An Early Morning at Rough Ridge

July 3, 2016

Rough Ridge Dawn

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

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

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

Hole in the Sky

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

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

Beginning of a Journey

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

Beginning of a Journey in B&W

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

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

Spring at Doughton Park

May 30, 2016

Carolina Blue Sky

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

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

Motion in the Air

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

Wooden Rails

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

Boundaries

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

Doughton Park Trail

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

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

This Way

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

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

Mountain Meadow

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

A Day Hike at South Mountain

March 27, 2016

With Spring here, I've been spending most of my free time getting back into cycling for the season.  However, I don't want to let my photography fall by the wayside as it has in the past, so with the roads too wet to go riding today, I decided that I would make much better use of my time by going out and hiking to take advantage of the heavily overcast day.  I've been wanting to get back to South Mountain State Park for a few weeks now since I've only been there one other time several years ago.  With conditions good for that location, I decided to make the two hour trip to go and spend some time around the rapids.  There is also a very sizable waterfall in this park, but one that I've never been too fond of.  There is not much character to it, and there is a viewing platform that really gets in the way of any workable composition.  Another pitfall to this waterfall is that it is always pretty crowded in this park, and today was no different.

Shinny Creek

Having scouted this park before, I knew that I wasn't going to need to waste my time with High Shoals Falls like I did the last time.  I knew that where I needed to focus my time and energy was the rapids along the trails.  About a half mile or so from the parking area, I knew there was a really good access point to a section of Shinny Creek which is downstream of the main falls.  It took no time at all to get there, and it was pretty easy to get down into the water from the trail.  The best part about this location is that despite the park being rather full for a holiday Sunday, there was nobody bothering to even look at this section of the water.  It was just me and my camera, and a few rain drops here and there.  I worked several different compositions of this group of rapids trying to create a rhythm around the rocks, and maintain a sense of scale and depth.  I captured probably a dozen or so frames from this section before landing on this particular composition.  It had everything that I wanted in the picture...the pure water in the foreground, the rapids caressing
the rocks, leading into the distant trees.  If nothing else, this was the shot that I came out here to get today.

After I was satisfied with the photograph, I packed everything up and continued on down the trail.  I was looking for more than just water subjects, but the woods were just too complex and haphazard for me to get any good compositions out of the few interesting trees I found.  I found that my best options were sticking with the water along the trails.  It wasn't long before I found another little cutoff where there were two small waterfalls side by side.  When I say small, I am talking about just a couple of feet high.  They were small, but full of character, and well worth the time to put together some compositions.

Falling Abstract

In order to make the compositions work, from the distance I was having to shoot from, I had one option for a lens.  I fit my long 70-200mm and went all the way to the long end to capture my first shot...an intimate view of a light spray coming off of the rocky ledge with a bit more powerful flow just to the rear.  This is one of those shots that Toni would always point out to me, and just as if she had been along for the hike today, I heard her voice directing my eye.  I think that it paid off too.  This one is less about the water, and more about the shapes and textures.  Sometimes it is a lot of fun to shoot abstract landscapes!

In the Groove

The sibling waterfall to the left was a little more straightforward in composition, but again, it was so small that I needed just about all of the reach of my long lens to capture it.  What I really liked about this one was the hidden textures under the water that gave each cascade it's own identity.  There was just something peaceful about this particular cascade.  I tried several different compositions with this one, but decided that my first instinct was the best out of all my choices.  The different versions I shot of this one prompted me to return to the one to the right and try a slightly different frame on it.

Off the Ledge

What I saw when I flipped the camera over to landscape orientation looked so natural, I knew I had a winner with this composition.  I fine tuned things, and got my exposure dialed in for the water, and ultimately shot this one.  It is much less abstract that the first version, but it still lacks a lot of scale cues which I found to be an important aspect to this one.  It forces the viewer to look at it in more detail to find the cues available as to its scale.

