Fourth Anniversary, First Trek

January 12, 2015

Desolation and Mist

My Treks have been reduced here lately, and I'm not getting out as much as I once did.  However, that doesn't mean that I'm not still finding my way behind the camera every now and again.  It just so happens that this past weekend, my wife and I celebrated our 4th Anniversary and we went back to our favorite cabin in the mountains.  It was going to be a short time and I wasn't overly concerned with getting pictures as I was last year.  This time, I took my camera more as an afterthought than anything else.  When we would go out during the day, I would take it, but it was more so I would have it just in case rather than a planned Trek.  As the weekend progressed, we did some driving around looking for things to photograph, but nothing really excited me.  It might have been that the sky was pretty much cloud free, it might have been that the temperatures were below 20 degrees most of the time, it might have just been that my heart really wasn't in it this weekend.

We woke up on our last day and got all packed up and ready to head home.  It was raining outside, and just a generally dreary kind of day.  I had been the last three days without even taking the camera out of the bag, so I wasn't even thinking about photography at this point.  Then Toni went into the kitchen where she could see out of the back doors and she got all excited.  She said something to the effect that the clouds were low in the valley and that was what she wanted to pastel!  That was all the introduction I needed to come and and give it a look.  Sure enough, the clouds were doing some awesome things in the valley, and even in the sky above, there was some nice visual interest.  I decided that I would have to give this a shot or two, and see what I could come up with.

Rising Above

Since I didn't have access to my long lens last time due to a warranty repair, I was kind of excited to give my 70-200mm f/2.8L a shot from the deck.  Since breakfast was being cooked, I wasn't looking to leave the cabin, and honestly, the view that I had was good enough to keep me right there without even wanting to go out to find anything else.  Had I tried, I would have lost the conditions that prompted me to get the camera out of the bag.  I mounted everything on the tripod and started framing shots.  The lighting was nearly perfect and required nothing in the way of filters at all.  Within minutes, the clouds changed and obscured the distant mountain top, which eliminated my primary focus.  However, since I was out here based on Toni's sighting, I decided to search out a tree or two since she really likes the winter trees without their leaves.  The fog makes for a wonderful backdrop for trees, and it also helps to isolate them.  I found one that stood out a little bit better than the other trees and shot a few frames before looking for other subjects.

Into the Unknown

Misty Woods

While still on the deck, I moved the other side of the cabin and the view of the driveway struck me as pretty awesome this morning.  The fog was rolling through and doing really cool things with the trees just at the road.  I liked the view so much I just planted the tripod right where I was standing and fired off a few more shots from both portrait and landscape perspectives.  Again, the lighting was just perfect with no need for any filters on the lens, and the 70-200mm lens framed everything just right, so I didn't even need to swap out lenses.  This worked out pretty well, and proves that this driveway is actually quite photogenic.  Last year I shot the entire cabin in the snow from the top of the driveway looking back down the hill.

Woodland Round Table

Feeling like things were actually coming together for me quite well this morning, I walked around the cabin to see what else would benefit from the dreary conditions of the morning.  I found this nice large rock which was set up at the corner of the driveway.  Years ago, there had been a frog on it, but it was missing last year.  Today, the leveled rock seemed quite photogenic and was juxtaposed nicely with the strong vertical elements of the trees behind.  In order to keep the bright sky out of the fame, I left my long lens mounted and shot at a relatively long focal length to minimize the background and compress everything.  I was pretty happy with how this one turned out, but I had to cut it short at the rain was starting up again, and I was starting to get wet.  I had forgotten a jacket when I went outside so it was time to head in for some breakfast.

Mountain Dreams

After I finished breakfast I looked outside once again and found that the clouds were clearing out, and the rain had stopped.  I could see some more potential in the landscape right outside of the cabin.  I grabbed the camera once again, and mounted my 70-200mm once more, but with the addition of a 2x teleconverter to get me a little bit closer to the areas I wanted to shoot.  This worked out very well, and I found that the sky was starting to show some yellow tints here and there.  With a flick of the white balance, I moved it over to Shade, and took full advantage of the warm light that was showing through the clouds.  The mist in the valley below was still quite mystical and fun to play with.  I have to admit, I had a lot of fun with the extra reach of the teleconverter, and this marked the first time I had really used it in the field.

Flowing Over the Trees

With the extra reach, I was able to pick out some really good detail as opposed to getting a grand view of everything.  This allowed me to isolate the parts of a scene that I found interesting.  In this picture, it almost looked like the treeline was a dam and the clouds were overrunning it.  The protected valley below was now enveloped in a rush of clouds as they moved in from the dense sea of clouds just beyond the trees.  Of course, the tip of the mountain in the distance provides a much needed visual clue to the actual density of the clouds.

