Behind the Camera: Photo Competitions

Welcome back for another installment of my Behind the Camera series.  In these entries, I will highlight a certain aspect of my photography and the topic is usually selected from a question that I have received over the previous month.  I'm going to do something a little different this time, however.  You see, the first of the month coincides rather conveniently with the start of the Dixie Classic Fair here in Winston Salem, NC.  This is something that I have participated in for a total of seven years since 2005.  It is the only contest that I regularly enter, and I have learned quite a bit from it over my years participating.

With this contest spending so much time in my head recently, I figured that this would be a great opportunity to speak about contests and what they mean to a photographer, and I'm sure any other artistic medium.  Contests are always an interesting topic and there are some very wide views on their relevance and importance.  I've run the gamut in my own personal experiences with contests over the years, and have come to a conclusion.  Contests can be fun for the thrill, but they are always a learning opportunity more than a validation of your own work.  What I mean is this, your goal should not be to win the contest, but to learn to view your own work more critically.  Of course we go in hoping to win, but one thing that I have found is that the only part of a contest that you can control is your own entry.  Beyond that, nobody knows what the judges will be looking for, nor what the other entries will bring to the table.  Contests are in essence a contest with yourself to find your best work that fits the character of the particular contest.  This is where you win or lose, the results of the contest are largely ceremonial and will likely come with dissension among those who have opinions on the entries.

With that out of the way lets take a look at what goes into selecting images for a contest.  This varies widely from artist to artist, so what I am going to talk about here only applies to my process.  The first step is determining what contest to enter.  There are a lot of them out there, and you have to be really selective in what contests to enter.  Many of the ones that are based online are ploys to get stock photography for a website/company.  What I mean with that is say you are submitting pictures for a calendar.  The company that publishes the calendar also publishes other items.  You submit your picture hoping to be featured in the calendar, and sign a licensing agreement that states something along the lines of you allow the company to reuse your image for this purpose and that purpose related to the contest, and for other promotional material.  If you aren't really careful, you will sign away your rights to that image while in their control.  This leaves them the ability to use it for whatever they want in many cases without any further compensation for you.

The other type of contest I have seen is one where you submit the image, and get notified that your image is among the best of the best and will be featured in a coffee table book which you can purchase for the nominal fee of $50.00 or something similar.  These contests usually have large prize money purses attached to them for the winners, and you have to pay to enter the contest.  These contests are money makers for the ones holding the contest with entries more than paying for the prize money, and then you have the book sales that many will do after receiving notification that they are finalists.  You should never have to purchase a book at full price where you are a contributor.  These folks are preying on a photographer's desire to get published.

I actually inadvertently stumbled into this type of contest earlier this year.  It was the Photographer's Forum magazine, 2018, Best of Photography contest.  I saw an add for it in an Outdoor Photographers magazine which is a very reputable publication.  I started to look at the website for the Photographers Forum and found some very quality images presented.  I looked at the contest which was a yearly thing, and looked very legit.  I perused through previous year's winners and thought that they had a wide variety of subject matter, much of which I shot.  Since this was a legitimate magazine, and it was sponsored by a reputable lens maker I decided to enter a handful of images based on what I had seen winning in previous years.

Brake Time

Back in July, I got word that one of my images had made the top 12% of the entrants to the contest.  While I should have been happy, I was very skeptical almost immediately.  There were several things that I saw wrong with this.  Based on the reported 8,760 images that had been submitted this was among the top 1,000.  Sure, I liked the image and I submitted it because it was similar in concept to a previous year's prize winner, but it was not the strongest out of what I had chosen to submit.  The kicker came at the bottom of the letter when they notified me that there would be a "beautiful hardcover coffee-table book showcasing all the finalists."  OK, I know where this is going.  I opted out of the book of course and tried to regain my composure.  I did some research (which I should have done earlier) and found that this was the way the contest ran.  It was legit, but it was primarily a vehicle to sell books to photographers that wanted to be "published."  Of course, I didn't win anything with this and that was not surprising at all.  I did learn a lesson that I apparently needed a refresher on about entering contests.  In the end, it wasn't a bad experience, and the winners were actually pretty good so no arguments there.