This was only a couple of very small cascades hidden in the rather large creek, but after about 40 minutes or so, I was satisfied that I had done them justice.  I pulled the camera apart and loaded the bag back up once again before continuing on my hike.  I was getting close to the main waterfall, which I had no intention of photographing.  However, there was a small one just before the stair climb to the main falls that I wanted to try photographing.  When I approached it, I could see that the water was flowing very nicely over the rocks, and it looked quite like a promising picture.  The problem that I had was there was a boardwalk right in front of it, that I could shoot from, but I wasn't able to get the framing quite right.  I looked around to see if there was a way to get down in front of the boardwalk in order to capture the composition I wanted.  There was just no safe way to get where I needed to be, and I wasn't quite willing to put myself in a position to fall in the water today.  With several groups walking back from High Shoals Falls, I decided to let this particular waterfall go.  There was going to be just too much work involved for not that big of a payoff in the end.

Liquid Gold

On my return hike, I took the nature trail spur off of the main trail.  There was an access point to the creek that lead right to a nice little section of rocks in the middle of the water flow.  The moss and mineral buildup gave the scene almost a marbled look in places.  I decided that this would be worth a shot or two...maybe more.  I started with my 24-70mm lens, but decided that I wasn't able to simplify the image to what my eyes were seeing.  I needed to narrow my field by fitting my 70-200mm lens instead.  Once I did that, things really came together in my viewfinder.  I was able to work several different compositions to highlight what I was seeing.  What you see above was my initial concept in portrait form.  This was precisely the section of water that had caught my eye, and it was all I wanted to include in the frame.  When I was reviewing the image though, I could see the potential for a landscape view as well, so I flipped the camera over to see what that would yield.

Always in a Rush

I have to admit, my first idea was pretty good with this scene, but my second attempt turned out pretty good as well.  It just goes to show that sometimes your first idea is the best, but other times, it is a very good idea to play around with a scene to see what else you can come up with.  Either way, I'm very happy that I took the time to work this section of water that would have been easily passed by.

At the end of the day, I had shot 64 frames and was thinking that I might have about four good images.  I was quite surprised when I ended up with six that I thought had strong merit.  There will be a couple of new additions to the White Water Gallery Room.

Outer Banks Getaway

February 19-21

It has been about six years since I've been to the beach.  I'm not exactly what you would call a beach person, and neither is Toni.  However, I do enjoy photographing some different scenery from time to time.  The opportunity came up to be able to go for a quick little weekend getaway, and instead of our normal mountain excursion, we decided to head to the coast.  Just to change things up, we decided to go to the Outer Banks instead of Carolina Beach where we would typically go.  The weather was looking pretty decent with moderate temperatures and roughly 40-70% cloud cover for the entire weekend.  That would mean very favorable conditions for photography.

Since we had to leave after I got off from work on Friday, we got to the beach much too late to do anything except for settle into the room and get ready for the next morning.  The weather was still looking promising, if not a little cold in the morning.  I decided that I would get up about an hour and a half before sunrise, so that I could be out on the beach in plenty of time to find some workable compositions.  This is part of the dedication of a photographer, I would have much rather slept in, and enjoyed the sounds of the crashing waves as I woke up.  Instead, I had an alarm blaring in my ear.

Holding Back the Sun

I bundled up best I could with the clothes that I had and headed out for first light.  I have always enjoyed working with the fences at the beach, and this particular Nags Head coastline had plenty to work with.  I hunkered down in the sand and framed a shot that took advantage of the pickets and waited.  Using my 24-70mm lens with a 3-Stop Reverse ND grad filter, I was able to capture the first hints of light from the sun which was still well below the horizon.  I was really hoping for an amazing sunrise since there was a hole in the clouds right where the sun would be peeking out, with thick clouds overhead.  I crossed my fingers, but worked with the existing conditions as best I could.

