OK, so to catch up here, this is the second part to a three part blog entry about a weekend in the mountains. This was my first full day, and my plan was to take advantage of the partial cloud cover and do some rural exploration. There are a lot of back roads in the mountains with barns and old cars just waiting to be photographed. The light that I was expecting was going to be pretty much perfect for this. When the alarm rang I checked the weather and found that there were going to be a bit more clouds in the area, and currently, the clouds were really low. I knew that sunrise wasn't going to be an option, so I set the alarm for another hour away which would get me up for the breakfast at the hotel. It seemed like only a few minutes, but 6am was here and it was time to get up and functioning. I was really glad that I had opted for a hotel rather than sleeping in the truck. I had slept all night, but was still tired. I finished up with breakfast and finished getting ready to head out. With the increased cloud cover I thought it might be a good time to get Elk River Falls which I had originally planned for Sunday. No reason to wait if the conditions were going to be decent today. That would also get me out in an area that I recall had some pretty nice rural settings. I could reasonably see myself spending the entire day in the area of Newland, and Elk Park, NC. I got my gear and off I went. The trip was pretty simple and I enjoyed the drive. The clouds were clearing, however, and that made me a little nervous about doing waterfall photography. My first inclination was to abort Elk River Falls and concentrate on the rural settings. The more I thought about it though, something was pulling me to the waterfall. Despite the weather not really looking promising, my heart said to keep on going. I've learned to listen to these inner clues over the years because I usually get some of my best images when I follow their lead. I did know that there were compositions that could benefit from a bit of blue sky, and I was thinking that might just work with what I was seeing above. When I finally got to the parking area, there was one other car parked in the lot. I was hoping for none, but a single car was no big deal. I grabbed my gear and started down the short trail to the falls. The last time I was here was 10 years ago and honestly, I wasn't recognizing any of the trails. I barely recognized the parking lot. There was a short spur off of the main trail that took you to the top of the waterfall. You can file this under something that I didn't recall, so I decided to walk out to see if there was anything picture worthy up there. What I found was an impressive flow over the rocks, and lots of moss undertones to the water. The composition was interesting enough to pull the camera out and see what I could do with it. I fitted my 24-70mm lens along with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer before mounting to the tripod. I started to play with different compositions before I finally settled on the one that opens this entry. It wasn't anything special, but the quality of the water was just too good to pass up. What I really liked about how this shot worked out was it looked like an arm reaching out to the side as if to give an embrace. There was just something oddly human about this part of the waterfall, and it comforted me. This was ironic considering all of the signs posted about how dangerous it was at the top of the waterfall, and how dozens of victims had slipped and fallen to their deaths here. This is the sad part of doing waterfall photography. Just about everywhere I go, there have been deaths by people doing what I'm doing, or just simply being where I am. It is a sobering thought.
Elk River Falls
Even though it was really pretty at the top of the waterfall, I was looking to get to the bottom of the falls and try some photographs of the main event. It looked as though there was nobody around, and that was a great surprise after seeing the car in the parking lot. It took no time at all before I got down to the bottom and started to walk over the long rock that acts as a bridge to the center of the pool. I saw a small jean jacket that belonged to child sitting on the rock that I guess had been left by visitors in the past. It had been out there for some time it appeared. I started to survey the scene to see what I could come up with. I started out with my 16-35mm lens, but wasn't really happy with what I was getting. I moved up to the 24-70mm lens with the Singh-Ray Polarizer and found a little bit better of a perspective. It still wasn't what I was wanting though. I was happy that there was a bit of blue in the sky directly above the falls which I have found is pretty mandatory if you are going to shoot a full on shot of this one. The sun was still covered by clouds to my left so I had a good exposure. Composition was what I was lacking. I decided to see if a panorama would work out, and started to put the elements together in my head. I left the current lens on, and flipped it on its side. I did a test pass and everything looked good. I ended up doing an eight shot series of the pool beneath the falls. The rocks in the water made for great bookends to the shot, and the bit of blue hung nicely over the falls. This was pretty good, but I didn't like the way the water was looking. The ripples and movement disrupted the scene a little bit, but not terribly. It did lead me to an idea though.
Without a Ripple
I have been wanting to use my 10-Stop ND filter more, and I saw this as an opportunity to make that happen. I brought the 16-35mm lens back out since I had moved positions a bit. I started to play with compositions a little bit more and found one that I thought worked out nicely. I added my B+W Polarizer since it was a slim mount, and then screwed the Lee Filter holder onto that. I slid in the Singh-Ray Mor-Slo filter and looked through the viewfinder. It was pretty much black. I checked the live view, but it took adjusting my exposure greatly before I could see anything. Ten stops is a lot of light to lose! I worked out an exposure at 30 seconds and looked at the results. I was onto something, but the water still was too rough for my tastes. I shifted into Bulb mode and started working some longer exposures. I ultimately ended up with a three minute exposure at f/14 and ISO 100. Not only did that smooth out the water, it showed a good bit of movement in the clouds above which added to the drama of the scene. The rocks were dead still , so they appear to be sitting on top of ice. This was the image that I was wanting and hadn't even known I wanted it. By this time, there were people joining me at the bottom and what was worse, there were more walking around at the top of the falls. My serenity was over, and the compositions I was wanting had come to an end as well. I packed up carefully since I was kind of balancing everything on the spine of a rock. I worked my way through the crowds back to the parking lot. However, I decided to make one quick side trip. There was a set of rapids before the waterfall that had interested me when I was walking down. Not wanting to miss out on any good lighting for the main falls, I had skipped this location initially. Now was a great time to give it a try though.
