was poking out of the clouds when I was in this section, and that ruined the lighting that I was after.  on the return trip, however, the lighting was perfect once again.  I decided to work my way back out in the riverbed and try to frame something up.  Once I got into position, I saw the one element that I really wanted to put in the shot.  There was a tree with bright orange leaves still attached in the distance.  I worked on positioning myself so that the small cascades would lead the eye right to the tree in the background.  I shot this also with a vertical composition, but I felt that I liked the open feel of the horizontal with the complementary elements to the left.

When it was all said and done, I had shot 107 frames, and decided on keeping a total of 11 images.  This keeps me in my target 10% hit rate.  Considering the lack of water, I found a lot more scenes than I though I would.  I would have liked having a lot more water, but overall, I'm pretty happy with this Trek.

Halloween at Old Salem

Monday, October 31, 2016

For a little more than the past month, I've been concentrating on the mountains of NC for photography.  Of course, this is largely due to the season, and the chance to see the leaves changing.  This has taken a large toll on my time over the weekends, but has been very much worth it.  With the color about gone in the mountains, I can start setting my sights closer to home now.  Since I worked all through the previous weekend, I did not have the chance to get out at all with the camera.  Ironically, with the actual work week starting back up, I found that I had a little bit of time in the evening that I could get out real quick and hunt some pictures.  The sky was a little boring when I left work, but the hourly forecast gave me some hope for some decent skies right before sunset. 

For some reason, I had been thinking about Old Salem, which is a historic location about five miles from home.  I don't normally think about going here much any more, so that was strange.  I've been to Old Salem several times over the years and found some moderate scenes that I could shoot, but overall, I was never overly impressed with the layout.  One thing that I have found over the years is that the Fall colors seem to be pretty vibrant there, if nothing else.  With questionable weather, and limited daylight, I went with my urge to go to Old Salem.

Autumn in Old Salem

When I arrived, I was less than excited about things, but there was something pulling me into Old Salem.  I've learned over the years that there are times when I get strange urges to go places with the camera.  When I listen, I'm usually rewarded with some pretty good pictures.  Considering how tired I was, I was actually in a pretty creative mood, and I was ready to try some new things.  One of the first streets I came to had some very nice color in places.  I happened to find a nice rustic gunsmith shop in close proximity to a bright yellow tree.  This would be my first shot of the day.

In the spirit of trying new things, I decided to use different glass than I would normally think about for this scene.  While I have always used my mid lens (24-70mm), I decided that I would go with my telephoto 70-200mm instead.  This would give me a different perspective, and would help to emphasize the background as much as the foreground.  I added my Singh Ray Intensifying Polarizer to help bring out the color in the tree as well.  Because of the reach, I had to set up a fair distance away from my composition.  While this felt strange, the image that I was seeing in the viewfinder was well worth changing things up.  I was instantly excited about how this Trek was going to turn out!

Fireball

Once I left the street scene, I was really hunting Fall color.  I started to look for individual trees that were set apart from the others.  It wasn't long before I found a lone tree, a maple, I think.  It was close to one that I had shot before that really has a vibrant color to it, and it is also right over a bench.  Unfortunately, that tree was still 90% green, and did not look all that special today.  The one close by, however, was in full color, and had a little bit of character to it.  It was worth grabbing a few shots of.  I left the camera set up the way that I had it for the last scene with the telephoto, and color intensifier.  I worked on a composition that utilized a fairly uncluttered background, while finding an angle that showed the trunk, while not letting too much of the sky through.  That really narrowed my possibilities, but when I found the sweet spot, I knew I had it.  Thinking back to one of my new photography mentors, Josh Cripps, I decided to fill the frame with what I liked.  In this situation, I loved the colors of the leaves.  That was what filled the frame for this composition.  The fallen leaves provided a much needed balance to the bright leaves still on the tree, and I really like the composition here.

The Hidden Face

Just in case I thought that the leaves were too much when filling that much of the frame, I cropped in a good bit, and used the leaves to frame the tree trunk.  As I was focusing in on the trunk, I happened to notice something kind of spooky though.  Maybe it was the fact that I was out on Halloween night, or maybe I'm just a sucker for the macabre...but I was looking at what appeared to be a rather dramatic skull in the bark.  There was an eye, nose, and a creepy, grinning mouth looking to the right of the picture.  It wasn't until I started to look at this in detail that I found a second, smaller skull below.  If nothing else, this photograph gets an emotional response from me, and I see a certain animation in this static image.

With the light quickly changing, I decided that it was best for me to keep moving rather than stay one place too long.  I continued on through Old Salem figuring that my ultimate destination would be the cemetery where there is usually a very large yellow tree right smack in the middle.  That was what I was looking for, but I told myself that I would not pass up other shots along the way.