Down to Earth
2016 First Place
$270.00

The one contest that I have entered over the years that I do actually like is the Dixie Classic Fair.  It is an opportunity to display my work in its intended printed form.  There are no licensing forms to fill out, no shady stuff behind the scenes.  It is just a simple contest with a small amount of prize money attached.  The judging is not always to my liking, but that goes with the territory.  What I like is the excuse to print out my work and have it framed, which costs more than any potential prize money I might add.  It is a great motivator to add to my own collection though so it is very much worth it.

The way the contest is set up, you have to differentiate between professional or

Dairy Barn in the Summer
2016 First Place
$240.00

amateur.  Based on their definitions, I have to enter as a professional which limits me to two entries.  I can do one black and white and one color image framed and ready to hang.  Over the years, I have been very impressed with the amateur entries and find many of them to be competitive at the professional level.  What I don't like is that they are only allowed to be mounted and not framed.  I'm sure this makes it easier to display, but I think it detracts from the images.  I am a fan of having a finished piece on display.

Mint
2017 First Place
$290.00

Since returning to photography in earnest in 2016, I have had really great luck in the contest with three first place ribbons and a second place ribbon.  I have regularly entered both the color and black and white categories even though I am primarily a color photographer.  Based on my winning entries, I have determined that rural scenes tend to do very well at the Dixie Classic Fair.  This starts to go into my decision making process when it comes time to select an image to enter.

I have entered landscapes in previous years, and some have done well, but

Sponsors
2017 Second Place
Sold

most seem to fall short.  What I have determined about that is that landscapes appeal to a certain type of person and then you have to find the exact type of landscape that will catch the eye of all of the judges.  This is difficult at best, and I have found that the landscapes that have done the best have been of a particular feature or subject.  With the rural photography, each image is featuring a particular subject that draws you into the image.  I think that the judges like that, and I have been very fortunate with this recipe over the years.

When it came time to select the images for the 2018 contest, I thought long and hard about it.  I really wanted to enter some landscapes this year and had a few in mind.  They had a lot of wow factor to them, but in the end they were just landscapes.  Several of which were sunrise/sunset images which should not be entered into competition since they are quite cliche' in the field.  I knew my safest bet was to enter something in the rural category once again, and that narrowed my choices down significantly.

Timeless View

My black and white entry turned out to be the easiest choice to make.  I did have several that I really liked to choose from.  There was a beach scene, and a foggy tree from the Blue Ridge Parkway that were in the top slots.  Both of these counted as landscapes, and the beach scene was a very moody piece and I knew it would have a limited appeal based on the emotional statement that it made.  The tree was eliminated after seeing the previous year's winner.  I saw that the judges really liked to see pure white and pure black elements in the monochrome entries.  The foggy scene was just shades of gray and did not have the visual impact that I figured that they were looking for.  The one from my short list that stood out in my mind and checked all of the boxes for what I was needing was Timeless View which had it all.  There was excitement, depth, a country feel and a complete range of tonality from white to black.  It was an image that amazed me at the time of capture, through the editing, and finally the print process.  I looked for other options, but was unable to find anything that came close to checking these same boxes.  It also turns out that this is one of my favorite images from the year thus far.

A Rusty Streak

When it came to my color entry, things got much harder.  I had a lot of favorites in mind for this entry and started really going through them.  There were several landscapes, a barn scene, and a couple from my rusty car collection.  I was really leaning towards a sunset at the coast as it was one of my all time favorites, but I just hate to enter that type of image into a competition.  The barn image was my initial selection as it was the quintessential rural scene, but the barn was small enough that it would almost be considered a landscape.  That little voice in the back of my head kept saying to go with what has won in the past.  I started to look closer at the old cars I have.  The ones that I was really wanting to enter were more intimate shots and became more abstract.  While they were strong images, I doubted that they would be well received by the judges.  When it came down to it, A Rusty Streak edged to the top.  It had the boxes checked that I wanted.  It had the rusty car, and even added a barn in the background.  The seasonal autumn colors were present in the trees adding to the palette of the image.  The field of yellow bridged the two elements, and the patina of the car pulled in the tones and colors from the entire scene.  It was a very cohesive image, and one that has been highlighted by Singh-Ray on more than one occasion.