Beyond the Treetops

Sometimes, the abstract qualities of low clouds make for an interesting picture as well.  There is not as much clear definition in this shot, other than the visual anchor at the bottom.  In the distance, the clouds and mountains blend and merge.  It begs you to look closer to determine where one stops and the other starts.  While not one of my favorite shots, I really feel that this one has merit because it does draw the viewer into the image better than some other shots.  There is also a very strong monochromatic appearance here that is offset with the red of the tree at the base.  It's just enough to add another abstract element to the image that asks more questions than it answers.

Considering that I had gone three days without pulling the camera out of the bag, I was pretty sure that I wasn't going to have any pictures to process when I got home.  Just hours before we left the cabin, Toni changed all of that when she looked outside and caught the scene that we had both been waiting for.  Had it not been for her, I probably would have come home with an empty memory card.  Instead, I shot over 30 frames, and ended up with eight pictures I felt were good enough to keep and share here.  I'm happy with what I brought back, and they will always be special pictures to me since they are from such a wonderful anniversary weekend trip.

It Has Been a While

December 6, 2014

A Silent Whisper

Yes...it has been since late August since I've been out with my camera on a Trek.  I have had a very good reason for that though.  You see, I have been steadily getting further and further out of shape since my activity level has dropped, so I went out and got another bike.  I've been concentrating on getting my weight down, and working on my cycling once again.  After three months of intensive training, I'm back better than ever and its time to stretch the legs of the tripod once again.  I've been wanting to get out for the past few weeks, but the time and weather just haven't been working in my favor.  This set of days off, however, I decided that I was going to go out one way or the other.  The weather for today was rain, off and on with solid clouds above.  This seemed like it might work out for some waterfall pictures.

Of course, I had a lot of options about where to go and what to shoot when it comes to waterfalls.  The catch is, most of the waterfalls I like to visit are hours and hours away from home.  Not wanting to be on the road all day long, I opted to go to Hanging Rock which was only about 40 minutes from home.  There are five main falls in the park, but I decided to concentrate on the Lower Cascades because I just wasn't quite satisfied with what I came back with the last time I was there.

The entire ride to the park was rainy.  It was not a steady downpour or anything, but there was enough in the air that I was going to have to take that into consideration when I was setting up the camera so I didn't get the front element wet.  I was happy that I remembered to bring my hat which doubles as a lens shield in light rain.  I was hoping that the rain would keep the crowds down to a minimum while I was there, and it appeared to have done just that.  When I arrived, there were only two other vehicles in the parking lot.  As I was hiking to the falls, they were on the way out.  I was going to be all alone, and that was a very good thing.

Rooted Flow

When I made it to the waterfall, I was pleased that the water flow was pretty good.  There was plenty there without being overpowering.  The rain was my biggest issue at this point, and I chose to work my way to the far side so I could use the rocky ledge to provide a bit of cover for me.  This seemed to work pretty well, and I was able to get several vantage points under cover from where I could shoot the waterfall.

The Lower Cascades is an often photographed waterfall at Hanging Rock and one that I have worked from many different angles before.  On this visit, I wanted to play around with some different shots.  The first that I tried appears directly above and makes use of the landscape to frame the water.  I normally try to keep the full waterfall visible, but I kind of like the peeking from behind aspect of this shot.  The contrast between the dark shadows and the bright water help to give the picture a degree of drama as well.

Water Symphony

In continuing with my goal for different shots than I normally take, I went in for a close up of the water framed in the nice texture of the rocky ledge.  I was still able to stay out of the rain for this shot which made it even better for me.  The idea here is the juxtaposition of the flowing water against the static rock.  This shot is all about extremes and I think it turned out really well.  Plus, if you look at it long enough, you start to see the lower portion of a face leaning in to look at the water.  Its all about visual trickery here.

I couldn't pass up the opportunity to grab some of the standard shots from this waterfall as well.  With the rain reduced to a fine mist, I was able to leave my shelter and work some locations that have been too deep in the water the last few times I have been here.  With the water levels down a bit today, I had a lot more available options from which to stand.

Gentle Journey

This is one of the more classic views of this waterfall.  The flowing water seems to be mirrored by the rocks to the right, leading up to the tree.  Everything works in unison here, and is contrasted by the more horizontal aspect of the wall to the left.  The vegetation provides a splash of color here and there as well, which makes for a nicely balanced piece.  While this is the more typical shot of the falls, I actually liked it better today in the portrait orientation as seen in the lead piece A Silent Whisper.  The more intimate depiction suits the flow of water and the lighting better in this situation.  I would have liked to have worked this location a bit longer, but the rain was falling a bit too hard to be out in the open.  It was time to move to some cover.