Lavender Bouquet

One scene that I came upon was the Single Brother's House (If I'm not mistaken).  I've shot this building a number of times, but never quite like this.  Today, I was drawn in by the purple bush at the corner.  That was really all that grabbed my attention.  I thought about shooting the entire building, but the sky was generally overcast and not all that interesting.  The building was also big enough that the size would reduce the scale of the flowering bush and make it barely a supporting player in the final composition.  So, what I decided to do was leave my camera as it was, and shoot a tight composition using the building as a backdrop instead of a primary element.  I was able to use a deep green bush as a counter element, and there was enough warm tones in the picture to give it a bit of visual drama.  I wasn't quite sure I liked this one, and I asked Toni's opinion before I gave it my final blessing.  She really liked it, and since I value her artistic opinion, I decided I liked it too.  Again, today was about doing things different than I normally do them.

As it turned out, there was a little garden on the other side of the street with a small house on the other side of a fence.  It was mostly obscured by the vegetation and the fence, but there was something very German about the scene, and I liked what I was seeing.  I decided to give it a try with the camera and see what I could come up with.

Humble

There were two things going in my favor for this image.  The sun was low in the sky, and was positioned over my left shoulder.  This provided a nice warm hue over the scene, and helped to brighten the house.  Second, the trees behind it were big enough that I could exclude the sky which was still rather boring.  With my tele lens still on the camera, I started composing shots.  I found that horizontal worked best for this particular subject, and grabbed a number of variations before deciding that the sun was dropping too low in the sky to keep the warm tones on the house.  I decided to head back into the main section and keep looking while working my way to the cemetery.

As I was walking, I happened to look to my left.  At first all I saw was a white fence, but as my eyes started to explore the scene, I found a really nice tree framing what was almost a pink tree.  I stopped in my tracks and heard Toni saying I had better shoot that.  It was more of a squeal, but I got the message and started to look at the scene, trying to imagine what she was seeing.  Yes, even when she is not actually with me, I know her well enough now to know what kind of pictures she likes.

Dream Catcher

There was a lot here that I wanted to capture.  I really wanted to keep the tree as dominant as I could, and I wanted to keep the power of the fence in tact by photographing it as completely as I could.  The colors would be a soft textured background for the scene.  In order to do this, I figured that I would actually need to keep the telephoto lens on, and would need to zoom in a pretty good amount.  As it turned out, the composition I liked the most was with the lens racked to a full 200mm, with me standing across the street.  This is really different than the way I would normally shoot this type of scene, but I found that the resulting composition was yards away better than I was expecting.

With the 200mm zoom, my depth of field was very shallow.  In order to expand it to where I needed it, I stopped down to f/20 (to maintain sharpness, while expanding depth of field), and focused about a quarter of the way down the fence.  With an exposure of five full seconds, I had to wait until the breeze died down as much as possible before tripping the shutter.  The resulting image had several nice surprises.  First of all, the depth of field was not quite front to back sharp.  There was a noticeable softness to the background as the leaves fell out of focus.  The lighting was not so much difficult as it was atypical for me.  The scene was essentially backlit so the leaves carried with them a certain vibrance, and glow which contrasted beautifully with the shadowed tree trunk.  There was also the contrast between the white fence and the dark wood of the tree.  The fallen leaves introduced a wonderfully warm foreground which helped to make the colors in the trees pop.

When I started to look at this picture critically, I found that I loved everything about it.  The soft focus in the leaves, along with the back light, gave the scene an ethereal tone, and the shape of the tree was holding those leaves so gently.  The fence was there as an obvious barrier, but for some strange reason, did not provide a visual obstacle to go deep within the image.  However, the assumption can be made after seeing two sides of the fence, it is designed to keep things in.  All of this worked together and made me think of a dream.  Knowing that Toni has always put a lot of emphasis in her dreams, and has expressed an interest in dream catchers, the title almost created itself.  Yes, this one was Toni's picture from the beginning, and remained right up to the finalized title of the print.

Main Street

Shortly after I shot Dream Catcher, I continued on to the cemetery and found that the tree I was looking for was still very much green.  Not wanting to bypass any more potentially good images, I returned into the main portion of Old Salem.  I stopped to talk to a resident for a few minutes, who gave me a bit of a history lesson before I continued on looking for other scenes.  The sun was dropping fast, and the sky was not looking like a sunset was going to be all that possible.  However, I decided to stick it out for a bit instead of packing it in just yet.