I had the two images picked out, and win or loose, they represented what I thought were my best images for the contest that I was entering.  That was a huge hurdle for me, but not nearly the hardest part of this choice.  Now that I had the images, I had to get them prepared for display by getting them framed.  This is one of the harder aspects of making a piece of wall art.  It is very easy to slap a gallery frame job on an image and go with a black frame and white mat for uniformity.  Unfortunately, this is not always the most flattering presentation for the image.

I have been going to After 5 Framing in Greensboro for years now for my framing needs.  The owner, Dave is great at what he does, and has an eye for matching colors and pulling out the elements that you want highlighted in an image.  I used to really stress getting a picture framed and would struggle for days to figure out just how I wanted it done.  These days, I go in with the print and flop it on the counter.  I just let Dave do his magic with just a little bit of guidance from me.

13x19" print matted and framed behind art glass
$270.00 as shown

The first one to be framed was the black and white print.  I typically do these with a white mat and a black frame just because there is no need to pull any color out of the image.  This time, that just didn't look right at all.  We ended up playing around with things and found that a light gray mat would work better, and he added a dark mat under it.  That didn't look right so I flipped the mats and found that the light gray worked great as an inner frame and the dark gray brought out the textures in the print so much better.  The black frame completed the tonal transition that lead your eyes into the image from dark to light.  It was one of the more risky framing jobs that I have done with a black and white print, but I have to say that it turned out phenomenal and is one of my all time favorite framed prints.  Despite that fact, it is for sale as are all of my personal collection prints.

13x19" print matted and framed behind art glass
$270.00 as shown

The old Pontiac was supposed to be much easier to frame as I had colors to work with this time.  It turned out to be much more difficult in the long run.  I was expecting maybe a light gray mat with a yellow inner band and a brown frame.  Well, that just didn't look right at all, and we started to change things around quickly.  Dave did his thing and went for a brown mat to pull the color of the car, but that was too much.  We played with different colors for a mat to put on the top, and ultimately decided to go with a gray tone that matched the top of the hood and fender.  My idea for a brown frame kept the eyes from settling in the picture, so we went darker and found a weathered gray frame that worked perfectly.  When it was all said and done, the frame leads your eyes into the image with the gray picking up the sky and the car, while the brown grabs not only the car, but the barn in the background.  Since the field was so resplendent in yellows and greens, they stood on their own very well.  Once again, the frame helped to accentuate the picture, and really helped in the presentation.

At this point, it was all done except for the competition.  I was confident that I had selected two images that would show well, and hopefully do well during the competition.  As of the time of this entry being published the fair is in full swing but I have not had the opportunity to get by there to know how my pictures have done.  As soon as I find out, I will come back and add the results.  Regardless of how they do, I am looking forward to having them up on my walls and available for clients to purchase.

Edit October 5, 2018

The results are in from the photo competition.  I'm excited to share that A Rusty Streak has earned top honors this year in the professional color photography category.  I am really proud of this image and how it did in competition.  There was a lot of thought that went into which image to select for this category and apparently I chose the correct one of the bunch.  On the other hand, Timeless View did not do so well in the competition.  Surprisingly, it didn't place.  Since I have not been to the fair as of yet to see the winners, I have no idea what the judges were looking for this year in the monochrome genre.  I can only assume that the competition is getting much stiffer as the years go on.

I can say that I am still very proud of this image.  In fact, it is still one of my all time favorite shots and it captures everything that I wanted it to when I shot it.  That is the thing with competitions, opinions vary and there is never a guarantee on how the chips will fall.  I still say that of my two images, the black and white one was the stronger of the two.  I would be interested to see which ones took home ribbons in the competition to see how I can improve on my selection process for this particular competition.  It is always a learning process. 

Graveyard Fields, In Search of Autumn

Friday, September 28, 2018

Clouds Over Pisgah

I'll admit it, I have Fall Fever really bad right now which is odd considering that it is still very warm outside, and I'm still mowing every week.  That being said, typically by this time each year I have already started seeing color in the higher elevations in the Blue Ridge Mountains.  In fact, it was around Sept 17th, last year when I went to Graveyard Fields and found all sorts of color.  I've been keeping track online to see how the color is coming this year and it seems to be a good bit later due to the warm temperatures.  Based on what I was seeing though, I decided that it was time to make a journey out to Graveyard Fields and see for myself how things were coming along.