As the light started to change, I decided to switch to a better location that was no longer back lit from street lights.  I moved over to the right about 100 feet, and set up with a slightly different composition.  With the wind gusting to 20mph, I decided it was better not to bother switching lenses, so I kept my original setup on the camera and framed a different composition.  I was still using the ever available fences for foreground interest, but the landscape had changed.

Outer Banks Reflections

As the sun continued its trip to the edge of the water, the clouds started to come alive with color.  This was going to be it!  I don't do a lot of sunrises, and I was starting to think that I was going to get very lucky on this one.  Just in case things changed though, I continued to work the conditions as they changed.  As it turns out, Outer Banks Reflections is my favorite from this morning, and quite possibly from the entire weekend.  It really did come together very nicely, and while the sun wasn't working its magic on the dense clouds above, the reflections in the water make up for it I think.

Morning Surf

As the sun climbed higher and higher, the clouds never did change color, and they eventually started getting darker.  With the sun at the base of the clouds, I realized that I wasn't going to get the sunrise I was hoping for. However, I was getting some great reflections in the water, and the waves were working out nicely for me as well.  I don't do sunrises often, but I do enjoy capturing the moments when I can.

With the sun's direct involvement in my photographs done, I started to look around for other possibilities that might present themselves.  Looking out over the water was no longer all that interesting, so I looked behind me.  As it turned out, the thick clouds above me, were actually starting to get rather interesting with the back light from the sun.  Fortunately, there were a few really interesting beach houses that caught my eye, and gave me a composition beneath the clouds to work with.

OBX Cottages

As you can see, I really do like my fences!  They provide great leading lines, as well as repeating graphical elements.  I was able to incorporate them in this composition that highlighted a sand colored house.  While the yellow typically would just blend in with the sandy surroundings, I felt with the blue tones in the clouds above, and the blue house to the side, I could achieve a very balanced color pallet.  To add to the serenity, I had the repeating patters of the fences leading to a bookend that was a wooden walkway to the left.  This composition just felt right, and was a natural shot.

A Commanding View

The clouds were still rather remarkable, so I continued to find beach houses to place beneath them.  On the other side of the hotel, I found this unique house that seemed to really stick out from the crowd.  With the help of a wide angle composition, I was able to really emphasize that visual weight.  The fences again helped me establish where the viewer's eyes should be going.  The clouds even decided to make leading lines to the house I was focusing on.  Yeah, this one actually composed itself it would seem.

I was having fun with the houses, but I wanted to work some with the dunes as well, so I moved off of the beach and found a nice vantage point for a dune.  I'm sure this won't come as a shock, but I found a nice fence to go with the dune when I was looking. I had actually spotted this the night before from the balcony of the hotel.  I wasn't sure how it would work as a picture, but I saw potential in it.

The Dunes

As I was working on the composition for the dune, I realized that I would do better working this from an abstract angle more than a straight up landscape frame of mind.  I looked for shapes and textures more that simply subject matter here.  The hard lines of the fence played well with the cottony feel of the sky above.  The fence also mimicked the grass atop the dune.  The fence dropped where the dune actually rose above, and then the fence balanced itself out on the other side of the frame.  For a simple picture, there is just so much going on with it!  The funny thing about this is I shot it from the parking lot of the hotel, while talking to one of the guests who was visiting OBX from Virginia.

With the conversation over, the picture completed, and Toni back from her morning run, it was time for me to pack it in and go eat breakfast.  It was about 8am at this point, and I was getting hungry.  After breakfast, Toni and I prepared for our day which would include going out exploring to see what we could see.  The clouds that had been so promising in the forecast had decided to become a featureless overcast, so I wasn't thinking too much about photography at this point, but we were going on a road trip anyway.