I'm glad that I did because I found that there were a few places where the street lights were throwing a pretty glow on the buildings.  I happened on one of these lights and decided that it was worth grabbing a few frames.  After a quick read of the scene, I decided that I needed to swap glass, and go with my 24-70mm lens, and I needed to shed the polarizer due to the low light.  I quickly got into position and composed this shot as the opening exposure.  I would try a few more in the horizontal orientation, and a few additional in a portrait orientation.  When it was all done, my favorite was my initial composition as far as balance and color.  Again, it was not my typical picture, but I really enjoyed the process and result of shooting this one.

With the end of the day quickly approaching, I struck out to see if I could take advantage of the sky which was starting to get some really good texture to it.  The sun was down, so I didn't have long to find something, and that meant that I might not be able to be too picky.  As I passed by the tavern, I noticed the woodshed behind was lit up from the inside, which was really cool.  But even better was the fact that the sky was fascinating above it, and the wind was moving the clouds towards me, as opposed to moving side to side like they normally are.  I set things up quickly, knowing that I had about five to ten minutes before the light was gone.

Woodshed

In order to capture the sky, I left my 24-70mm lens on, and set up low to the ground.  This allowed me to angle the camera up and into the sky.  The clouds were moving fast, and with a 20 second exposure, I was hoping to see some movement in the sky.  There was no time for any filters for this shot, I just composed, and exposed.  Looking in the LCD, I was pretty sure that I had a winner, but can never be sure looking at the desaturated and flat image that the image review shows.  It was not until I got home and started to process the image that I was able to realize the scene that I had previsualized when I came upon the woodshed.  There was drama, action, texture, mood, and it all played together so nicely.  Again, this was not a typical image for me, and I was very lucky that there were lights on since I did not have a flashlight in order to light paint the shed.  The highlights and shadows were a natural marriage, and the sky was the glue that kept the whole image together.  I'm hoping to shoot more images like this one in the future!

With the woodshed now in nearly total darkness, it was time to head back home and get some dinner.  I kept thinking to myself that I really felt like this was a largely successful Trek even though I only shot 40-some frames in a couple of hours.  It wasn't until I was done processing that I realized just how successful this outing had been.  With eight images deemed keepers, I was well over my standard 10% keeper ratio, and just about every image was shot in a different flavor than I normally do.  It is fun to keep things fresh, but when it comes to photography, it is always so much easier to keep things in your comfort level so you don't stand the chance to miss that one great shot.  By experimenting, I have found out that I might not get the typical image that I like, but I'm finding so many other approaches to the same old scenes.  Honestly, I'm really liking the different feel that my photography is starting to take these days.  It is a constant struggle to kick myself out of my own ruts, but when I do, I'm overwhelmingly impressed with the results.

As it turned out, I did very good listening to myself when I decided to go to Old Salem.  Everything I shot today was done in a different fashion than how I usually do business, and that paid big dividends in the end.  Now to pick what images go in the gallery!

Final Leaf Trek to the BRP

Saturday, October 22, 2016

Me:  What is that noise?.....Oh, it's the alarm.  Starts to look at the weather in the mountains.

Toni:  Are you going to get up and go?

Me:  There are 30mph winds in the mountains today, and the wind chill is in the 20's.  I should just stay home and curl up with you today.

Toni:  You really should go.  This will probably be the last day you can catch the leaves.

Me:  Yeah, I guess you are right...Ugh

That was how my morning started at 4:15am.  I really didn't want to get out of the bed, especially seeing the weather conditions in the mountains.  The winds were up with 20mph sustained, and 30mph gusts forecasted.  Not to mention that the temperatures were in the mid to upper 30's with a wind chill in the lower 20's.  That was a complete shock to my system after being in the mid 80's just days before.  But Toni was right, this was going to be my last good chance to capture the Fall colors in the mountains since peak was a few days ago.  The wind would be better tomorrow, but I would lose the clouds which were forecasted to be about 45% coverage for most of the morning.  This should provide me with some visual interest in the sky, and keep the sun diffused for a decent morning of photography.

Holding Back the Day

Honestly, I was tired.  I have been in the mountains every weekend for the last month, and the long days were starting to wear on me.  I didn't have much of a plan for this Trek.  I figured I would wing it, and follow the light, and try to dodge the wind the best I could.  I knew that above 3000 feet the trees were mostly bare by this point.  I tried to focus on sections that were a bit lower to try and get some good color.  Since I was going to make a morning out of the Trek, I got to the Parkway before sunrise.  I was not holding out much hope of a good sunrise though since there were no clouds in the sky.  I wasn't surprised at this, since typically, 45% coverage means a single small puffy cloud in the sky.