With my work schedule this week, I ended up having to take Friday off (Darn!) since I was working on Saturday.  Looking at the weather, there was a pretty good chance of clouds throughout the morning and showers later in the day.  With some good rains recently, I figured that this would be a great time to see the Fall colors and to shoot some of the waterfalls at Graveyard Fields.  I have yet to try the lower falls because when I have been there, the sun has been too bright to attempt waterfall photography.  The forecast was showing some promise this time though.

As an added benefit, the sunrise forecaster was calling for a good probability of some color in the sky as well.  This was going to make for a really good trip if I could get a sunrise, and waterfalls in the same day, along with some bright colored leaves.  I knew that it wasn't going to be anywhere near peak, but if I could just get a few trees here and there, I would be very happy with the first Autumn trek of the year.

As is typical, I had to wake up pretty early to catch a sunrise.  Oddly enough, the sun was rising after 7am at this point in the year and that makes it much more tolerable than the middle of Summer when the sun wakes up before 6am.  However, Graveyard Fields is just a tick over three hours from home.  Doing the math...carry the one...that meant that I was waking up at 3:30 and on the road by 4.  I hate early mornings!

My plan was to get on the Parkway in time to find a place to set up for the sunrise, which shouldn't be a problem considering I was looking at arriving around 6:15 or so.  The trip out there was interesting.  I left in the rain, and had clouds and fog most of the way to the lower section of the Blue Ridge Parkway.  I wasn't sure how sunrise would look, but I was sure going to be in good shape for waterfalls.  In fact, I even brought along directions to get to Estatoe Falls which is on my short list of waterfalls to visit.  I figured that after shooting at Graveyard Fields, I could jump down the road to Estatoe and save the three hour drive I would have to make another day to shoot it.

When I arrived on the Parkway, the fog was heavy and most of the overlooks were socked in.  Not being very familiar with this section of the Parkway, I started hunting something that looked promising.  The only problem was I couldn't see anything at all in the distance to know what to shoot.  The sun was coming up too, and I was running out of time to find something.  I started to drive by a long driveway that was marked "Mt Pisgah Parking" and thought about turning to see if that was an overlook.  I remember thinking to myself, if I turn here, I won't have time to find anything else.  If I stay straight, I don't know what I will find ahead.  Essentially, it was a chance either way and I opted to make the turn and climb the short driveway.

Passion in the Air

What I found at the top of the driveway was the Buck Springs Gap Overlook.  It was positioned perfectly to see the sun, and there were some of the most awesome clouds down below.  I pulled in and just parked the truck right on the edge, not wanting to be concerned with whether or not I was in a parking space.  I got out and grabbed the camera.  I set the tripod up and fitted my 70-200mm lens to the camera.  I made a single exposure and found that I wasn't able to get the reach that I really wanted at this stage of the game so I added my 2X teleconverter to extend the reach.  I was now able to shoot at 400mm which was just perfect to capture the clouds and the color in the sky.  I was right in the nick of time to capture this as the colors were unfolding quickly in front of me.

As the sky started to erupt in color, I removed the teleconverter and went back to my standard 70-200mm lens.  I started looking at composition options and found that this was going to be a great prospect for a panorama.  I flipped the camera on its side and got the tripod perfectly level.  I did a dry sweep to check the exposure and set the focus.  I then shot a 6 frame series across the horizon which I later stitched together for the opening image to this entry.

I worked with other compositions and found some pretty good images over the course of about 30 minutes.  In the end, I decided that I would pick the two best examples since they were largely of the same subject.  These are the two that I liked best from the sunrise at Mt Pisgah.

After that series was done, I looked around to see what else was available.  The sky was really nice, but I wasn't able to find any more workable compositions that excited me.  I packed up my gear which actually took a minute.  In my haste, I was throwing bits and pieces into the bag and not worrying about where they were landing.  That meant that I had to move everything around to get it all back to where it was supposed to be.  I considered shooting a short video here, but decided that the photography was more important than any video work.  I still had a chance of getting some really cool skies if I found another vantage point to shoot from.

I loaded the truck back up and started back out on the Parkway towards Graveyard Fields once again.  I ended up passing Funnel Top and saw some really interesting clouds around the mountains.  It was most definitely worth pulling over and setting the camera up again.  This time, I was pretty sure that the 70-200mm would be the right one, and it turned out to be just that.  With the conditions present, I still wasn't using any filters as the exposures were still very good.  I started doing my isolation thing with the mountains in the clouds.  This is always a lot of fun to do and it starts to take on an abstract quality really quick.  My intention at this point was to shoot in black and white, but when I got home I realized that the color in the sky was pretty nice and worth leaving in.