With a Quickness
Looking at this section of water, I knew that I was going to be better off shooting isolations than an overall shot. I went ahead and fitted my 70-200mm lens and the Singh-Ray Polarizer. I started to frame up compositions, but wasn't getting the look I was after. I couldn't get any closer, so I decided I needed more reach. I grabbed my extender and added it between the lens and camera. There it was! I was seeing my ideas come into focus at this point. I started to pick out areas to isolate and cranked off about 10 different shots of the rapids. The one that I deemed the best needed one small tweak in post processing. I flipped it on its horizontal axis so that it flowed from left to right as we read. This made the image "read" much better than before. Within in a few minutes of arriving here, the sun was starting to get a little bright, and there were more and more people joining in on the trails. It was time to get gone. When I got back to the parking lot, it was packed with cars, and more were coming in. I loaded everything in the back of the truck and made room for somebody else. Man, I was glad I got there when I did because there would be no way I would have been able to shoot this location with all of the people that were showing up. Now the sun was out, and the clouds were sporadic at best. I figured I could possibly make it work if I was shooting rural scenes. I would just be very dependent on the direction of the sun to make my scenes work out. I started driving aimlessly around and looking for things to photograph. There were a lot of great subjects, but the nature of everything here caused there to be no room for the subject to breathe. Without a compelling composition or great lighting I was letting scene after scene go by. I even found myself wandering into Tennessee for about 30 minutes. I was starting to get discouraged and a little frustrated at my lack of luck hunting rust. On the other hand, I was noticing that the sky was starting to get a little more cloudy. It was time to head back to the Parkway and start looking for grand landscapes where I could capitalize on the developing sky. I keyed the Parkway into my GPS as I was hopelessly lost at this point. I got on the correct course and began moving in the right direction. My eye caught a side road that sparked my attention for some reason. I didn't see anything on it, but something made me turn left. Within 100 feet of entering the road I passed by one of the oddest shaped rocks in a lake that I have seen. It caught my eye, but I wasn't quite sure if I wanted to photograph it. I continued on to the end of the road where I found an awesome old Chevy truck, but it was sitting in the most unpicturesque location I could imagine. There was a chain link fence, power pole, and an aluminum building all right in front of the truck near the bumper. The house was to the rear of the truck, across the road. There was no angle to shoot it from.
Arrowhead Reflections
I got turned around and went back to the main road. I stopped at the rock in the lake one more time and decided that it was worth taking a few shots of. With the distance I was having to work from, I knew I would need my 70-200mm lens. Since I was wanting a reflection, I skipped the polarizer, and shot with nothing on the front of the lens. I tried several different compositions, and even tried the 10-Stop filter. Unfortunately, the trees were not still enough for that to work. The composition that I decided on ultimately was the one that had the double rock on the left, pointing to the the alcove in the lake. There was a grove of trees situated in the right hand side of the composition that were illuminated by the sun providing a great bit of focal lighting. The water was still enough to provide great reflections as well. Hey, that little voice that told me to turn left really paid off. See why I listen to that voice so often? At this point, I was back in the mood to shoot landscapes and I was looking forward to getting back on the Parkway. I entered it at Hwy 221 and headed South towards Linville Falls since it had started to rain. The closer to the falls I got, the lighter the rain became. It actually started to clear up as I was passing the Hwy 181 bridge. I happened to look at the bridge and thought that the light was pretty good on the bridge. I pulled off on the side of the road and grabbed my gear.
Blue Ridge Intersection
I had shot this bridge before and knew that the trick was a wide angle lens. I grabbed my 16-35mm lens and added the B+W polarizer so I wouldn't have any vignetting issues. I worked my way up the hill beside the bridge and worked out a composition that put an arch in the arch of the bridge. The actual roadway above was presented as a strong diagonal element that complimented the diagonal of the Blue Ridge Parkway. The trees made for a great balancing element. I started off shooting an HDR series just in case I wasn't able to get the exposure to work out. Then I started to shoot single shot exposures watching my histogram as I went. I even switched sides and shot from across the road. In the end, none of those images made the cut, and the HDR image that I had shot was also trashed in favor of this single image that I thought turned out really well.
Waiting for the Thunder
With the sun back out, I wasn't going to finish heading to Linville Falls as I was sure the parking lot was jammed with cars, and the sun would make it too bright to shoot any of the moving water. Instead, I decided to go back North to see what I could see. The clouds were looking really cool in certain areas of the sky, and I wanted to go somewhere to take advantage of them. The further North I went the more I started thinking about Thunder Hill. This is one of those overlooks that can be shot from all different directions with equal success. There are even areas near the overlook that work out as grand landscapes. That was to be my destination. When I arrived, I could see that the main overlook wasn't really that eye catching with the haze over the mountains in the distance. The back side of the overlook was looking spectacular. As an added bonus there were no people on that side. I parked the truck and grabbed my gear. I decided to use the 16-35mm lens with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer for this series. I started to look for different compositions on the ridge. There was just so much to work with between the fence, the sky, and the goldenrods that were in abundance.
Goldenrod Ridge
The sky was awesome in just about every direction. I even managed a shot that included the Blue Ridge Parkway as it split the treeline over the ridge to the North. The fence had several sections with a lot of character which I enjoyed taking advantage of. I think that my enjoyment of the area was starting to draw attention. One by one, people started to show up on this side of the road. They would start walking down the MST trail through the field, or would walk along the ridge where I was shooting. For the most part nobody got in my way which was nice.
Summer Clouds
I managed to keep the wide angle lens attached the entire time I was on the ridge. I thought about switching over to a different one, but I could really find no compositions that would have supported a different focal length than I was currently using. There was just so much that caught my eye, and I was really having a great time. The light did eventually start to fade, and I decided that I would go and find another location to shoot. This one was getting overgrown with people the longer I was there. There was even a portrait shoot going on near where I was shooting in the field. I was pretty sure that this was the same photographer I had seen during a sunrise a year or so ago. Funny how paths keep crossing for photographers. I continued North and finally came back to the location that I had started my weekend at just below the Mount Jefferson Overlook. The sky was looking really nice for the middle of the day. I decided that I would take advantage of the sky, from the opposite side of the road. There is another fence and a green gate just a bit further down and on the other side of the road. This was going to be my subject for the next little bit. I grabbed my gear and decided to go with my 16-35mm lens once again, along with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer. I got set up where I could include the fence and the gate as it hooked off into the distance. As I started to shoot, I realized that there was a car parked right where I had been the night before. It was in a position where it would be really hard to clone out, but I had no choice for the longest time. When he finally left, I celebrated by moving across the road and including the entire stretch of empty roadway.