Release

The cover that I was after was in the form of overhead trees. It would provide enough deflection that with my hat over the lens, I should be able to get a few more pictures.  The secondary cascades here are usually just as impressive as the primary, but if the water flow is heavy, it is very difficult to get into position to capture it.  Today, there was a perfect amount of water on this section.  There was enough that the white water was very pronounced, but not so much as to flood the whole area.  As a bonus, there were a couple of loose rocks with a nice reddish color to them which were perfectly spaced along the path of the water.  The composition really worked itself out on its own because of these focal points.  After just three exposures, the rain was coming down too hard to continue without fear of equipment issues.  It was time to pack it up and start back to the truck.

I found a sheltered area and broke everything down, wiping it down before I put it back in the bag.  The rain was coming down even heavier at this point and I knew I had made the right decision.  I started the long climb up the steps back into the woods along the trail.  As I got deeper into the trees, the rain began to be less and less of a problem.  Because of this, I started to search out other options to photograph before heading home.  There was a nice section of trail where they had built a split rail fence alongside which has always caught my attention in the past.  Today was no different, only with the rain, the colors were super saturated and I decided that I was going to try and find a composition that suited it.

Intertwined

Ironically, the composition that I found that made the most sense was on the back side of the fence looking at the trail itself.  This was the least disorganized view I could find.  There was just enough of the trail exposed beneath the leaves that you can follow it through the picture into the trees in the distance.  The aged wood of the fence is the story here though, and what I wanted to capture the most.  I was lucky that I was able to get a corner where the wood overlaps and goes in two different directions.  The diagonal lines from this play nicely with the verticals of the trees in the top portion of the frame.  Because of the rain, there was a good bit of inherent contrast to the scene which otherwise would not have worked as well.  I was glad that I stopped and gave this subject a try today.

After spending a short time with the fence, the rain started back with a vengeance.  It was time to pack it in and head home.  Fortunately, I wasn't too far from the truck and within a few minutes I was back in the cab and headed back home.  The rain kept coming down increasingly hard reinforcing the fact that I had made the right decision to head home.  I had been wanting to try either Hidden Falls, or the Upper Cascades when I was finished with the Lower Cascades, but they will have to wait for another time.  At least I have quite a few pictures from both of those waterfalls which I still enjoy to this day.

From the day, I ended up with 35 frames, of that I have found 6 that I am keeping.  Considering how long its been since I've been out with the camera, I have to say, I've very impressed with that ratio of keepers.  Its in line with what I have come accustomed to with other Treks.

Just Down the Road

August 25,2014

I was hoping that this entry would contain some nice scenic landscapes from Rough Ridge along the Blue Ridge Parkway, but things didn't quite work out that way.  I made it to the mountains yesterday and drove around for a few hours but found that the constant rain and low level clouds were making any photography near impossible.  With the hourly forecast not really showing any significant rain at all, I was a bit confused, and had no idea when things would change.  Not wanting to waste the whole day just waiting for the rain to stop, I decided to cut my losses and head home.

As they say, my batteries were all charged, but there had been no need for them.  I was determined to find a need for them at some point on these days off.  As luck would have it, I had to return to the mountains again in order to deliver some framed prints to a client.  The weather was actually pretty good for a trek, but the forecast has not called for these conditions so my equipment was at home.  It was just as well, since I was on a little bit of a time crunch.  Shortly after getting home, the same clouds graced our skies and gave me the idea to try photographing an old house that was nearby.

By nearby, I am talking about a mile away, 1.09 miles to be exact.  This was much too close to worry about driving to, so I made it simple and walked out to the house.  Yeah, I probably looked kind of strange walking through the neighborhood with a large backpack and carrying a tripod, but oh well...its what I was going to do.  It didn't take long at all to get out to the house, and find that the clouds which had been overhead were now gone, save for a handful here and there.

You know, I'm really starting to hate weather changes.  It always seems to work against me these days.

At any rate, I was here, the lighting was good, I was just missing a little visual interest in the sky, and also had some power lines to deal with which ran very close to the overhang over the porch.  I'm never fond of power lines in a photograph, unless they add a geometric quality that helps to lead the eyes into the picture.  In this situation, they didn't really help anything on that end, and were just a visual distraction.  What this meant was I was going to have to get creative with the compositions I chose.

If Walls Could Talk

My first thought was to get in close and shoot a wide angle shot of the house.  This was able to successfully camouflage the power lines in the tree to the left which you can make out if you look closely.  They are there, but do not prove to be distracting at all.  This vantage point allowed me to highlight the chimney and the wall around it which was going to be my focal point for this picture.  The trees in the background followed the visual rules set forth by the shape of the house which was a very nice plus to the composition.  I was hoping for a few clouds in the sea of blue to the top left, but that just never did materialize.  With the polarizer attached to the front of the 24-70mm I was able to deepen the blue in the sky sufficiently enough to set a mood, and to add to the visual pop of the siding.