After Dawn

The clouds were really thick down in the valleys and the sun was still being diffused by the clouds to the East.  This gave me very soft light and that was just what I wanted.  I loved being able to render the textures in the mountains, and even the hint of green.  These would have been absolutely gorgeous if the leaves were at peak with the colors in the sky complementing the Autumn colors, but alas, that was not the case.  I'm not complaining because regardless of the colors present, these were a lot of fun to compose and shoot.

Reaching for the Day

As I was shooting, I realized that there were a few clouds that seemed to be arching into the sky.  When I started looking, I realized that their shape was mimicking the mountains beneath them.  This was a good enough reason to capture that scene.  I had no problem isolating this phenomenon with the 70-200mm lens.  The background mountains even lived up to the name of "Blue Ridge" in this light.  Again, the color here was too good to pass up so I opted not to convert either of these images to black and white.  I stuck around here about 20 minutes or so before I realized that I had shot all that I cared to from this location.  The clouds were not changing significantly, so there were really no other compositions developing.  I loaded up and hit the road once again, still bound for the Autumn colors of Graveyard Field.

Clouded Looking Glass

Not far down the road I passed by a well known landmark of the Blue Ridge Parkway, Looking Glass Rock.  At first I wasn't going to shoot it, but when I saw how the clouds were looking around it I reconsidered.  Once again I pulled out the 70-200mm lens and left any filters off of it.  I worked on a few different compositions here before I found the one that I liked.  There are repeating patterns of waves from the foreground into the background.  The big interruption is the large bank of clouds with Looking Glass peeking out above it.  The subtle hues in the sky rounded the image out, and I really liked how this one panned out overall.  While I shot about 10 frames here, I only decided to keep this one.  the others were just variations on the theme and really didn't stand on their own compared to this one.

It was now time to move on down the road for my ultimate destination.  I was looking forward to seeing the Fall colors at Graveyard Fields.  However, when I arrived, my hopes were dashed.  I could see the lower falls, or second falls from the Parkway and they were shrouded in green.  They were also fully lit by the sun which had found its way into a large expanse of empty sky.  The entire landscape mirrored what I was seeing at the falls with nothing but green present.  I was disappointed to say the least because I was really hoping to see something similar to what I had seen last year, over a week earlier.

Oh well, I was here and had driven a long way for this specific spot.  I grabbed my gear and started off into the trails.  As I was hiking through I could see where some of the trees I had expected to be in full color were now bare.  It appeared as though those same trees had changed and then shed their leaves quickly.  This would explain why I had been seeing pictures on Facebook showing some fair color in the area.  I was too late for that, and too early for the majority of the leaves.

Cascades on Cascades

I decided to skip the leaves this time and focus on the waterfalls.  Yes, I know they were fully in the sunlight and that is a bad thing.  My hope was by the time I got into position that the sun would be hidden behind the clouds.  I was happy to find that the first little cascade by the boardwalk was in shadow.  I had shot this last year with some color on the trees, but this year everything was totally green.  I decided to give it a shot and I fitted my 24-70mm lens with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer before looking for a composition.  I found a few workable compositions, but the lack of color left them rather flat and lifeless.  The lighting was also not the best with some highlights in the background from the sun.  After about a half dozen shots I decided that this wasn't going to work for me.  I packed the camera back up and continued on to the lower falls.

Having never been here before, I wasn't exactly sure what to expect as far as terrain.  I knew what pictures were possible, but not exactly what was needed to get those pictures.  After I made it down the steps, I came face to face with a rock garden like I have never seen before.  The boulders were stacked up too high to get a good composition from where I was at.  My only option was to find a way to rock hop to a location somewhere on the top of that pile.  Fortunately I did have my waterfall boots on so some shallow wading was possible.  The problem was the water was deeper than the boots were tall.  I did manage to find my way around and over the boulders.  My final location was interesting to say the least.  I was standing on a rock, and there were three other rocks where I was able to place my tripod legs.  I had very little wiggle room, and the camera was pretty much where it was with no movement possible.