Miles of Smiles
I was so happy that the road was finally clear, and I had the shot that I was after. Including the roadway really brought this image new life, and it turned out to be my favorite of this set, even though I was able to get my original composition shot with the car gone as well. The one thing that didn't set well with me was the fact that the road traveled from right to left in the frame. Since we read from left to right, I decided to flip the image so that it would read a bit better. The converging diagonals in the image were fantastic, and added a lot of drama. I was still able to include the green gate, and the semi bare tree in the field which I have always been drawn to. The pines in the distance really give the image a sense of depth as well. Oh yeah, and that sky!! Having worked this scene as much as I cared to, it was time to move on. I thought that the best option at this point was going to be the area of Doughton Park a bit further up the road. I had some ideas that might work well with the sky that I was seeing. I was also looking forward to seeing the fences along the Parkway once you get into the park proper.
Doughton's Gold
I didn't find any fences along the Parkway that I wanted to photograph, but once I was inside the park, I found a lot of great subject matter. The goldenrods were out in full force, and the grasses in the meadow were starting to change color so I had all kinds of color contrasts to work with, not to mention the sky that was looking really nice above. The first shot that I tried was right next to where I parked. I grabbed my 24-70mm lens for this shot and added the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer along with a 2-Stop Galen Rowell ND Grad. I really wanted to include the goldenrods with the fence so I was needing to stay elevated near the parking lot. I set things up with a composition that had a nice diagonal line leading you into the scene, the different colors of the meadow as well as the sky above. I had just about everything that I could have wanted in a picture at this point. I did quite a few compositions on this theme until I was able to settle on this one here.
A Field to Frolic
I continued along the fence to the main meadow of Doughton. this has always been a source of fun for me to photograph. I have been here in all seasons and have always attempted a shot or two of this area each time. this time I had some different elements that I wanted to include. The goldenrods were quite prevalent among the browning grasses. The green tree stood out strongly in the field as well. I still had my 24-70mm lens attached, and it was just about perfect for the composition that I was wanting. I framed a nice tight shot with the goldenrods as the foreground interest. The sky was looking really good with the benefit of the ND Grad I was using. The trick was to wait for the wind to stop long enough to make the exposure with the flowers relatively still. It happened occasionally, but patience sure was a necessary thing for this composition.
Summer Colors
The more I looked at the field, the more I was really engrossed by the colors of the grasses and goldenrods. I decided that I would do an abstract piece highlighting these elements. I needed to get in much tighter than the current lens would allow. I swapped it out for my 70-200mm, to which I added the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer. From here, I started framing patterns in the field that caught my eye. These are not really my typical shot, but it was fun to work outside of my normal box for a bit.
Summer's Last Blooms
In some cases I was able to get in really close to the goldenrods and really get them highlighted in the frame. Using limited depth of field helps these to stand out from the background. An added benefit is that the shutter speed gets quicker with the opened aperture so the wind was less of an issue for these shots. I really wasn't sure how these would turn out, but I figured that it was a photo weekend and digital images were free...might as well give it a whirl huh? I thought that before I left I would go and get some pictures of the trail through the meadow. Since the grasses were really high, there should be some good compositions to be had on the trail, especially if the sky held. I walked down to the opening in the fence and looked to see what kind of compositions I could find. As I was looking, the sky started to change in a very dramatic way. These clouds that were rolling in were incredible. I had to photograph these, and I had to do it quickly!
Oz
I had to think quick, and my instincts were telling me to grab my 16-35mm lens and my stack of ND Grads. Since I was shooting into the sun, there wasn't much need in a polarizer, plus that just slowed the process down when working with the Grads. I got the camera built and added a Singh-Ray 3-Stop Galen Rowell ND Grad to control the exposure of the sky. I started taking composition after composition. Each shot was delayed as I waited for the wind to die down a bit since I was so close to the goldenrods. The trail was amazing as a leading line through the scene, and the LCD review images were looking so promising.
Through the Never
The sky and the lighting kept changing minute by minute. I ended up with two exposures made during the peak of the drama. I got a landscape as well as portrait of basically the same sky. While both are very similar, I have chosen to keep them both because one shows the drama in the sky, while the other shows the magnitude of what was going on in the sky. In both cases, the trail leads your eyes through the image. The clouds provide a background that pulls you deep within the frame. These conditions lasted for about 10 minutes and then the clouds lost their drama. Finding myself under "normal" skies once again I thought that I needed to find a place for sunset. I had about two hours before that happened. I got everything loaded back up in the truck and grabbed a little snack before heading out in search of my next location. With the day coming to a close, I decided that it might be in my best interests to start heading back in the direction of Blowing Rock and the hotel. Well, good plans..... I ended up stopping a short distance from where I had been at the Alligator Back Overlook which was just on the other side of the meadow I had been shooting minutes before. I had shot this section of the Blue Ridge Parkway last year and figured that the composition would work at sunset as well. The clouds were decent, but time would tell if there would be any color in them come sunset. I got out of the truck and walked around looking to see if there were any alternative compositions that I could use. I found a couple of ideas, but as I was looking, the clouds were starting to actually fade away to just a hazy sky. This wasn't going to work. I decided to get back in the truck and head back South. If something developed on the way, so be it. I was tired and needed to get to the hotel sooner rather than later.
The Lump
As I was driving, I started to think about an image that I had seen of the Lump Overlook several months ago. It was a minimalist image, and one that has haunted me since. With the sky starting to look somewhat interesting again, I decided to give it a try. I stopped at the Lump Overlook and saw that the clouds over the hill were looking pretty nice. As an added benefit, the sky to the West was looking very promising as well. I got out and grabbed my gear. I wanted to start with the minimalist shot first. For this one, I attached my 24-70mm lens along with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer so that I could get as much definition out of the clouds as possible. You see a polarizer works better when the sun is at 90 degrees from the angle of the shot, and I was shooting due South. I got down low and started to frame my shot. I couldn't remember how the inspiration image went, but that wasn't important. What I needed from that image was the inspiration to create an image of my own. I loved the fence, and wanted to include that. The trail snaked its way through the grass, but didn't have the benefit of overgrown grass as I had seen at Doughton. I shot several different versions of this scene over the course of about 20-30 minutes. Each shot was composed differently, and had a different feel to it. They all stayed with a minimalist theme though. I was keeping a constant eye over my right shoulder to see when it would be time to play with the sunset. That time came about 45 minutes before sunset. It was time to get the camera set up slightly different for a new composition. I chose to go with my 16-35mm lens so that I could really emphasize the fence as a leading line. I picked out my location and started to frame up the shot. I quickly realized that exposure difference was just too much for the camera to handle. I grabbed a Singh Ray 3-Stop Galen Rowell ND Grad and slid it into the Lee Holder. It was looking better, but still wasn't quite right. I then added an additional 2-Stop Grad for a total of 5 stops of light reduction in the sky. Check out the video I shot showing how this works.