Bodie Island Lighthouse

One of the stops that we made was to the Bodie Island Lighthouse.  This was one of the primary reasons for the trip to OBX.  Toni hasn't seen any of the NC lighthouses and she wanted to rectify that situation.  Nags Head was within easy driving range of two different lighthouses.  Bodie Island was one, and there was another located in Manteo.  On our first pass on each I didn't even get the camera out, we just walked around looked at the landmarks.  However, as the day moved along, the sky started to change a bit, and I decided to head back to Bodie Island once again.  We got there, and I got the camera put together very quickly, using my 16-35mm lens for the perspective that I wanted.  I quickly found a composition using a pair of trees to the left for scale and balance in the frame.  The sky was mostly washed out, but there was still some detail left in the clouds, which I exposed for.  After two initial shots, I moved to some better compositions, but the clouds had changed up, and the detail was all but lost.  The temperature was dropping, and I wasn't seeing much promise in the sky, so we decided to head on back to the room and start thinking about dinner.  By the way, NOTHING is open on the Outer Banks in the off season, but that is another story, for another time.

The day was done photographically.  I wasn't sure what I had gotten, or if I had gotten anything at all.  Looking back in the camera's LCD wasn't really telling me much since I shoot in a low contrast, low saturation format.  Everything just looked blah and washed out.  I was hoping that for nearly 70 frames shot, I would have something usable.

The next morning started out much the same as Saturday did.  I woke up about 5:15 and checked the weather.  The hourly forecast was calling for 45% cloud cover, which would be ideal for my purposes.  However, looking out of the window of the hotel room, I found very little clouds in the sky.  In fact, I saw not a single cloud.  I wasn't going to miss out on my last day of coastal photography, so I went out anyway.  Knowing that I wouldn't be able to include much of the sky...if any, I chose to fit my 70-200mm lens which would only pick out a small portion of the horizon which would have some color to it.

Lighting the Sky

Pulling a trick out of my book from years ago, I really focused in on the fences this time.  The idea was to have a strong visual interest in the foreground, and the compressed horizon in the distance would provide intense color in the background even though there was only a sliver of actual color to be seen.  Ah, the magic of focal length!  I again used various ND grad filters to control the contrast in the scene and keep the sky from blowing out.  These filters have been invaluable over the years for so many of my photographs.  Short of the polarizer, the ND grads are the most important accessory I carry in my camera bag.

Unable to Continue

The nice thing about such a long lens is that I can pick out just about anything in the landscape and make that my focal point.  I shifted just a few feet to the right for this second picture, but it changed the entire feel and focus of the image.  I'm not sure which I like better, but they sure do illustrate how compositions can change dramatically with just a few steps.  The fallen fence is present in both pictures, but its role is completely different.

Once the sun was up, the little bit of color was gone.  I looked above me, and found that there were very little clouds to be found.  This was disappointing to say the least.  I wasn't ready to call it a day just yet.  I hunted around in an attempt to find some different compositions.

The Pier

One thing that I had found interesting the day before was the pier to the North of the hotel.  The lighting had not been right on it with the cloud cover, but with the sun bathing everything in a warm morning light today, I found a much different character of the pier.  Sadly, there were no clouds behind it, but the tracks from various vehicles made some nice leading lines to the main building, and the pier itself provided a nice color balance through the water.  While not exactly an amazing picture, I do like the overall feel of this image.

With the sun rising ever faster in the sky, I had to work quickly because in no time at all, the sun would be too harsh to be able to do much with.  I worked some more with the fences, but never really found much of interest.  I did notice that there were a few light clouds moving into the area, and I worked quickly to find a composition to fit below the clouds.  The problem was, they were so faint that I wasn't sure I would be able to get them.  My mind went into monochrome mode, and I started shooting some frames thinking about using color filters in the conversion to add a little contrast to the sky.  I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but I gave it a try.

Coastal Neighbors

Beyond the Fence

As it turned out, my idea worked out relatively well.  I found the missing definition in the sky with the red filter, and was able to get a couple of pretty interesting monochrome images to finish out the day.