I started out headed South because I knew of a few really good places to capture a sunrise, should one appear.  As I got close to Raven Rocks Overlook, I happened to catch sight of a fence to the left and I was pretty sure I saw a small patch of clouds over where the sun was coming up.  This was an unknown vista for me, but it was worth turning around to check it out.

Sure enough, the clouds were actually coming over the mountain and rushing toward the horizon.  If I timed it right, I would be able to get some good color this morning.  I parked the truck and opened the door....then considered how badly I wanted to try a sunrise.  Ultimately, I fought the wind, which was howling at this point.  I spread my tripod out for maximum stability as I was having flashbacks from when I busted a lens due to a sudden gust of wind.  I decided to keep my 24-70mm lens on, but I fitted the Lee filter holder in anticipation for using my flat filters.

I set up and tried to get the fence to contribute to the composition.  I found that by getting really low, the fence became a prominent feature against the colors in the sky.  The wind was really causing problems though, as everything was blowing around wildly.  For this level of light, my shutter speeds were not fast enough to freeze the motion.  Instead, I had to time my shots with the lulls in the wind, and hope that they stayed calm for the duration of the exposure.  That never happened though.  The color in the sky was good, and the clouds held promise, but weren't moving fast enough.  As the sky started to wash out, I realized that when the clouds lit up with color, it would be too late for the picture that I wanted.  I'm just not a fan of a white sky between colorful clouds, and the ground.  So, I decided to cut this short in favor of what was developing behind me.  The clouds were much more dramatic to the rear, and I wanted to make use of the wonderful lighting before it was gone.

Autumn Ignited

There is just something magical about the light that the low sun casts when the subject is under an overcast sky.  The warm light explodes under the moody clouds, and this was exactly what I saw was about to happen.  I quickly got my camera in position, and pulled the reverse ND grad filter off the front.  I wasn't going to be needing any filters for this shot.  I just had to sit back and wait for the light to hit.

The only problem was...I was getting numb.  I could no longer feel my fingers, and my nose was running like a faucet.  But I waited.  In a window of about 3 minutes I had the light that I was waiting for, and I took advantage of it with several exposures to make sure I got it right.  The composition was a little more difficult that I expected.  I had set up a foreground, but there was a deep shadow that covered it, and with the wind, there was too much movement for my tastes.  I had to crop in tighter in order to really focus on what was the most interesting.  The change in composition was easier said than done with my numb fingers.  Things like focusing became a chore, but the biggest issue was I was now switching lenses.  For the composition at hand, I needed my 70-200mm.  It was everything I could do to swap the lenses while keeping the wind away from the sensor.  I was finally able to get the image that I wanted, seconds before the light faded.

Companionship

My body was telling me to put the camera away and get back in the truck.  But, I saw in a slightly different direction another opportunity to catch the golden morning light.  There was a single grove of trees atop a hill, where one of the trees still had about half of its leaves left.  I was still using my long telezoom, so reaching the tree would not be a problem at all.  The cows that were slowly walking my way were promising to cause some issues though.  The last time this happened, the cows ruined my composition, and I had to abandon my location until they left me alone.  These guys were not quite that bad.  In fact, they didn't bother me at all.  The bigger plus was they actually held still for me, and even faced in the same direction.  I couldn't look this gift cow in the mouth, now could I?  I opened up the composition and included them.  This worked out wonderfully since the rising sun was lighting up the clouds to the right of the frame.  This was good timing!

However, in the world of photography, good light lasts just moments and then it's gone.  With the sun quickly rising, I was losing out on the warm tones, and they were being replaced with very contrasty light.  It was time to listen to my body and get back to the truck.  It took some doing to get the camera put away though.  I had no fine motor skills, and I could not tell what kind of pressure I was applying to buttons, and levers.  I looked quite funny, but I eventually got it all broken down, and back in the bag.  Then it was time to make use of the heater...on full blast!

Appalachian Breeze

Now it became a game of find the light.  On one side of the Parkway, there was bright blue skies.  On the other, nice and dense clouds.  Of course, I was looking for the clouds, but I wanted the sun to light up the landscape below...yes, I ask for a lot!  I found one of my little favorite settings near a recessed barn that looked like there was promise.  I was going for a lone tree on a slope.  The composition was there, but the lighting was not what I wanted at all.  However, the distant mountain range showed much more potential as the sun was dancing across the hills already.  I moved over to that side, and started to compose the image using my 70-200mm lens again.  I wanted to keep the distant mountains prominent, and using a wide angle lens would reduce their size too much.