As you can see, I was starting to get hopeful about the sunset. The clouds were really dramatic, and I was envisioning the sky exploding with color just before sunset. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. But....my patience did allow me to see a bit of color in the sky after the clouds moved in and covered the sun. There was apparently a small slit in the clouds right at the horizon. At 7:40 (2 minutes before official sunset), the sun found its way through the clouds for one last hurrah of the day.
Split Rail Sunset
It wasn't a glorious sunset, but I had a composition I really liked, and I was hoping that something was going to happen even though the sun had slipped behind the clouds. I did get a bit of color, and I was quite happy about that. Sometimes subtle color can be just as effective as an impressive showing. Regardless, at this point, I had gotten what I had come to get. It was time to head back to the room and get a shower. Ahhh yes, I was so happy that I had opted for a room. At this point, I started to look at my plans for Sunday. Since I had shot Elk River Falls this morning, that left me with Catawba Falls to shoot. The weather was still looking great for those with a chance of storms around 8am and then mostly cloudy skies for the rest of the day. It was nearly perfect lighting conditions for waterfall photography. I figured that I would get up, eat breakfast and be on the road in time to get to the falls between 8-9am. Michael had told me that I needed to get there early to beat the crowds. I was hoping that the threat of rain would keep everyone away. Time would tell if that was a reasonable theory. For now, it was time to go to bed. Friday:Old news, that was yesterday Saturday: You are here Sunday:One last stop before leaving the mountains
Much like the week long beach trip from June, this weekend in the mountains is going to be too image intensive to do them all in a single entry. I am going to break them up by day as I did with the beach images. It will make it easier for me to keep things straight, and will make for more organization with the pictures. To get started, I decided at the last minute to spend the weekend at the mountains. The goal was to pretty much go off the grid and be alone with my thoughts for a while. Since this was last minute, I didn't have much time to prepare for anything. I just kind of added to a destination that I had thought about earlier. I had been looking at the weather for the weekend and had seen that I was going to have heavy clouds on Sunday. That meant that I was going to be able to do waterfalls, which was my goal. Maybe a month ago, a friend of mine, Michael Surratt had posted some pictures from Catawba Falls in Old Fort, NC. Surprisingly, I had never been there before. I was familiar with the name, but for some reason the pictures didn't spark any memories of researching this waterfall. It was a grand one, and it had a lot of isolations I could shoot as well. Since I was planning on going that way on Sunday, I decided to base in the Boone/Blowing Rock area for the weekend. That would get me a bit closer to the waterfall, and would put me in an area where I was confident that I could make use of the weather conditions that appeared. When I got off work on Friday, I came home and loaded up the truck. Well, my camera gear took up most of the room as my personal effects took up a small duffel bag. My goal was to get up to the Parkway in time to shoot a sunset. I wasn't going to have a lot of time to explore, so I needed to get a destination in mind on the way up there. I had shot the standard locations plenty of times, but wanted to try something a bit different. The location that came to mind was the area just South of the Mount Jefferson Overlook. I have done many photos here using the fence and red gate. The last time I did, somebody mentioned that this view has great sunset potential. Well, that was all the prompting that I needed, and that became my destination. I stopped for gas in Wilkesboro, and then turned up Hwy 16 towards the Parkway. This would get me reasonably close to the area of Mount Jefferson and hopefully there in time to capture the sunset. The trip went well and I made it up on the Parkway about an hour or so before sunset. I pulled off to the side of the road and got the camera set up. I fiddled with a couple of different compositions and lens combinations before the light show started. The magic bullet here was my 16-35mm lens with the Lee Filter Holder attached. I added a Singh-Ray Daryl Benson 3-Stop Reverse ND Grad to help with the exposure difference in the sky and foreground. As the sun dropped closer to the horizon, I fine tuned my composition so that I could capitalize on the sky as well as the fence and gate. I even shot an HDR image early on that I ended up tossing out in favor of a single shot that was made maybe 10 minutes later. This shot is the opening image of the evening, and quite frankly is my absolute favorite from the evening. It was only 1 of about 40 frames shot though, so there were plenty more other compositions as well.
Blue and Gold
When I was pretty sure that I had the shots that I wanted of the entire scene, I wanted to shoot some isolations of the hills under the sky. I swapped out my lens to my 70-200mm long lens and started to pick out portions of the sunset that struck my fancy. The sky was dynamic in places, and this lens was really good at pulling those details out of the sky. In fact, my shooting position was the same for both of these images. You can really tell the difference from 16mm to the tight crop of a 182mm. There has been no post capture cropping of either image. Regardless, I was still not fully getting the isolation I was really wanting from the scene. I needed a bit more reach than I was using currently.
Evening Rolls In
I reached into my bag of goodies and pulled out my 2x teleconverter and added it between the camera and lens for a bit more reach. This shot was done at 335mm from the same position as the other two. I really liked the abstract qualities in these shots with the rolling hills underneath the dramatic clouds. The sky was colorful enough that I shot these with the intention of keeping them color as opposed to converting them as I have in the past with these mountain isolations. The sun was quickly dropping and my light was on the way to being done for the evening. While the color was fading quickly, there was still a bit of detail in the clouds to the Northeast, and the clouds were really cool looking. I had to get another shot of this before it went completely dark. I pulled converter and the long lens off of the camera and added the 16-35mm lens again, but with no filters. I got down low to the ground as the sky was my main goal to capture. I just needed to find a bit of foreground interest to set the clouds off.