I had now shot 117 frames over two days.  I wasn't sure exactly what I had, or if any of them would be usable.  I had to fight with conditions that were far from what I was hoping for, or planning for.  Fortunately though, I still have enough tricks up my sleeve to work alternative plans on the fly.  I would have liked to have shot a lot more, but considering the weather, this was a very successful Trek to the coast!

Scouting in Julian

February 7, 2016

I've had some feelers out for quite some time trying to get some new areas to photograph in my catalog.  One lead that I have gotten recently was to head out to Julian, NC where there was a lot of rural landscapes and farm lands.  I was excited to give it a try, but wasn't exactly sure what I was going to need in terms of weather.  I decided to pick a day where we were looking at about 45% cloud cover for the day, which should have given me some nice blue to work with along with some clouds for contrast, and for diffusing of light on the landscape.  Right up until Toni and I left the house, the forecast was looking promising, but the actual conditions at the house were far from ideal.  We decided to plow on anyway, hoping that the conditions would get better as we got closer to Julian.

A Room For Me

My first stop was an old farm house located on Old Julian Rd which looked to be very promising in some scouting pictures I had seen.  As I got there, I could tell that I wasn't going to be able to include the sky because it was a total of wash of gray.  It would have been a great waterfall day, but that wasn't what I was trying to photograph.  I decided that the house was too good to pass up, and I tried to work some intimate compositions where the sky would not be included.  I found this one area on the back of the house which highlighted several different angles, and repeating patterns.  The greenery at the corner of the house made for a very nice visual anchor as well.  This was going to be my only workable composition on this house.  I worked on fine tuning the image from both camera position and focal length.  Once I was happy with the resulting image, it was time for Toni and I to start exploring to see what there was to see.

We saw a lot of great old houses and barns on the roads in and around Julian.  I tried to make some mental notes as we drove around, but pretty much, everywhere you look, there is a potential subject.  The only problem was the sky, which was just not changing at all.  After a while of driving, we came upon what looked to be a vacant house, with a few barns to the rear.  In front of one of the barns was an old tractor that caught my attention.  I decided to give it a try despite the sky, hoping that I would be able to compose some images to avoid the sky as I had with the old house.

Tattered entry

Before I got out to shoot the tractor, I decided it was best to check with the next door neighbor to see if he knew anything about the property.  He seemed nice enough, but did not know much about the owners other than they were not present in the area.  After I explained what I was wanting to do, he decided that I should be OK taking some pictures.  We chatted for a moment and I went to the truck and grabbed my gear to get started.

The compositions became much harder than I had anticipated.  I ended up including the sky in more frames than I wanted to, but there was just no way around it.  I was happy that I was shooting with my 70-200mm lens though, as it didn't include near as much of the sky as a wider lens would have.  I decided after a few minutes to try some intimate shots of the tractor, using only a portion of the barn in the background.

No Worse For the Wear

Just like with the house before, the intimate, tight shot worked out the best for the old tractor.  Had it not been for the red wheels, I would have passed this one by since there was limited rust, and it even look recently used.  However, the red wheels against the gray primer really linked this tractor to the rusty tin barn behind it.  That combination struck a chord with me, and I decided that I liked the concept behind this shot.

Put Away

Before packing my things up, I decided to try a long shot of a composition.  There was a really nice tractor sitting inside of the barn.  Knowing that it was deep in the shadows, and the barn face was a middle tone, and the door to the right was white, I knew that a proper exposure would be difficult at best.  I made some very careful calculations as I was setting the exposure and really worked on maintaining detail in the white door and in the shadowed portion of the barn.  Based on the histogram after I shot the frame, I had captured all of the detail from light to dark.  I just love the resolving capability of this 5DIII I've been shooting with for a couple of years now.  It never ceases to amaze me!