I tried many other compositions which I liked to varying degrees, but none were quite as good as this original one, and another one that incorporated a large tree to the right of the property.  The tree provided some nice visual balance to the whole image and allowed for a bit more scene coverage.  The house became a little less predominant, and more of a supporting element instead of the full feature.

Summer Home

 Honestly, I'm kind of torn between these two images.  Neither is exactly what I originally had in mind, but They turned out pretty good anyway.  Its the lighting on the scene that is the real story here.  Without the sun hitting the siding at this angle, there is just no visual pop at all.  I've watched the house in different lighting over the years and oddly enough it seems to be most favored by the sun a few hours before sunset.  If I were to have waited for the golden hour, the house would be in the shadows from the landscape to the left.  Any earlier, and there is too much contrast.  Of course, at the beginning of the day, it is severely backlit and lacks any real detail at all.

I still have a picture in my mind that I would like to create with this house.  I don't know if the conditions will ever present themselves to make it happen the way that I am seeing it, but I will continue to try and make it happen from time to time.  The nice thing is this house is very close to me, and I can go out to it just about any time.

An Overgrown Truck and Home

August 16, 2014

I will admit, it has been a long time since I've been on a Trek.  Like I alluded to in my last entry, I have had a lot on my mind lately.  One of the big things is that I have been missing my cycling side, and I have finally made peace with the fact that I need it in my life again.  So, for the last little while, I have been working on making that a reality again.  With things settling down on the bike front, I had the opportunity to go out this morning for a quick Trek.  When I woke up, I looked at the sky and found that the early light of morning was showing some promise to the cloud cover for later.  I went ahead and got dressed and quickly loaded the truck up.  By the time I was pulling out of the driveway, the clouds overhead were all but gone.  I had started, so I might as well keep it going.

I made the half hour ride out to King where I had seen this old Blue truck mostly covered with weeds several times before.  I had previsualized this picture with some very interesting clouds overhead, but that wasn't going to happen today.  When I got there, there was a bit of overcast off in the distance, but nothing like what I was wanting.  The truck was still cool, and I wanted to give it a shot or two since I was here and had the time.  I opted for my wide angle lens which might sound like a strange choice for this subject, but I figured that in order to keep some of the blue in the sky, I was going to need to get in close and go wide, otherwise, the distant overcast would be a dominant factor in the scene.

Overworked and Overgrown

As it turned out, the blue sky played quite nicely with the faded blue paint on this old truck.  The overcast in the background provided a nice visual barrier to separate the blue subjects and give the truck a little more pop than a straight blue sky would have allowed.  With all the cool tones in the picture, I needed some warm tones to balance things out.  As it turned out, there was a little bit of rust on the door and bumper that I was able to boost just a little bit through saturation.  That gave just the right bit of color balance to the entire image.

While going through the editing/culling stages with this old truck, I found that I really liked a vertical image of it, but there was just something missing from the image.  I had thought about doing monochrome conversions while in the field with this subject, and thought I would give that a try to see how it looked.  The straight conversion was ok, but rather boring.  When I started to play with the color tones, the image started to take on a whole different look.

Not Quite Ready

When I got to the preset for an IR conversion, the image just popped right away.  I did a little bit of tweaking with the tones, and contrast and found that the white vegetation really stood out and framed the now subdued truck against the subdued sky.  A quick check with Toni, validated that this was a pretty cool image, and one that was worth hanging onto.  The title comes from the fact that it looks like a heavenly scene, but the truck doesn't quite fit in.  Just because its old, and obviously long since out of service, it just doesn't appear like it is ready for that final journey.

When I got finished with the truck, I moved my attention across the street to where an old house was sitting right at the treeline.  The house was mostly intact, but was really showing its age, and appeared that it has been unoccupied for many years.  The paint had all fallen from the siding, and the windows were pretty much all gone.  However, there was still a homey feel to it with the warm morning's sun striking the face.  The reality of the scene was in the shadows however.

Family Heirloom

In addition to the actual scene and lighting, this is also a story about texture.  I just love pictures where I think that I could just reach out and feel what I'm seeing.  The first thing that jumps out at me is the almost carpet like fuzziness in the trees.  There is so much depth in the image, and such uniformity of shades, all that is left is texture.  Your eyes then fall down to the house where the worn siding has a roughness that only time can produce.  I can feel the splinters entering through the pads of my fingers as I am sliding them across the wood.  The grass below is recently cut and promises a soft place to lay down while the sun warms the morning chill.

It was a pretty good morning despite the sky letting me down.  That is just part of the realm that a landscape photographer exists in.  We are very dependent on conditions that are completely out of our control.  The test comes in how you deal with adversity.