Infinity Cloud
As luck would have it, the gate that I so adore worked great. I just moved my position down a bit and got down on my knees so I could see the camera. I tried a horizontal shot, but it didn't get the full drama in the sky which was what I was after. Since there was a rather pronounced swoosh in the sky, I decided to concentrate on that and I flipped the camera on its side. That did the trick. I was able to zoom out to 16mm and get the fence and gate in the shot right below the edge of the cloud. It was dark, so this counts as a long exposure at 10 full seconds at f/16 and ISO 100. There were no filters used here either, but there was a fair amount of work in Lightroom to get the colors back to where they were to my eyes. The original image was pretty much all blue because we had started the "Blue Hour," but that wasn't what my eyes were seeing. When I finally worked out that last scene, the light was all but gone. It was time to pack it up and find a place to lay down for the night. The though had passed through my head to just sleep in the 4Runner, which was part of the reason that I bought the SUV in the first place. Realistically, I could have done it without too much problem. However, the bugs were really bad and I was already eaten up. With the warm conditions, I was pretty sure I would be sleeping with the windows down which would make me a buffet for the bugs. Knowing that I would be out here for two nights and had worked a full day already, I wanted a shower. With that thought, I went into Boone to see what was available. The list of hotels were rather slim at a price that I was willing to pay. The cheapest had two rooms left, and both were smoking. That would defeat the purpose of the shower as I didn't want to smell like cigarettes for the weekend. The only other option that I could find was in Blowing Rock which actually worked out. I got checked in and cleaned up. It was now time to look at what I was going to shoot tomorrow. Looking at the weather, the sunrise was not going to be all that great, and it was likely to be rather cloudy. This meant that I could sleep in a bit and then hit the continental breakfast before going out. The forecast was for intermittent clouds for most of the day with a chance for storms in the late evening. That was definitely workable, and I figured that I would be able to do some rural driving in search of rust and barns. I wasn't really wanting to spend all day on the Parkway because after a while that would start to get a little monotonous. The plan Sunday was to head out to Elk River Falls first thing in the morning and follow that up with Catawba Falls before heading home. I had my plan, now it was time to sleep. Friday: You are here Saturday:Come and take a long drive with me Sunday:One last stop before leaving the mountains
This was an odd trek to say the least. It wasn't well planned, and was more or less a complete gamble. I had been sick for the majority of the week and hadn't really put much thought at all into where I might want to go, and what little energy I had was spent working on the Behind the Camera feature that was released earlier today. So when the weekend rolled around, I was feeling better and needed to start looking at where I might want to go. Checking the weather, it was looking like the mountains were all going to be seeing about the same conditions with 70-75% cloud cover through most of the day, and the potential for storms in the mid afternoon. These are definitely favorable conditions for photography as the unsettled atmosphere usually produces some really great skies and lighting. The question was, where to go in the mountains. What I was really waning to do was shoot Catawba Falls, but I had a feeling that the clouds were not going to be thick enough for that to work. I kept it as an alternate in the back of my mind, but I was looking to focus more on landscapes. I tossed around the idea of going back to the area of Boone where I always have great luck, but having recently been there, I opted to nix that plan. There was always Doughton Park which I enjoy, but I wasn't really wanting to do anything there since I don't have any new ideas for compositions. There was an overlook that I had been thinking about trying for sunrise at The Lump Overlook, and that wasn't too far from the house at about 1.5 hours away. That was going to be my destination for the morning.
Amber Waves
My day started early as would be expected with the clock ringing at 3:30am. As you know, I checked the forecast, and the sunrise was expected to be less than stellar, but the actual cloud conditions were looking promising for a sunrise. The downside, was the cloud cover was showing to be thinning a bit as the day moved on. Even more disturbing, the hourly forecast showed cloudy conditions currently, but the actual reported forecast was showing clear conditions. This, of course, put the entire forecast in question. OK, I know that my history with forecasts should put every forecast in question, and it does. This time, I had evidence that things were not as expected already. But...I was already awake, and my mind was going. I figured I would give it a try, even if I went out and just stayed for a little while. The trip went quick, and the entire way up to the mountains I could see the moon and the stars above. It was not looking good at all, but I was going to be in the mountains and that is always a good thing. When I hit the Parkway I could still see the stars, but oddly enough I was starting to pass through some fog here and there. This kind of got me excited because I could work with fog in the valleys below. I started to look out over the overlooks and wasn't really finding anything that caught my eye. When I got to "The Lump" I drove around the circle and found one other car there. That wouldn't be a problem. I could see the hill that I was thinking about shooting, but for some reason it just really didn't catch my eye at all. I wasn't feeling this location at all, and the lack of interest in the sky was not doing this location any favors at all. I decided to abandon this overlook and go searching for something else.
Resting Easy
I started to head out towards Doughton with the hopes of finding something along the way that would work. I pulled into several overlooks which had great views, but nothing really to anchor the image. When I arrived at the Jumpin' Off Rocks Overlook I could see some nice fog between the rolling hills. I knew that there was a short trail that lead to an overlook, but I didn't have the time to make that hike. This was my last chance to catch whatever sunrise had to offer on this morning. I was pleased to see that there were some clouds in the sky now which offered the possibility of some color. I got the camera set up quickly with my 24-70mm lens with the Lee filter holder attached. I was expecting some situations to present themselves which would mandate some ND Grads to be used. I started to frame up compositions with the pale color in the sky just in case they got completely washed out when the sun came up. Fairly quickly, I decided that 70mm was just too wide for the color that I was seeing. I moved to my 70-200mm lens and skipped the Lee Filter Holder since I was seeing that the exposures were pretty simple so far. One of the things that caught my attention was this one lone house atop the major mountain in this view. Usually, houses won't draw much interest from me, but this one was different. It was all alone in this grand landscape as the only visible house for miles and miles. The tract of land that it was on was well cleared, and it was right on top of the mountain. This really stood out to me, so much that I wanted to capture it in some way. I had shot it a few times with the normal lens, but now that I had my telephoto lens on, I was going to be able to get in much closer. What I found was the closer I got, the less impressive it became. Then it came to me...Panorama! I got the tripod leveled, and did a dry sweep to check plum with the camera. I set the focus and double checked the exposure before starting my six image sweep of the landscape. Each exposure was several seconds long because of the low light so I was really worried that the quality of light would change drastically between the start and the finish of the series. According to my histogram, it all recorded as expected. It was my one and only attempt at a panorama shot, and it actually worked out pretty decent.