When I was done shooting, I was putting the gear back in the truck and the neighbor came back out and spoke to me once again.  He had an idea for a photo project that he wanted me to take part in.  I won't go into detail about it just yet, but it includes capturing farm life as it was in the 50's.  This fascinates me to no end, as the project will include the barns, the tractors, and the techniques that were done back then.  It will give me an up close and personal experience that I have always wanted to express in my photography, but have never really had that opportunity.  When Spring gets here, we will probably be getting things rolling with the project.  I hope to have a whole series of really cool images from this project to share, and maybe even put on display in the gallery here.

An Early Morning in Yadkin County

February 1, 2016

Yadkin Valley Mill in B&W

I had been watching the weather for several days before this morning hit.  There were going to be clouds over Yadkinville, and they were going to be low clouds.  That normally means lots of texture in the sky.  It also happened that I was going into work late, so I had time to drive out there to give the old feed mill another try.  I keep seeing it from the highway every time I drive down US 421, and it has always captured my attention.  With the large booms, the composition kind of makes itself, but it leaves a lot of open area that can only be filled with the sky.  This means that the sky I choose to photograph under is the most important part of this particular image.  I have tried a lot of different skies, but I haven't quite found the one that I like the best.  This morning was promising to be pretty good!

I woke up early and headed out to the mill in time to photograph the blue hour just in case the clouds would cooperate with me prior to sunrise.  I wasn't sure exactly what would unfold before me, but I wanted to make sure I didn't miss anything since I would be working on a rather tight schedule in order to make it to work on time.  I got there about an hour before sunrise, and got my camera built.  I found my first spot to shoot from and fired off a test exposure at 30 seconds.  It wasn't quite there, so I went ahead and switched to Bulb mode, and tried a few exposures in the 90 and 120 second range.  These were working pretty well, but the clouds were much thicker than I had anticipated.

Yadkin Valley Mill

While I was getting some definition in the clouds, the long shutter speed blurred most of it.  This one exposure actually showed some promise with the swash of light blue against the deeper blue.  The faint reflection of the sun reflecting off of the clouds to the left added just the right amount of complementary color to the sky.  Even the textures were working out pretty well.  It wasn't until I got home and did a monochrome conversion that I found the real personality of this image.  It almost became sinister in appearance, and I liked it!

As the sun came up, I realized that I was going to be hard pressed to get the shot that I was after.  Instead of giving up, I decided to pick out intimate details on the old mill and photograph them instead.  I started along the front of the building where all of the windows were.  It took a little work, but I finally came upon a composition that I liked, so I got it framed up and shot the picture.

Looking Within

This had a lot of things working for it.  First of all, there was the snow at teh base of the window.  This matched nicely with the white in the window frame.  The tin siding is not normally my favorite thing to photograph, so I was very fortunate to have a tree right next to the window, and some errant branches moving into the frame.  This gave me the texture of wood that I love so much in these images.  The color of the trees also helped to balance out the siding and overall neutral tones.

I continued around the building looking for some other subjects to photograph.  I came upon the loading area and found a lot of little odds and ends to play with.  There was a lot going on in here, so I decided to look at things as a graphical design more than anything else.  That was when I started to be able to frame up some different compositions that otherwise would have made no sense.

Neglect

Of these, this one was my favorite.  The colors work very well together, and I liked the fact that the wooden planks work nicely as leading lines into the image.  The rust gives a wonderful texture that compliments the textures of the wood and tin.  The vines encroaching all over give a sense of time passing and lack of use.  This image really does exemplify the "Rustic" theme for me.

While working on these little details, I happened to see that the clouds were starting to break up a little bit.  There was a tree at the corner of the lot that I had been working on with little success that I thought would benefit from the current lighting.  I grabbed my gear and went out to the tree and started to set up some of the compositions I had worked out previously.

The Story

The branches of the tree were so haphazard that I couldn't help but be drawn into it.  The band of blue sky in the background helped to break up the expanse of white in the clouds.  The morning light was still very warm and diffused.  The exposure was simple, it was the composition that was difficult.  I had to avoid a power pole, minimize a shelter, and time the shot so as not to include traffic on the highway to the rear.  That was a lot to consider, but the picture came out as I had visualized despite all of the potential pitfalls.