As you can see, I made use of what I had to the fullest.  I started out with my 16-35mm lens along with the Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer, but quickly realized that that was just too much for this waterfall.  I didn't like the compositions that I was getting and it was including too much of the foreground for my tastes.  I swapped it out with my 24-70mm lens with the polarizer and found that focal length to work much better.  My problem was the sun was still bright and causing my problems.  The problems weren't my usual ones though with highlights and deep shadows.  This waterfall is situated perfectly for a sunny shot as there are no shadows to contend with and everything is evenly lit.  My problem was I was having a really hard time getting a slow shutter speed with just the polarizer.

Second Falls

I knew I was going to need to add an ND filter to reduce the light and I have one for just this purpose.  However, I was recalling my recent shot with Elk River Falls where I used the 10-Stop ND to get a three minute exposure.  I figured that with the bright light here, I might actually be onto something with that kind of light reduction.  I went ahead and added the lee Filter Holder to the edge of the polarizer and slid in the Singh-Ray Mor Slo 10-Stop ND filter.  The lighting was much brighter than at Elk River Falls, so I knew I wasn't going to get a three minute exposure, and really didn't want that.  Actually, I was aiming for 30 seconds, and was able to get just that with this filter combination.

I shot several different compositions and exposures for this waterfall.  I did everything from 1/5 of a second up to 30 seconds.  I was actually surprised to find that I liked the results of the 30 second exposure best by far.  The water flow was quick, but it was cascading beautifully so that it maintained detail throughout the falls.  In the end, I decided that I liked a horizontal as well as vertical composition of this waterfall.  I did shoot some isolations, but none of them really stood out to me, and I ended up trashing them.

After this I was feeling pretty good about the day, but the clouds were clearing and it was not looking like Estatoe was going to be a possibility.  Instead of giving that one a try, I decided to pack up and head home.  I was getting sleepy anyway having been up for a very long time already.  The sky was gorgeous all the way home, but the lighting was not quite good enough for photography.  I think I made the right decision in calling it quits.  I will get to Estatoe Falls eventually, but I do want it to be on a very cloudy day as I have in mind what I want to capture and sunlight really won't play a part in it.

Pot Branch Falls

Sunday, September 23, 2018

Swooping In

A couple of weeks have passed since I have been out making any photographs, and my goal for this weekend was to change that.  The weather was looking good with clouds both Saturday and Sunday at home as well as in the mountains.  My initial thought was to spend the day around Graveyard Fields on Saturday to catch some of the early fall color.  That would leave Sunday available to get two framed pictures to the Dixie Classic Fair for competition.  It would all work out quite well.  Well, you know how planning goes for me...

Saturday turned out to be completely sunny across the state and there was nothing that I could do with a camera, or at least nothing that I wanted to do.  I decided to take my pictures to the Fair early in the day in the attempt to miss the football traffic from the Wake Forest game at noon.  There was no such luck, I wasn't even able to get to the parking lot.  I abandoned that hope and went home.  I started to work on a Plan D or something like that.  The weather was looking great for Sunday with clouds, showers, and even the potential for fog.  That forecast was pretty much from home to the mountains.  The trick here was, I needed to be able to get the pictures dropped off between noon and 4pm as that was the only time I could get them there.  To avoid last minute problems I needed to aim for something around 2pm for a drop of time.  That was going to cut my available outing time down to a minimum.

With the weather looking gloomy I decided that waterfalls would be the best bet for the day.  I didn't want to revisit one that I had shot before though, so I started to research other options.  As I thumbed through the waterfalls in NC, I came across one that I had not seen before called Pot Branch Falls, which was located in Golden Valley, NC.  It was about two hours away from me, and the hike seemed rather simple and quick based on the description.  I was pretty sure that I could get there and have time to shoot it, and even have a little excess for another subject along the way.

With the Curve

In order to give myself the most time, I decided to get up when Toni left for work at 5am.  This would get me to the waterfall by first light and leave me with the majority of the morning to work it.  I could tell when I left that it was cloudy, but not quite the full overcast I was expecting.  As I went further West, I found myself under heavier clouds and even fog.  This was going to be perfect!  I was glad that I had opted to shoot waterfalls over Graveyard Fields since I would not have gotten the colors that I wanted in the dense fog.  The excitement kept building as I came into Morganton, but started to fade when I saw the sky as the sun came up.  There was some obvious blue up there, and the clouds were thinning out substantially.  This was actually great conditions for doing the Autumn landscapes, but I was woefully out of position for doing that at this point.  I opted to carry on and continue to my destination hoping that I would find something else along the way that was promising.