Falls in the Clouds

August 2, 2014

For those of you who have been following me for the last few months will remember that I have been wanting to get out to Roaring Fork Falls for some time now.  I've actually tried a half dozen times or more, I think.  Since this is located a full three hours from home you can imagine how frustrating it has become.  I've run into sunny days where I didn't even try after driving up there, rainy days with the same result, and once I got there and there was no room to park.  This has become a very difficult waterfall to visit for me.  At least in the trips where my goal was Roaring Fork Falls, I have been able to photograph both Dugger's Creek Falls, and Crabtree Falls.  I still wanted to get back to Roaring Fork though, and after looking at the weather, I decided that I would give it a try this morning.

Things were looking pretty good with heavy cloud cover forecasted until well after lunch.  A side benefit was that the ceiling was going to be pretty low so that meant I might have the opportunity to grab a landscape shot or two.  Since I was foiled on my last trip to Roaring Fork by a parking lot full of sightseers, I decided to get an early start and try to make it there before 8am.  That meant that I was going to try and leave before 5, which is awful early for a Saturday!

The day started out as I had planned, but I left a little later than I intended.  It wasn't that big of a deal, I didn't expect other visitors to arrive until after 9 or so.  There was a light mist in the air, and the clouds were low.  This was going to prove to be pretty good conditions for waterfall photography.  I wasn't exactly jumping for joy though since I have had a lot on my mind lately.  This trek was more an excuse to get away and think than anything else.  I did a lot of thinking in the hours it took to reach the area of the Blue Ridge Parkway near Little Switzerland.

From Behind the Wall

From Behind the Wall in B&W

As I was making my way South along the Parkway, I couldn't help but notice that the clouds would break up every now and again, showing a clean blue sky above.  Interestingly enough, all the low clouds that I had been driving under on the ride up were well below me now, down in the valley.  This could possibly mean that Roaring Fork Falls was going to be in the sunlight when I arrived which wasn't a good thing.  On the other hand, it meant that I had some interesting picture opportunities right in front of me.  At the risk of loosing the ability to photograph the falls, I opted to find the first place I could to grab a few shots.

As luck would have it, I was having a very hard time finding a place that would work for pictures.  The sky was amazing, and the distant mountains were great, but there was nothing to really tie it all together.  I could see that things were changing quickly, so I ducked into the first overlook I could find.  I surveyed things quickly and decided that there wasn't much there for foreground interest.  The problem was, if I didn't capture what I was seeing right then, I would lose it forever.  I decided to pull the camera out and I picked a section of the stone wall to use for my foreground interest.  Since it was not set up in a way I could use it as a leading line, I decided to make it a shallow diagonal line to show drama, and lead the eyes to the distant mountain that would then draw the attention to the low clouds in the valley.

I framed the shot quickly and found that the sky was way overexposed, more so than I was expecting.  I went back to my bag and grabbed the Lee filter holder and a 3-Stop ND Grad to help control the exposure.  That was the ticket for this image, and the sky was now properly exposed in relation to the foreground.  I was noticing that there were a lot of different textures in place here, and also noted that there was a broad range of tones from light to dark.  I actually created this image with a monochrome conversion in mind.  I'm happy to say that I like this one equally as well in color and in black and white.

The Eye in the Sky

With the initial shot out of the way, I started to move around and try to find other potential compositions.  One thing that I'm not usually wild about doing is shooting a distant composition without anything prominent in the foreground.  That's all well and good when I have time to plan a shot, but this wasn't going to be a planned picture at all.  I wanted to capture the distant, cloud encased mountain and the sky above it.  The best way to do this was to flip the camera and use the crisp trees below the overlook as the foreground.  It works in this situation because the green is a complimenting color to the blue above, and the fact that there is no visual softening due to clouds.  This allows the eyes a chance to fixate on trees, which gives a sense of scale and distance.  The mountain was positioned to emulate an eye in the distance.  All of these aspects were determined in a matter of seconds as I was setting the shot up and framing it just so.  Within two minutes after this one was exposed, the clouds completely covered the mountain up, and the sky became washed in white.

The Roaring Fork Falls

It was time to move on down the road and see if the Roaring Fork Falls was in the shadows of the clouds, or in the bright sun that was peeping through from time to time.  When I arrived, all of my questions were answered.  I had great cloud cover, and there were no other cars in the parking lot.  It was shortly after 8am.  I figured that I had maybe an hour or so to work, so I grabbed my equipment and started on the short half mile hike that puts you at the base of the waterfall.

What I love about this waterfall is that it is a very long one, and it snakes its way through a fairly dense section of forest.  The pool at the bottom is accessible and usually not so deep as to keep you from standing in it.  I've shot this waterfall several times in the past, and kind of knew what I needed for the first shot.  I went ahead and swapped in my 16-35mm wide angle lens, and added a polarizer and ND filter.  I finally found my spot in the pool that captured as much of the waterfall as possible. I dialed in the exposure and bracketed several different shutter speeds.  While I really like a very slow shutter speed for waterfalls, this one is not one to go too long on because you end up loosing all of the detail in the rapids.