When I was going through the pictures, Toni saw the tree and told me that I had to name it "Story".  I'm not sure why she came up with that, but since I did shoot the tree primarily because of her little voice in my head, I decided to honor her wish.  This picture is all her!

The morning came to a close much sooner than I had wanted, but it was time to head to work.  I was happy that I had the chance to get out and do a little shooting this morning, and look forward to other chances like this on days I go in late.

A Winter Trek to Stone Mountain

January 28, 2016

A Lonely Bench

This morning started out like most others, I woke up to go to work.  The only difference was I was waking up at 12:30am so I could be at work at 2am.  Yeah, I wasn't too happy about that at all, but as they say...."Duty Calls."  I completed my special assignment, and was done with my work day by 10:30 which left me with a lot of day when I would normally be cooped up in my office.  What to do? What to do?

Well, I had been out several times lately with my camera without any success.  I was really wanting to get some new images added to my gallery, so I kept thinking of places to go.  While working my strange schedule, I was trying to come up with some ideas of places to go, but nothing really popped out at me.  My goal here of late has been to find some old cars to photograph, but I just wasn't feeling like doing that today.  Instead, I was kind of craving the solitude of a hike in the woods.  After a lot of internal debate, I decided that Stone Mountain would be my destination.  If nothing else, I would have my choice of subjects depending on the conditions.  There was everything from waterfalls, to grand landscapes, to intimate landscapes, with a few rustic subjects mixed in for good measure.

After work, I set course to the West and found myself at Stone Mountain before lunch time.  The conditions were perfect for some intimate landscapes, and I was please to see that there was still a lot of snow on the ground.  I quickly decided that my best bet would be to take the low level trails that would lead to the Stone Mountain Falls.  I wasn't interested in photographing the waterfall, but I knew that there should be plenty of subject matter along that trail.

Winter's Failing Grip

My first stop on the trail was the restored homestead just off of the parking lot.  There are several structures there which are interesting to photograph.  The only downfall is they mostly have some sort of display by the front of them.  This gets in the way of photography, and is something that I try to avoid.  I was about to bypass this setting since I had photographed it so much in the past, but as I was crossing the bridge to the trail, I looked back and the view of the main house caught my eye.  I had never shot this with my 70-200mm lens before, and from this distance, that would be a perfect choice.  There was even a good amount of snow at the base of the scene which I had never captured before.  I decided that I should set up and give it a try.  The compositions seemed to come quickly and effectively with my chosen lens.  I found that 100mm was the sweet spot for the composition, and using a CPL filter helped with the contrast of the scene.  I was very happy with the outcome to say the least!

Wooden Embrace

After I got back on the trail, I started to look for some intimate landscapes to shoot.  One of my favorite subjects was along this trail...a tree along the stream with an exposed root system.  I have photographed this many times before, and was looking forward to trying something a little different today.  Unfortunately, the clouds were starting to break up and the sun was shining through.  This was going to make my exposures very difficult with the contrasting light.  Even so, I found my tree and set the camera up using my 16-35mm lens to exaggerate the root system.  I added a CPL filter, but resisted the urge to engage it fully.  Instead, I opted to leave a little bit of the reflection in the water since there was so little water standing.  The hardest part of this shot was waiting until the sun dipped behind some clouds reducing the contrast of the scene.  When it happened, I was ready after several test shots.  Having only a few seconds to work with the good light, I snapped the shot and found that I had nailed the exposure I wanted, and the composition was spot on.  Even the reflection was just right.  Time to pack up and move on.