Foggy View
As the sun came up, I shot several more in hopes that I could avoid lens flare which is a weakness of my telephoto lens. While I was shooting the sun coming up, I was watching my back to see what the light was doing on the other side of the ridge I was on. There was some pretty dense fog over there and I knew that there were some other mountain ranges in that direction. Feeling pretty good about what I had shot thus far I walked across the street to check that scene out. There was this one tree that was set right next to cabin which caught my attention. I got positioned so that I could place a distant mountain top in the background beyond the tree and I flipped the camera on its side for the shot. It took a few tries to get this image because I wanted just the right amount of fog in the view. The cabin needed to be visible, but not so much as to make you want to see the rest of it. I wanted the soft covering of the fog over the entire image, and yet I wanted to be able to see off into the distance. I had one frame that fit that concept. While shooting this scene and some other compositions with the distant mountains another Parkway visitor arrived at the overlook and walked over to me. He struck up a conversation and before I knew it I realized that I was talking to another Law Enforcement Officer. He was from the Charlotte area and was looking to retire in the mountains. Small world since that is my goal as well. He was a bit closer to retirement than I am, but not by much. There I was on the side of the Blue Ridge Parkway talking shop and the benefits of a 25 year retirement with a deputy while shooting a foggy scene such as this. It was a bit odd but a nice conversation nonetheless.
Twists and Textures
Finding it increasingly hard to fight the fog on the other side of the Parkway I decided to go back over to the other side and see what the light was doing. I found some nice morning light hitting one of the trees feet away from my truck that I decided to capture. I left the telephoto lens attached and narrowed the depth of field a bit to capture this image. The slight twist of the trunk was pretty cool, and the extreme side light helped to accentuate that twisting. I did a few different compositions of this tree but in the end I found that the more intimate capture was the one that worked the best.
Cradled in Fog
Before calling it quits at this location, I wanted to take advantage of the layers created by the fog in the valley. In order to do this, I needed a bit more reach than my 200mm lens would offer. I added my 2x teleconverter and zoomed in to 400mm to pick out some abstracts. Since the light was less than colorful and the mountains were hazy and dark, I shot these images thinking that they would become black and white shots. It did work out with the various shades of gray moving from darker to lighter. This was my favorite of the intimate hill captures. My eyes keep moving all around the image seeing every texture and taking time to appreciate every ridge near to far.
Golden Hour
One thing that I wasn't expecting at this point was any real color in the sky. I was actually surprised to look over to my right and see some faint yellows still hanging around in the sky. There was still a good bit of fog in the lower areas, and the clouds were doing some interesting things above the color as well. I went ahead and trained my (extra) long lens in that direction to frame up this shot. It was a strange phenomenon and one that I really can't explain accurately. I can say that there were no filters applied to the lens for this shot, and Lightroom was only used to pull out the colors that were present when the shutter was released. My favorite part of this image is the background which is largely hidden in the fog. If you look closely though, you can see the distant ridges which are completely bathed in the warm light of sunrise. I resisted the urge to really do much in the way of processing this image because I wanted to keep it as accurate as possible to the experience. This did represent the last image shot from this location. I had shot a lot of frames here and quite honestly wasn't sure if any of them would work as keepers. Sunrises are so hard to really determine since the preview in the camera is set with no contrast and no saturation. It gives me a more accurate histogram, but the cost is I can't really see how the colors are turning out. Regardless, I was pretty sure I had a few that were decent from the experience, and I was satisfied with my morning. It was time to move on to a different location to try some more shots.
Organized Field
As I started to dive North on the Parkway I was seeing that the clouds were all thinning out pretty quickly. I was finding myself driving into a bright and low sun which said that the light quality was going to be pretty lousy for most directions at this point. I did happen to pass by a field a few miles down the road which seemed to have a decent quality of light falling on it. As a bonus, there was a mountain in the background with some of the low fog right at the horizon. The composition wasn't a classic one, but it was worth trying a few frames out. I got the camera out and set up with my 24-70mm lens since I wanted to include the broken fence in the foreground. I added a Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer to help bring out the colors in the grass and sky as well. I started to work on compositions, but the trees on either side of the field really made things difficult for me. If I included both banks of trees then the image seemed very compressed and didn't have room to breathe. By flipping the camera and shooting a portrait shot, I was able to include the fence, the distant mountain, and only one of the banks of trees for balance. This was the only composition that I felt worked for this scene. It had a very nice flow and the lighting was fair for it. I really liked the different textures as your eyes moved through the scene. This was going to be my last set for the day. I had full intentions of sticking around for a while and shooting some different areas, but the lack of clouds had other ideas. My options were to kill a few hours and wait until mid afternoon when the storms were supposed to be rolling in, or head back to the house. I chose the latter since that just made more sense to me. It was a fun few hours on the Parkway and I was very happy that I got to the mountains for a bit. I would have loved to have been out there longer, but I was happy having shot 83 frames in this time. The days images aren't spectacular, but they do represent a little bit of experimentation with techniques which is always worth while. We have officially reached that part of summer where I am ready for the fall colors to get started. Everything is just so green with all of the rain that we have had this year. I need something to break that up! Soon...very soon.