After I was satisfied at the effect that I had recorded with my camera, I decided it was time to try something a little different from the norm (for me at least).  I swapped out my wide angle lens and mounted my 70-200mm telephoto with only a polarizer which would allow me to pick this waterfall apart.  This one really does lend itself to intimate captures of its bits and pieces, and I intended to do just that.

Smoothed Out

The first section I picked apart was the lower portion.  At 70mm, I was able to highlight the final drop of this waterfall.  What drew my eye to this section was the slippery smooth rock to the left which has been smoothed by countless gallons of water spilling over the surface.  There was also a lump of a rock which stood out in stark contrast to the feathery water rushing by.  For a bit of visual balance, there is a small bit of runoff to the upper left which keeps everything in balance.  I wasn't sure how I would like this shot, but after doing the final edit on it, I can safely say that it turned out pretty well.

Symphonic Drop

The intimate shot that I was really looking forward to was the section near the top.  I had done this one a long time ago with marginal results.  I really wanted to try it again, and This was the perfect time to do it.  I zoomed the long lens to about 135mm and flipped the camera on its side.  Now it was all about how to frame the picture.  I was torn about how much of the foreground to include, but finally opted to just give a small diagonal sliver with a bit of greenery.  In order to do this, I had to elevate the tripod all the way for every inch of clearance over the rock.  I dialed in my exposure and started to take a few test shots.  I was looking for a very specific water effect, and finally found the right exposure.

As I was tweaking the composition for a final round of shutter releases, a large group arrived.  Actually, they kind of snuck up on me as I was fully engrossed in what I was doing.  I got the sensation that I was being watched and looked over to the right and saw about 10 different people standing there.  Oh well, they wouldn't bother me standing there so I went back to what I was doing.  When I finally got everything set up, I started a 20 second exposure and in that time, I kept seeing several flashes go off....yep, they were snapping pictures.  Far be it for me to gripe that somebody wants a picture of a beautiful waterfall, but the flashes were going off in front of my lens and causing some serious flare to happen.  This wasn't good at all.

I would speak to the one snapping the picture and request that they hold off for 20 seconds while I grab the shot and they would agree.  Then, without fail, while they were standing down, and my shutter was open, another one would fire off a flash.  After three times of this routine, I had to stop and make an announcement for everyone to chill with the flash for a minute and let me get the last shot of the waterfall.  They agreed, and I fired off one last 20 second exposure with no lens flare.  I finally had the image I was working on!

As I was packing up, I was talking with the guide for the group.  They had come from a ranch about five miles away.  He said that he brings a group out here about twice a week to see the waterfall.  I can't say that I blame him.  The hike is but a simple nature walk and isn't but a mile round trip.  This is a great waterfall to visit if you don't want to spend an entire day hiking over rough terrain.

The Hurt Locker

While Making the walk back to the truck, I passed the old bunkers that used to hold the explosives for the creation of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I have made a few exposures of these buildings in the past, but thought that the darker of the two was asking to be photographed again.  I pulled the camera back out and mounted my 24-70mm lens which would give me the focal length I was after for this shot.  It took some doing to find the proper composition which flowed logically.  I wanted to emphasize the concrete construction and the open door more than anything else.  I liked that the doorway was nothing but shadows.  What is inside is totally up to the viewer.  I tried to give this a sense of remoteness that was not actually the case.  The trail is maybe 15 feet from the doorway.  I'm still not convinced that the picture captures what I was wanting, but it does strike an emotional chord with me, and I wanted to showcase it here at least.

After I was done with Roaring Fork Falls, I decided to hop back on the Parkway and see if anything else caught my eye.  I started my way back North and in about 30 miles I found myself at Linville Falls.  Since it was still very cloudy, and I wasn't having any luck with landscapes, I decided to pop in and see about working the upper falls.  When I got to the parking lot, it was jam packed!  I decided I wasn't ready to fight crowds for a few more waterfall pictures.  There would be plenty of time to come back and work Linville Falls when the crowds weren't as dense.

I did try to set up a few compositions on the lower sections of Dugger's Creek Falls which is just off of the parking lot.  As is usually the case, nobody bothered to stop by and look at this little gem.  While the water level was great, and I was able to get several interesting points in the lower section, I just couldn't get a composition that I liked.  After about 15 minutes of trying, I decided to pack the camera up, and eat a little lunch before continuing my Northbound journey.