Because of the distance, I needed some form of foreground interest.  Fortunately, there was a nice split rail fence that I could use.  I just backed up and framed the mountains in the vertical posts.  My one issue was the wind was still howling, and the weeds in front of the fence were moving like crazy.  There was no chance of freezing them, so I went ahead and embraced the movement.  I stopped down the lens, and slowed the shutter speed to a speed that I thought would provide enough motion in the weeds to reduce their visual impact, but keeping them detailed enough that the eye recognizes them without having to examine the form.  It was a fine balance!

The second element of this photograph is the light.  The clouds were moving quickly in the wind and the light from the sun would illuminate various parts of the landscape randomly.  I just sat there and made exposures when I thought the light was doing something special.  For the most part, it was going across the nearest mountain, and would occasionally hit the one to the rear.  For a moment though, the light hit both mountains, and also fully illuminated the middle ground for the first and only time.  That was the shot I was wanting, and didn't even realize I was waiting for that formula.

Once again, it was time to fumble with the camera and put it back in the bag.  I couldn't feel my extremities once again.  I needed to find other vistas to photograph while the light was still good.  I got turned around at this point, and started heading North in search of more color.  I could see that the closer I got to the Rough Ridge area, the less leaves remained.  I was hoping for better luck on the Northern sections of the Parkway.

Confining the Blue Ridge

As I made my way North, I passed by a favorite section of fence that I've photographed many times before.  With the clouds in the distance, I figured that I would continue that tradition.  I pulled off the road, and built my camera, once again with my 70-200mm lens to keep the distant mountains in proper proportions.  The histogram showed a nice and even exposure, so there was no need for any filters.  I worked on several different compositions using the red gate as a visual anchor for the entire image.  Since the last time I photographed here, the gate had been damaged.  There was now a pronounced bend to it, and it happened to match up very nicely with the dip in the distant mountain range.  It all seemed to come together very nicely looking at the image review in the camera.

Standing Guard

Just a little ways down from the gate is another scene that I enjoy trying to photograph.  I'm not sure why it gives me such a hard time, but I've never been truly happy with the images that I've shot here.  I really like the concept, but something with the way the colors and textures behave makes it feel weird to me.  Today, I got to add in the colors of Fall to that mix which complicated things even more.  However, the image that resulted had a drama that I have not experienced with this scene in all the years I've tried to photograph it.  It turned out much better than I expected, and I was very happy that I gave it another try.  I'm just wondering how much longer the dead trees in the front will remain there.  In my opinion, they absolutely make the scene.

After finishing this image, and trying another scene a short distance up the road (wasn't happy with the results), it was time to pack up the gear once again.  I wasn't really sure where I was gong to end up, but things were going pretty well so so far.  That is, if you forget the fact that my fingers were now tingling from exposure, and would not stop.

Behind the Gate

Not too far up the road, I came upon another one of my favorite spots.  The lighting was just right today, and I had to stop and give it a go.  When I got out of my truck, I was about blown over by the wind.  The best I could tell, the wind was being channeled through the very valley that I was about to photograph.  I was essentially standing in a jet blast, trying to get a picture.  Well, I was going to give it a try at least.  Again, I have found one of those old red gates which seems to find their way into my pictures more often than not.  Since the trees to the left were nice and golden, I wanted to counter that with the red gate.  In order to do that, I composed the image making the gate the visual anchor.  It was positioned directly opposite of the orange trees creating boundaries for the eyes, forcing them to go deep into the picture.  The hardest part about this image was waiting for the wind to die down long enough for a steady exposure.  The sustained wind was enough to make the camera visibly move, and that would make for a very soft image.  I got my chance about 3 times and took advantage each time with slightly different compositions.

Behind the Gate in B&W

Since it has been a while since I've done a monochrome conversion, I thought that this one would make a decent specimen for that process.  While I like it better in color, it works as a B&W image for different reasons.  The textures are what really draw me into the frame.  The "X" in the foreground cradles the distant mountain which causes the eyes to follow through the image.  I do enjoy working with monochrome images, and with Winter approaching, it is about time to start doing those again.

Home Sweet Home

The further I drove, the more the clouds were starting to break up.  I can't complain though...the forecast showed them all but gone by 11am.  Here we were coming up to about noon and there were still some really good clouds in the sky.  That was good, because without them, I would have been done shooting as the mid day sun is just too harsh to work with unless the light can be diffused.  My last stop of the day happened to be a historic cabin which I photographed many, many years ago in the snow.  I've not been all that interested in it since that time, but it was calling my name today for some reason.