Mossy Stone

The lighting was getting worse as I got deeper into the park.  I was committed to this route though, and had to stick it out.  I realized that I might just be on a long walk for the fun of it as there was just too much light working through the trees.  Every once in a while I would come across some shaded areas, but rarely was there anything worthwhile in those areas.  At one stream crossing, there were three stones which I had passed by many times before without a second thought.  Today, however, the snow added a dimension to them that gave them a different character.  The fact that they were in the shadows really helped out as well.  I went ahead and set up to see what I could do with them.  I used my 24-70mm lens with an enhancing CPL filter to capture this one.  I chose to shoot vertical to capture the hint of a curve leading out to the trees in the background.  I actually liked the hint of sunlight on the tree trunks as well which help to bring the eyes into the background.

A Slippery Climb

 As I worked my way back to the parking lot the sun started to dip below the horizon of the mountain.  This effectively put my side of the mountain in the shadows.  This worked out great for lighting as everything became nice and diffused.  One stair case that I had gone up originally, now had a certain picturesque quality about it as I came down.  Once at the base, I brought the camera back out and set it up once again as I had on the last location.  While this composition looks very simple, there was a lot of fine tuning that went into how the camera was set up.  I wanted to get the stairs captured all the way to the top, however, the tree to the right tended to cover the top portion.  There was just enough of a void in the leaves to where I could position the upper steps just so, and keep them in the picture.  It took a good bit of fiddling, but I was able to get get it just the way I wanted it, and grab the shot as I had seen it in my head.

A Place to Rest

I was getting close to the truck, but still had to work my way through the old homestead once again.  This time though, the sky was clearing and the clouds provided some nice interest.  The warm light from the low sun, just over the mountain was painting some nice tones on Stone Mountain.  this was going to be my chance to capture the mountain in ways I had not done previously.  Normally, I try to avoid the benches that are set up along the trail, but today, I decided to embrace them.  Using my 24-70mm lens with a regular CPL filter, I was able to capture a composition that included the bench, the sunlit tree, and the distant mountain.  The blue sky with the strands of clouds above completed the scene.  This is probably one of my favorite images I've shot of this mountain.  There is very little that I would change about this one.

Crossing Over

I decided to take the long way back to the truck which took me back into the trails.  I'm glad that I did because I never would have seen several of the bridges along the trail.  As the snow had been melting, it had developed a pattern that resembled teeth along the wooden planks.  When I got to the bridge, the little voice in my head (that sounds like Toni) told me to stop and take a picture of this.  I have to admit, I wasn't sold on the idea, and it took a long time to get the shot set up the way I wanted it.  But, after I found the right location, and found the right focal length on my 24-70mm lens, I decided that Toni was absolutely right about this one.  There was a lot to like about this scene, and it would not have been the same with either more or less snow.  This was "juuuuusssst right."

In fact, I was having so much fun with this bridge, when I came upon the next one, I automatically started looking at it for a composition.  From a distance, it didn't look all that exciting.  However, once I got up close to it, I found something that made this bridge pop.

Behind the Curtain

The runoff from the rocks in the background had been freezing for the last week or so and had created an icy curtain just on the other side of the bridge.  This was the eye candy that the bridge was going to lead to.  Of course, it still had the neat repeating patterns of snow on the wooden planks, but without the icy curtain, there wasn't much to this bridge.  The last one might have taken a long time to compose, but this one felt like it took about twice as long.  I'm not sure what the difficulty was, but I just couldn't find the right perspective for the longest time.  When I did finally decide what elements to include and how to include them, it fell into place quite nicely.  I'm glad that I put that extra effort into making this photograph work.

At the end of the day, I had shot 63 frames in about 5 hours.  I was optimistically expecting to have about six keepers out of that when I was finished editing.  To my surprise, I ended up with eight photographs that I was happy enough with to keep.  After a week of less than stellar conditions for my camera, I was starting to wonder if I was losing my touch.  It was very nice to be able to get out and really concentrate on creating photographs again, and make them work out as well as they did.  I guess in the long run, getting up at 12:30 this morning wasn't a bad thing after all.