After getting a little food in me, I started driving through some pretty dense fog, clouds, and the occasional shower.  Yeah, this was a typical NC mountain kind of day for sure.  My hopes for more landscape opportunities were dwindling quickly.  I did find it interesting to see no less than an dozen or so cyclists braving the conditions to ride on the Parkway.  I've put over 190 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway behind bicycle tires over the years, but I don't think I would have wanted to ride in these conditions today.  My hat is off to each of them!

Hillside View

As it turned out, as I got close to the Hwy 421 junction, I started to see that there was some interest in the sky to the West.  My attention started to focus to the landscape to the West in hopes of finding something to put under the sky.  I managed to find just such a place after about 20 minutes of driving.  As with every landscape shot I had tried today, time was of the essence.  The sky was changing very quickly and I wanted to capture what I was seeing.  I pulled off the road very quickly and parked on what was essentially a ramp for the MST trail.  I grabbed my gear and decided to leave the 24-70mm on to save time, and I thought that it was probably what I was going to need anyway.  I went ahead and screwed on the Lee Filter mount and grabbed a 3-Stop ND Grad before finding a location to shoot from.

What had drawn my eye to this particular location was the strong diagonal elements in the field ultimately leading up to the mountains in the rear.  I found a composition that worked to highlight that element that used a tree line as the foreground, also in a diagonal form.  There was a large tree to the left which I used as a visual block to keep the viewer's eyes in the frame, and jump them to the next diagonal.  This next diagonal stopped at yet another large tree on the right which forced the viewer to continue along the horizon line.  That same large tree to the left stops the eyes and they then move into the clouds.  Overall, I am very happy about the composition on this one!

Hillside View in B&W

Unlike the one from the beginning of the day, I wasn't thinking about monochrome with this image, but when I was looking at it while editing, I started to see some potential.  I did the conversion, applying a strong red filter in the process.  The sky immediately jumped to life, and there was a lot more separation of tones than I was expecting along the landscape.  The end result was very pleasing, and one that I was very happy with.

All in all, it was a very good day in the mountains.  I was able to get a lot of thinking done, and come up with several very good images in the process.  Now comes the hard part.  Which of these images makes it into the gallery rooms?  I think that a few will find their way into the White Water Room, one might make it into the Landscapes Room, and I think its a safe bet that one will end up in the Monochrome Room.

A Quick Visit to King

July 20, 2014

A few days ago I was driving through King and saw a barn that I had seen some time before.  I wasn't able to do much with it at that time because it was completely overgrown with vines and weeds.  However, this last time I drove by, I noticed that not only were the weeds gone, the siding had been stripped off of the shell as well.  This was a little odd to see a barn at this stage and it made it rather interesting to me.  I wanted to come back at a time when the sky was interesting, without waiting too long in case they were coming back out to finish the removal of wood.

Based on the forecast and what I had been watching the sky do all day long, I thought that I might have a good chance at getting some interest in the sky after work.  Without giving it much thought, I went ahead and loaded the camera up and headed out to King.  When I got there, the sky was a little bit blah on the side that I was interested in, and much more interesting on the other side.  I decided to shoot from both sides and see what I could come up with.

I started with my 24-70mm which is a great lens for shooting barns, but for some reason, I wasn't getting the "look" I wanted with this one. I needed something more dramatic, so I swapped the lens for a 16-35mm for a little more perspective distortion and a sweeping feel.  I added a 3-Stop ND Grad to round out the optics to help keep the detail in the sky.

The Forgotten Corner

Against my better judgement I spent some time on the left side of the barn which put the sun in the background, as well as power lines, and a newer house.  There was also the street and a street sign.  These are usually very big no nos in my photography.  However, this time they seemed to play a certain role in showing the age of the old barn.  It was in that juxtaposition of physical conditions that I found a nice balance to the image.  It's still one that breaks my mold quite a bit, but sometimes it pays to work outside of one's comfort zone.

The better lighting was from the other side of the barn, but the trade off was a much less interesting sky to work with.  The ND Grad helped a bit, but I needed something to punch up the contrast even more.  I started to think in terms of black and white and I could see the tonalities working rather well in that visual realm.  I shot the scene in color, but I had full intentions on converting to monochrome and applying a red filter to boost the contrast a good bit.

Only the Framework

I think that black and white really suites this subject with the current conditions.  There is so much really great texture to be examined throughout the image that it almost seems to be a waste to clog up the visual receptors with all the color.  I really think that this is the best side of the barn, and one that does hold its own in a composition consisting mainly of just the barn.  There is just so much to look at, whether it is looking beyond the framework to the inside, or looking at the vines that are still clinging to the fascia above the doorway.  Even the roof offers several layers of texture standing out against the deep tones of the trees in the background.  While this isn't the image that I set out to capture, I have to admit, I really like this one.  It is the one that I am most satisfied with I believe.