With my 24-70mm lens, I gave it a go.  Since the clouds were breaking up, I went ahead and fit a polarizer on my lens to help with the contrast in the sky.  For being a cute little cabin, it is not that easy to photograph.  There is not much in the way of foreground interest, unless you count the bramble off of the corner of the house.  By opening up wide, I was able to get the sky in the frame, and also a shadow in the foreground.  More importantly, I was able to get the Fall color that was present in the background of the house.  The cool sky balanced out the warm tones of the trees and the cabin and made for a nice, and well balanced image.

Home Sweet Home in B&W

Of course, when I got home, I wanted to see how this worked as a monochrome conversion.  For me, the sky seals the deal and makes this a successful image sans color as well.  It really felt good to get back into processing B&W images once again.  It seems like forever ago since the last time I did one.

Sticks and Stones

With all of the wondering about foreground interest, I almost forgot to try a vertical composition.  With the chimney, and the tall, bare trees to the rear of the house, a portrait orientation really lends itself to this old home.  Of the two compositions, I think that this one is my favorite for the simplicity of it all.  I still get the deep blue sky, and the warm tones of the main subject matter.  The size of the house is very apparent with the trees in close proximity as well.

After I was done here, it was time to head back home.  It had been a very fun day on the Parkway.  It might have been the excitement of fighting off the high winds, or it might have been the challenge of staying warm.  I guess, it could also be the fact that I came home with quite a few new images to add to my collection.  No matter how you look at it, I am glad that I followed Toni's advice this morning and went to the mountains once again.

A Quick Trip to Yadkin County

Friday, October 21, 2016

With my recent schedule at work lately, I have been racking up some overtime, and have been needing to burn some hours.  As it turned out, I had the opportunity to take a half a day off today, and got my work done in time to take advantage of that.  Before going in, I checked out the weather to see if there might be a chance of doing some photography during the afternoon.  With mostly cloudy conditions, and a chance of rain, I was all set to go and do some waterfalls.

One of the closer waterfalls to me is not one that I have photographed all that often.  It is in Yadkin County off of Styers Mill Rd.  It is a really big waterfall for the Piedmont, and it can be rather pretty at times.  The problem that I have with it is the vandalism along the sides of the falls.  Years ago when I went there, there was spray paint on both sides of the falls which was very, very difficult to clone out in post processing.  Because of the paint, it is very hard to make a satisfactory image of the whole waterfall.  However, I'm starting to look into doing some more intimate shots of waterfalls these days, and wanting some practice at isolating specific elements of the falls.  With the dry days that we have had recently, I figured this might be a good time to try this waterfall again.  My intention was to work only with my 70-200mm lens, and keep the shutter speeds relatively quick for waterfall work.  I wanted more detail in the cascades.

Like Liquid Lace

When I arrived, I found that I had very mixed emotions.  On the one hand, there was nobody else at the waterfall, so I had the place all to myself.  On the other hand, there was evidence of all the people that had been there long before me.  The spray paint was still there, and there were beer boxes trapped under limbs in the middle of the stream.  There were also a few trees that had fallen since the last time I had been there, blocking the view of most of the left side falls.  The weather was just about right though, so I decided to give some isolation shots a try.  I picked out parts of the waterfall that really stuck out to me, rather than trying to compose a shot that encompassed everything.  The results were pretty good, and I was liking what I was capturing, but was wondering about the lack of colors in the images.  Seemed that brown was the predominant tone, and the rushing water was the only other hue to bring balance to the image.  Fortunately, the water played a big part in these intimate images.

It wasn't long after I started to make exposures that the clouds started to break up.  I could tell that the sun was causing some major exposure problems in the water when I was checking the review image in the LCD on the camera.  I was starting to get large areas of blown out detail which I didn't want.  I needed to be able to capture all of the nuances of the cascading water to make these images work.

Rhythmic Flow

It turned into a waiting game.  I would compose the image and then set what I thought would be a good exposure when the light was right.  I found myself around f/29 and 1.3 seconds for the most part.  I would watch the clouds move overhead and try to time it to where they covered the sun.  Sometimes, it was only seconds that I had to work with, but I took advantage of those seconds.  However, the longer I was out there, the less frequent good light showed up.  I decided to cut my losses and head out in search of other subjects that could actually make use of the sky.

I started driving around and found the sky to be wonderful, but the clouds were quickly breaking up, and it seemed that in order to follow the the clouds, and good light, I was going to have to work my way back East.  I was headed that way, and happened to pass by an old Pontiac I had photographed several years ago.  I've been wanting to work this old car again, but have been a little hesitant since I have seen signs of life on the property.  Since it was the middle of the day, I felt that if anyone lived there, I would have a decent chance of catching them at home to ask permission to photograph the car.