Welcome back to another installment of Behind the Camera. In this monthly feature I will tackle a question that has come up over the past month that relates to my photography. This month was a little slow for questions, however, so I have had to get creative about the topic for this entry. Instead of looking for a question, I wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about the learning process of photography. When people look at photos, they are normally placed into two groups. The first group thinks that anyone with a camera can duplicate the image that they are looking at. The other one knows enough about photography to know what thought and considerations went into the image. In either case, if the image is successful, then it is appreciated on both fronts. During my time as a photographer I have fallen into both camps, and it has formed the way I have learned about photography. Why I started in photography has been covered in my first Behind the Camera entry several months ago. The road has been a long and eventful one for sure. I had never had an interest in the visual arts growing up, and never bothered to take any art classes in school. My family background was not surrounded by a lot of exposure to the arts. I was a gearhead growing up and liked automobiles, and driving fast. None of this prepared me to be a photographer, and it was just the physical camera that caught my attention more than the photographs it captured initially. My photography started from a blending of a love for automobiles and cameras used as a tool to document what I did with my vehicles. This is where the "teaching" comes into play. Everyone learns a different way, and that means that no method is going to be equally successful for everyone. I have never taken a single photography or editing class, but yet I have learned a lot of things over the years in both of those arenas. I have jumped on the bandwagon and claimed to be "Self Taught" like it is a badge of honor or something. The implication here is I sneezed one day and spontaneously learned everything I know about photography. Being self taught sounds an awful lot like I sat in a room and lectured myself on the art of photography, and taught myself everything that I know. If that was the case, I am pretty sure I would be in a nice hotel with friendly staff that monitors my meds, and makes sure I sleep through the night. No, I didn't talk to myself on that level, although I still do have great conversations in my head. There just isn't any teaching going on in there. When I say "self taught", I am talking about being disciplined enough to search out the information from other sources and then study it to learn it. Really, being self taught is no different than if I went to school to learn it. My teachers were lots of books, magazines, and more recently videos. Of course, there was a lot of practice involved along the way. The difference is the feedback, and the coaching. This is where things get a little interesting, and the learning curve is much slower when you remove the instructor from the equation. I have had quite a few friends that have gone through classes to learn photography, and know of plenty more that have a formal education in photography. Concepts that they were able to learn in a matter of weeks, or months, might have taken me a year to really "get." They had assignments that were turned into an instructor who would then evaluate the assignment and give that all too needed feedback. My feedback came from my own eyes, and the eyes of a few people online. It was far from valid criticism from a learning standpoint. I was forced to compare my work to others' so that I could get an idea if I was progressing. Talk about a slow process, but it forced me to be an absolute ruthless critic of my own work. I think that this is where those who take on their education like I did will benefit and become better self critics. Those who rely on instructors to validate their work learn quicker, but also learn to need that crutch and a sense of affirmation from somebody else. Over time, this is minimized as experience is gained, but those who learn by pushing themselves to their own expectations get there quicker I believe. Regardless of how you choose to learn photography, probably the hardest aspect is figuring out how to show depth in a two dimensional image. This is probably where my images have come the furthest over the years. When I started, I would look at the work of Mark Lucock, or Bob Shaw and think "I can do that." They just shot a picture of an interesting tree. I was sadly mistaken in that simplified assumption. I was finding plenty of interesting things to take pictures of, but the end result was very much a snapshot and appeared flat and not overly interesting. Understanding the basics
I am going to put up with a bit of embarrassment here and share some pictures from my early beginnings as a photographer. This picture above was shot on the Blue Ridge Parkway back in 2005. I had read about the rule of thirds, and just knew that if I put the point of interest at the precise location I would have a great picture. I even used a polarizing filter for this shot to capitalize on the blue sky. Well, the resulting image didn't have a distinct foreground interest, and the greenery that was used takes up nearly half the frame. The sky is boring and adds nothing to the scene. My main point of interest gets lost in frame. I had yet to learn the importance of balance in an image, and visual weight.
This shot was also from 2005, at Fort Fisher near Carolina Beach. The trees were what really caught my eye here, but you wouldn't know it to look at the image. Again, I nailed the rule of thirds because that was what I knew. What I missed was the quality of light, exposure, and even focus in the foreground. Speaking of foreground, I had a real bad habit of filling half the frame with nothing of interest. Looking back, this would have been a composition for a panorama more than a 4x5 crop. As with the first image, the reason I shot the picture in the first place was lost in the grand scale of the frame. I really should have filled the frame with what I like rather than adhering to the rule of thirds so rigidly. At the time though, I thought I had created something great, but it wasn't looking like the images I had seen from other photographers.
Even as far back as 2005, clouds were some of my favorite subjects to work with, but I hadn't really figured out how to include them with landscapes. The silhouetted trees really had no strong foreground interest, but they did provide an anchor for the sky. I was really excited about how the clouds looked, but when I really looked at the image, it was as collection of elements that really didn't compliment each other. Again, I had failed to create the image that I was looking for. Had I turned this in to an instructor, I'm sure they would have looked at it, and given me a distant stare waiting for the punch line. There is so much wrong with this that it would be hard to even begin to make suggestions on how to fix it. When I shot these three images, I didn't have the benefit of getting feedback from somebody with an understanding of what I was trying to create. I only knew that the part of photography that I was concentrating on was represented here. It would take a lot more reading to figure out the execution of the rules, and when to break them. I also had a lot to learn about combining rules to actually create a cohesive image. My list of books grew over the months and years. I would read books on composition where I learned how to actually apply the rule of thirds, and that there are alternatives to this rule which are more effective at times. There would be books on exposure, and how to properly read a light meter and how useful it can be. I learned about hyperfocal distances and how important that can be for making sure that your scene is all in relatively sharp focus. I read about the theories and concepts behind photography, and found out so much about how to present my visions. Ultimately, I learned how to read a scene that was in front of me.
Rural Virginia
Some 13 years later, you can see how i have a much better understanding of how to present my visions. Here you see a barn in the mountains, not unlike the leading picture above. The difference was my use of an interesting foreground (the fence), elements of depth (diagonal flow following leading lines), and of course, a much more interesting sky. This represents how I have learned to "read" a scene before I even pick up a camera. I look for lighting primarily, but I also want to make sure that the elements that I am going to include all help tell the same story. Everything in this image works together to give a sense of time and place. The main element (the barn) is readily apparent, and is given a strong position in the image. The use of colors helps to add to the visual impact of the barn in the total scene. My subjects are no longer getting lost in the frame. The idea here is to include what is important in the scene and subtract what isn't.