Magnolia Manor by Flashlight

July 17, 2014

There are Treks that are planned for months, there are treks that are planned because of the weather at the time, and there are treks that are not planned at all.  Tonight was one of those treks that wasn't really planned at all.  Well....that wasn't entirely true.  I have scoped this location out before, and even shot many a frame here before.  I have been thinking about going out and giving it another try using a technique called painting with light.  So I guess you could say that this was planned, but the actual part where I got up and went was unplanned.  Toni got called into work for a few extra hours this afternoon, and I decided to go in and lend a hand to help out.  I figured that when we would be done, it would be about dark, and we would have to come back past Magnolia Manor anyway.  With that in mind, I loaded up the camera, and a flashlight along with the tripod and we went to work.

We got done with work a little early, stopped to get a bite to eat and then it was out to the location to get set up.  I still had plenty of daylight left and I had plenty of time to find my compositions and get the camera set up for the first one.  Things went very smooth, and we actually found ourselves sitting and waiting for over an hour before the lighting got just right...and by just right, I mean waiting for it to almost go away completely.  There was a good bit of sky visible behind the tree and I needed it to render a color other than white.  Using a minimum of a 30 second exposure made that rather difficult to say the least.

So, what exactly is painting with light?  Simply put, it is the practice of using a light source to illuminate exactly what you want to during the exposure.  Sunlight is broad reaching and will illuminate evenly except for shadows.  When I paint with light, I am adding light to precisely what I am wanting, and at the intensity that I am wanting.  The really cool thing about this technique is, no matter how many times I trip the shutter, I will always get a different image.  Its a creative technique that just can't be readily duplicated.  As you see in the picture above, I was using a maglite to "paint" the tree in nearly dark conditions.  While using a long shutter speed, 30-90 seconds in this case, I was able to paint light where I wanted it on both the foreground and the background.  I was able to control where the shadows were, and what appeared the brightest.

Complexity

My first composition focused on the rather unique structure of the tree.  This is what has made this a favorite portrait setting for when Toni and I did portrait shoots years ago.  The branches are strong and each one seems to dominate the other.  There is a level of complexity here that is just not normally seen in trees around here.  Because of that, I really wanted to focus on just that quality.  To do that effectively though, I needed to get low to the ground and shoot up.  Obviously, the sky was shining through the leaves above which during the day would have left me with bright white areas that were blown out.  In order to get the sky to appear blue, and to have a good exposure on the trunk, I was left with only one good option, and that was to wait until the blue hour (the hour after sunset) to paint the tree with light, while exposing the sky as a deep blue color.

It took several exposure to figure out just where I needed to put the light, but once I did, I was able to get the image that I had in mind with about a minute exposure.  In that 60 seconds, I lit the tree from two different places, one on either side of the camera.  This is another benefit to this type of photography, I choose the direction that each element gets lit from.  Talk about complete control!

From there, once I was satisfied with my image, I moved to my secondary location which took in much more of the scene.  The tree was now going to become just an element in a larger composition as opposed to the sole focus of the composition.  For this, I wasn't as concerned with the sky because I would be shooting from an elevated position, and there would be much less sky showing through the branches.

Ghostly Greetings

As you can see here, the tree has a nice little platform built out to the front of it.  With the long reaching branches on the right, I chose a position to the left of the entrance to let the platform balance out the longer limbs.  When I framed the shot, I knew I had it spot on with what I was seeing in my mind.  It was getting quite a bit darker, so my exposures were getting longer and longer.  I shot as long as 90 seconds on some of the shots, but nothing was under a minute.  This gave me time to really paint the scene slowly and meticulously.  One thing that I realized about midway through my session from this location was that the tree seemed to benefit from me lighting it off to the right.  This provided a strong sense of side light, and a lot more visual drama.  I was going for an image that send shivers down a spine, and this lighting was looking to give the best chance.

When I got home, I started to fight with color temperature and such, only to find that I wasn't overly happy with any of them.  Something was missing, I just wasn't sure what.  On purely a whim, I decided to go in and do a monochrome conversion to bypass the whole color dispute I was going through with myself.  At first, I was mildly excited with the outcome, but when I started to adjust how the tonalities were relating to each other, I saw much more potential.  Ironically, I applied a preset for infrared to the image, and the tree and stone steps seemed to jump from the background.  The shadows became much more intense, and the feel of the picture....well....gave me shivers.  This was what I was going after with the image all along.  I abandoned my color information and decided to make this a dedicated monochrome image.  Of the two images that I shot tonight, I think that this one is my favorite of the two simply because it captured the mood so well.

It wasn't a long trek, and it was one that kind of fit in with other things going on today, but I have to say, I'm glad that Toni and I decided to give it a try on the way home.  We both had a lot of fun working the scene, even though there was a lot of just standing around waiting for the sun to go down.