When I got there, the corn had all been harvested, and the car that was parked in the yard had not been moved in some time.  I could see no signs of occupancy, so I decided to take my chances and grab the camera.  I started out with the 70-200mm lens, but found that I was not able to get the compositions I was thinking I would with that much reach.  I stepped down to my 24-70mm which is a very flexible lens, and it allowed me to get up close to the car from several different angles.

Quietly Resting

Of course, by this time the sun was really not doing me any favors.  Most of the clouds had faded, and moved to the East.  I was here though, and I wanted to see what I could come up with on this car.  There was a good deal of filter use for these images.  Not only was I using a polarizer, I was using in some cases, 6 stops of neutral density for the sky.  It was not ideal, but the histogram was showing that I was capturing detail in the images without clipping at either end of the spectrum.  That was promising.  As with the first time I shot this car, the best light was from the rear of the car, so I spent some time back there once again.  At least there was not as much need to hold back the sky when shooting from the back of the car.

Oh the Memories

Once again, my favorite image of this car was from the rear.  There are some interesting compositional tricks for this shot.  There is a clothes line just off of the passenger side fender of the car.  Sure, I could clone it out, but I really don't like doing that unless it is absolutely necessary.  Instead, I decided to blend the posts in with the tree in the distance.  You can still see both posts for the clothes line, however, they don't create a visual distraction because they become part of the tree in the distance which is a much more appropriate element to the image.  There is a great sense of depth in the image because of the implied diagonal of the composition which I really like.

When I was finished working with the Pontiac, I found that the sky was pretty much awash with blue, and the wind was really picking up.  I decided to head toward the house, and scout any other subjects I might could come back for at a later time.  I found a few, but none would work in the current lighting, so I just made mental notes, and called it a day.

It wasn't until I opened up the images in the computer that I saw that the RAW files actually looked better than I had thought they would.  It is very hard to judge a picture from checking the LCD, which is why I mainly just look at the histogram to make sure I haven't lost any tonality in the image.  They looked good from this objective measure, but the subjective measure had to wait until I could see them outside of the sun.  I was pleased, but was really wanting to do more with waterfalls today.  Oh well, I'll get them next time.

More Leaf Peaking on the BRP

Saturday, October 15, 2016

Crimson Skies

Another weekend, another trek to the Blue Ridge Parkway.  The Fall colors are slowly creeping into the mountains after a late start.  My goal was to get out and find a lot of color to photograph this morning since this was supposed to be peak weekend according to the forecast not that long ago.  The weather was supposed to be pretty good for my needs as well, so I had high hopes.  I chose to start out around MP 276 and grab the sunrise from EB Jeffress Park, and continue North.  When I got there, I saw that the moon was full, and tucked in behind the clouds in a way that made me forget about sunrise.  I started to chase the moon South until I found a great place to shoot it at Raven Rock.

The problem was, by the time I chased it down, it was too low on the horizon, and had lost the impact I was wanting.  Well, I was now about 10 miles away from where I was thinking about being for sunrise, so I moved on down to Thunder Hill since I know that there are several good options out there for different weather conditions.  It was also pretty close by which was a bonus.

I arrived about 45 minutes before sunrise, and found myself sharing the parking lot with about 3 other cars.  By the time I was done, the parking area was completely full!  I set up the camera with the 24-70mm lens since I was seeing some color already in the sky, and wanted to get a nice large field of view.  I went ahead and screwed on my Lee Filter System so that I could use my 4x6" filters when the time came.  I found my composition, away from the other photographers, and waited for the light to happen.

Fairly quickly, I realized that I was going to need a reverse grad filter to control the sky, which I slid into the filter holder.  It worked great, but with the moisture in the sky, I found that it kept getting covered in dew.  That meant that after about every exposure, I had to pull it off and wipe it down with a lens cloth.  It was like being at the beach on a humid morning!  I continued shooting the sunrise as the sun came up, but before long the colors started to wash out of the sky, and I lost my interest.

Funny thing was, there were now about a dozen or more photographers still going at it while the sky was getting blown out.  Now was the time for my secret for this overlook.  The best view is actually across the street, and up a little hill.  The clouds were right for this one, and I just had to wait for the sun to finish coming up.

Blue Ridge Autumn

Funny thing about this location this morning.  While everyone was still working the sunrise on the other side of the road, I actually joined another photographer at the fence line while I was working on this image.  She wasn't concentrating on the landscape though, she was shooting a portrait for a friend.  She had the big flash umbrellas and everything out there.  I wasn't quite sure what to think about this, but we both were able to work our ideas out without getting in each other's way.  I'm not sure what she got, but I'm quite happy with the alpenglow that I captured as the sun came up behind me.