An Invitation
In this image, the tree was my focal point and the primary reason I wanted the image. The sky dictated the direction I shot in, but the tree was what I wanted to focus on as in the second opening image. I have learned to get in close. The rule of thirds is still alive and well here with the main trunks of the tree sitting on the right third and the lower third, with the outstretched branch at the upper left intersection. In short, I have learned that the rule of thirds can apply to the different parts of your subject as opposed to just a broad spectrum "place the subject at this point or that point." More importantly, I have learned to read the light of an image and capitalize on the light direction. This was at sunrise, and the sun was to my back. It lit the foreground and subject as well as threw color in the sky beyond the tree. These were tricks that I didn't know about years ago. Learning composition and the use of light are two very key things for a photographer to understand.
End of Days
Clouds will always be an important part of my photography, and I have gotten much better at capturing them over the years. In the image from 2005, I had an exposure nightmare with the trees in extreme shadow and the clouds overexposed. There was no distinct foreground interest, and the reason for the shot wasn't exactly clear. These issues have been worked out learning how to control my exposure based on the light. Here, I waited until the sun was below the horizon which softened the colors in the clouds. I was able to expose in a way that I got plenty of detail in the foreground and in the sea oats. The foreground makes a lot more sense and sets the scene for the image. The clouds are not only pretty, but they are dynamic. There is depth for days in this image which the other sky picture was missing. In each of these cases, I have demonstrated what a little photographic understanding can accomplish with similar subjects. I didn't have to go to school to figure out how to create these images, but there was a lot of learning involved. I'm sure that if I had turned in the first three images to an instructor, they would have critiqued me very hard and then offered suggestions for how to correct these issues. With my "self taught" program, I had to really look into the images to find out what was wrong with them and why I wasn't getting the pictures that I was trying for. In each of the three cases, I was excited about the images and really thought I was capturing the moment when I pressed the shutter button. When I compared my images to those that I was trying to learn from I realized that I had missed the mark by a wide margin. That prompted me to read more in depth about how to construct a picture. These days, I still have a lot to learn about photography, but I can say that I have a very good understanding of the art and craft of photography. Getting it right in the field One thing that I have always tried to do was to get it right in the field. In the beginning I needed to do this because I didn't have a photo editing program that was overly powerful, or one that I was proficient at. I used Microsoft Picture It! which was bundled with other software. My chances of ruining an image were higher than of me fixing one that was needing help. I had a much better outcome if I got things right in the field at the time of capture. That meant that I became rather proficient with filters to correct color, and exposure. These were largely tricks of the film age, but since the majority of the books I was learning from were based on film photography, that is what I did. It made me quite capable of reading a scene and photographing it in the best way possible. This has carried over to my current methods.
Biscayne
I still use filters, even though I am using Lightroom and Photoshop as my processing tools. The number of filters that I carry has been reduced from the early years by a good many though. I don't have a need for color correcting filters like warming filters since I know how to work my white balance controls. I don't use funky Colored Grads because I never really liked the effect. I no longer carry three different ND filters because I have replaced them all with a single variable ND filter with the addition of one more 10-Stop ND filter. What I do carry a lot of are the ND Grads which represent six of my filters. You can see what they do in the video and picture above.
Sure, I have the option of using a digital version of this filter through Lightroom, and to be completely honest, I do use it. But...that digital filter doesn't help me when the disparity between highlight and shadow is so much that the camera can't capture enough detail in both. This is when I use the physical filters to get the image as close as I can to a finished product before I even press the shutter. This mindset helps me minimize my time at the computer after a trek. This is very beneficial since I usually have finished images by the end of the day that I shot them.
Time Passes
There are other times when an image wouldn't be possible without filters in the field. This is one of those times where I wanted some extra drama in the sky by incorporating some movement in the clouds. Since the sun was so bright, the only way to slow the shutter enough to give me a 30 second exposure was to use that 10-Stop ND filter. It is all about getting it right in the field. All of that experience shooting like it was a film camera has really paid big dividends for me in terms of my current methodology behind the camera. Speaking of getting it right in the field, I know many photographers who shoot images with a lot of wiggle room so that they can crop later for the best composition. There is nothing wrong with that, and in many types of photography that is needed because the use of a single image will be different and will require different crops. For me, I don't like the thought of losing valuable pixels of information for no reason. I can see the image in the viewfinder, and on the LCD. This is how I know I have my composition right. If I have a question, I either move or go to a different focal length before releasing the shutter. This is how I end up with 10 shots of the same subject many times. I want to have options when I start processing the day's shots. I would rather throw out an entire wide angle shot in favor of keeping a different, tighter image, than throw out 2000 pixels in that image to get the same effect. The benefit here is ability to print larger with more detail. The most important things that I have learned 1) Fill the frame with what you like! 2) Tell a story with your photos 3) Exclude elements that don't go with the intention of the capture 4) Include visual clues to give a sense of depth 5) Search out the light before concentrating on the subject 6) Change you perspective by using different focal lengths 7) Use the rules to set up initial shots, and then break the rules to improve it 8) Always look behind you as there might be better light in that direction 9) Experiment because digital images are cheap 10) Have fun and immerse yourself in your work! What is right for you?
I've tried to stay on the fence about which is better when it comes to learning. I have spent the majority of the time discussing what I know, so I'm sure it comes across like I'm saying this is the way to do things. That really isn't the case at all. Everyone learns differently, and depending on your learning style, you might benefit from one over the other, or possibly a combination of the two. It all comes down to figuring out the basics, practicing, and finding what techniques work for your individual visions. No matter how we learn, there will be a time when you file all of that information into a tool box and you go out and shoot images in your own specific way. This is when you become a photographer in my opinion. Far too often, I hear "what settings did you use?" or "what lens was that?" These questions are largely the wrong questions to ask. They will tell you what worked at that specific time for that photographer's vision. They really hold very little bearing on how you might shoot a similar image. Better questions would be "what kind of light were you looking for with this image?" or "Why did you include this element or that element?" These are the questions where a budding photographer will actually learn more about the craft. The act, or art of photography will always be one of the best ways of conveying what you see when you look at something. But as a writer must learn to craft a sentence, a photographer must learn to craft a photograph.