With my hopes dashed a little bit, I did continue on and found a good bit of fog developing as I made my way through Morganton.  I saw an old Ford N Series tractor on the side of the road that looked really nice in the fog, but I was wanting to capture this waterfall if the conditions held.  I decided to wait on the tractor till the return trip.  I was proceeding with a new found dedication to seeing Pot Branch Falls.  It was short lived though.  As I approached Jonestown Rd, the last paved road before the falls, the fog cleared as did the sky.  Oh well, I was minutes away from my destination.

Eroded Steps

The old service road was actually a great deal of fun to drive down for the 3 miles it took.  There was even a small creek crossing to get to the falls.  What I did notice was that the sun was hidden on the other side of the mountain, so that gave me a great deal of hope to have the waterfall in the shadows.  When I finally arrived at the parking area the sky was pretty much bright blue with a few clouds here and there.  I needed to hurry and take advantage of any shade that I could find.  Fortunately the hike was quick and easy to navigate.

Scooped Rocks

When I arrived at the waterfall, it was indeed in the shadows which made me very happy.  There were several sections to the waterfall and each had a different feel.  What I was after was the long drop through the rocks that could be viewed from the bottom of the waterfall.  It was a simple scramble to get down to the bottom, but there was a problem that I had not anticipated.  There was a large tree that had fallen and was laying across the base of the waterfall blocking the view of the best part of this location.  I tried to figure out a way around it, and even had a fleeting thought of trying to pull the tree out of the way.  Don't worry, I didn't try as I know how heavy those things are, and knew I had no chance at relocating a tree.  This was very unfortunate, and I had to regain my composure to figure out how I would shoot this waterfall.

What I decided to do was to shoot isolations of the upper sections which were rather interesting on their own.  For this, I decided to use my 24-70mm lens with a Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer attached.  This gave me a lot of flexibility about how I captured the elements of the waterfall.  I even used it to get a panoramic view of the top of the main drop (pictured above).  I stitched together what amounted to five images in portrait orientation.  I was standing almost on top of the water, and I was shooting at 24mm.  I wasn't sure if it would work or not, but by carefully moving through the composition, I was pretty sure that I had the raw material needed to stitch it together the way I was envisioning it.

Cavity

After I played around with the 24-70mm lens for a while, I decided to bring out the 70-200mm for some real isolations.  Of course, I kept the polarizer attached to the front element.  I started to work isolations of the section just upstream of where I started.  There was a few interesting little creek cascades with the eroded rocks I found so interesting.  I even set up another panorama of this section (Eroded Steps) in order to capture a little different perspective.

It took me about an hour's time to work this waterfall to the point that I was satisfied with my images.  I was really surprised that the lighting remained really good for the duration of my time.  I just wished I could have gotten the shot I was there to get.  I will have to wait until the tree is no longer there to get that shot though.  I did have a lot of isolation images of the different elements of the waterfall which was my secondary goal for coming to this waterfall.  At least I was able to achieve that goal, and I shot a brand new (to me) waterfall.  It would seem I am back to enjoying the thrill of exploring new waterfalls, and will likely continue that through the fall and winter when there are less people around on the trails.

I made the hike back to the truck and made my way back out to the road headed to the house.  I was looking for the old Ford tractor while enroute though.  The only problem was the sky was pretty blue and the lighting was getting rather harsh.  Oh well, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I missed out on the tractor.

As it turned out, when I got to the tractor and really started to look at the setting, I decided that it was not quite the find that I had thought it was.  It might have worked better in the fog, but currently, there was too much clutter around it to make it work as a photograph.  I shrugged it off and continued down the road.  As I was coming up on a gas station, I could see a rusty car off on the side of a neighboring field.  I saw it in just enough time to hit the brakes and pull off on the side road which ran alongside the field.