When I decided to call it a morning, I looked around and there was nobody left at the overlook.  The portrait photographer had left just a few minutes before, leaving me all alone.  This was a much more relaxing environment for me, but the light was all gone at this point.  It was time to move on to the next overlook and find some great scenics.

Well, all that moisture in the air caught up with me.  The clouds were now enveloping the Parkway, and nothing was looking good to me at that point.  In fact, it was very much overcast above, with a haze at ground level.  This lighting is best used for intimate landscapes, deep in the woods.  Well, I was close to EB Jeffress Park, so I continued back up that way.  I stopped for a moment at the historic cabin and fired off a few frames, but the lighting was not near good enough to make this a satisfactory image.  I packed it in, and continued up to the main portion of the park.  I was hoping to take advantage of the clouds and get a quick waterfall image for the morning at the Cascades.

Tranquility

I was very fortunate that I was all alone on the trail since the viewing platforms are quite small.  I made it to the bottom platform which provided the best view of the cascading waterfall.  Once upon a time, I could go off trail and get a more full view, but over the years, they have blocked that access, and it has grown over.  Not wanting to fall down the slope, I opted to stay on the observation deck.  I fitted my 70-200mm lens with a polarizer so that I could isolate portions of the waterfall, instead of trying to get a large view of it.  This worked out great, and I managed to get several intimate views of this waterfall.  In about 20 minutes I was done, and hiking back to the truck.

I continued North, but found very little that caught my eye.  The weather was starting to clear, but the color on the trees was not all that great.  I was hoping for something a little better when I got to Doughton Park since it was a little higher up than the areas I was in today.  When I arrived, there was a music festival going on, and they were directing traffic into the park.  I almost decided against turning in for fear that there would be a lot of people in the park.  I'm glad I opted to go in though....I was just about alone in the actual park area.

Winding Road

I was greeted by some pretty nice color inside of the park.  Some of the trees were so vivid, I was forced to set my camera up in the middle of the road and capture a few views.  I didn't have much time to set up since it seemed that every time I started to set my focus, a car would drive by, forcing me to pick everything up and move from the road.  I finally timed it just right to get this shot which was very happy with since I managed to capture one of the puffy clouds above.

Meadow in Full Color

While everything had not changed in the park, there were some prominent trees which were showing a great deal of color.  I chose to work with these trees for a while.  Using my 70-200mm lens with a color intensifying polarizer, I started to pick out some views that put the trees in the best light.  Occasionally, I had to include things like picnic benches, but at least I was able to make it harmonize with the other elements in the park.  This is always one of my favorite stops on the Parkway, and Toni and I have some very special memories here.

Doughton in the Fall

My favorite image from the park is here.  The lone red tree under the deep blue sky really set the tone that I was wanting for the day.  I didn't get a lot of images that fit this description, but I did get this one, and that makes me happy.  There is just something fun about Fall photography.  I just really need to get better at picking my locations since the color is only there for a short time.  I always seem to miss the peak of the season for one reason or another.  This year is getting going kind of late, but at least I am making it out to the mountains rather regularly to try and capture the color when it appears.

After Doughton, I was running out of usable light.  It was high noon, and the light was too contrasty for my tastes.  I could have stuck around and killed time till later in the evening when the light started to improve again, but there was no guarantee that I would have good conditions.  So, in order to make the most out of my day, I decided to pack it in, and head home...with one more stop.

An Old Chevy

For years now, I have been riding past this old Chevy truck near the house.  I've wanted to photograph it several times, but never really had the right day for it.  The clouds were still pretty decent close to home, and by the time I got there, the light was a little softer than it had been in the mountains.  I decided to give it a try.  It was simple enough to photograph because most of my options were eliminated due to extraneous clutter on either side.  The sun was in exactly the right position for this truck though, so it was worth a few shutter clicks.  I used my 70-200mm lens again to isolate the truck, and added a polarizer to deepen the blue sky and remove the glare from the windshield.  The formula worked out pretty well, and I was rewarded with a couple of pretty good images.

Long Forgotten

I'm not sure which of these compositions I like better.  I like the up close and personal view of the landscape composition, and you can better make out the purple flower growing beneath the hood, but the portrait version has a better balance I think with the blue sky above.  Either way, I'm happy that I took a few minutes to grab a couple of shots of this truck.

By the time I rolled in the garage, I had a total of 132 frames on the camera.  Most of those were me repeating shots waiting for the light conditions to change.  Because so much of the images were repeats, I don't feel bad at all that only eight of them were deemed keepers.  For a half day worth of shooting, that was pretty good.