Mercedes Scorn

My eyes had not deceived me at all.  That glimpse of rust turned out to be an old Mercedes sitting next to tree line.  The lighting was pretty good on it as I was coming back into the cloud cover.  I looked around and didn't see any indications that there were trespass issues, and I saw no structures at the field where I might try to ask permission.  Since I was totally in the open, I decided to take my chances and I pulled into the field and grabbed my camera with the 24-70mm lens attached.  Of course, I added the Color Combo Polarizer to the front and got set up for my first exposures.  There wasn't a lot to work with around the car, so my overall shots were dependent on things like the branches overhead to really make a cohesive composition.

What I did like about this car was the bent hood and broken windows.  The chrome bits were still there which was pretty awesome to me.  The front end of this car really caught my attention as a matter of fact.  After I did some overall shots of the car, I started to get in closer and work my way through the weeds to get some intimate shots of this old Benz.

Where Did the Time Go?

As I was setting up a shot off to the side, I decided to get low and have the headlight looking off to the side.  With the composition I was able to get, I swear the car looked like it was pondering something pretty serious.  That is what I love about headlights on these old cars, the personality and soul of the vehicle shines through.  The patina of this car was amazing and the textures just jumped out at you at every angle.

Handle It

I started to look for ways to capitalize on the patina and found that the passenger side door had a great deal of character in the surface.  I used the door handle to anchor the shot and got in really close to fully show off the old paint, scale, and rust.  It has been much too long since I have shot a real rusty car and I have to say, I've missed it.  There is just so much that can be done with these old cars.  After every shot I made of it, I was looking over my shoulder expecting my time to be cut short.  Fortunately though, nobody seemed to car that I was here.  I wasted no time, and kept working different compositions of the car, and even started to look inside for ideas.

Take the Wheel

What I loved about the view from the passenger's door was the strands of headliner that were hanging loose from the ceiling.  The window was mossed over, and there was obvious mold in the seats.  It just screamed age, but there was still a lot of recognizable features inside the cabin which told the story of the car.  The rusty frame of the door kept your eyes centered on the interior which I liked as well.  I tried a few different compositions here, and was really wanting to open the door, but I have a hard and fast rule that I shoot them as I find them unless I have an owner with me who allows opening doors and such.

Benz Attitude

One thing that I couldn't get away from was the front end of this car.  The fact that the chrome was mostly in place was amazing, and I loved the bumper and the grill.  I thought about shooting a perfectly symmetrical composition here, and thought about a straight on, off centered view as well.  In the end though, I decided to go off to the side and make a head light and the grill the main points of the photograph with the opposite headlight as a balance element, all linked together by the bumper.  I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but after seeing it on the computer monitor I was happy I went this route.  It is a little different than my normal shot, and suites this car all too well.

Locked Eyes

Even though I had seen some success with an angled composition, I was still wanting to try something a little more intense from the front of this car.  I got positioned right at "eye" level to the headlight and squared up with the front of the car to get this very dramatic view from the front of the car.  What I really liked about this view was the patina that turned into the background to the headlight and marker light.  The slats under the hood were less than pristine, and the chrome surround made for a great framing element on the right side of this composition.  The fronts of these old cars really make for great abstract pieces.

Patina Luxury

When all was said and done with this car, I had a total of 80 frames shot divided up very equally with 40 at the waterfall and another 40 at the Mercedes.  It was a simple day with only two subjects in front of the camera, but considering the weather playing tricks on me and a fallen tree that blocked my view of the waterfall, I really can't complain.  The day went pretty much as planned and I was able to drop my two pictures off at the Fair with plenty of time left to spare.  I'll have more on those pictures in the next installment of my Behind the Camera feature around the first of the month.

Blue Ridge Weekend: Catawba Falls

Sunday, September 9, 2018

Catawba Falls

So, here I was on my last day in the mountains.  The weather was cloudy and rainy.  There had been some rain moving across the area over the last couple of days.  That could only mean one thing.....it was time for waterfalls!

To catch you up, I found myself on an unplanned trip to the mountains that was pretty much centered around the fact that I wanted to visit Catawba Falls on the suggestion of Michael Surratt.  Looking ahead late last week the conditions were looking favorable for this waterfall on Sunday, and those conditions remained in tact.  I stayed at the hotel long enough to grab some breakfast before checking out and heading towards old Fort, NC, where the falls were located.  Along the way, I found a possible location for some old car photography along Hwy 221, and then again on Main St a few miles South of that.  It was foggy and rainy, so I opted not to waste time scoping these locations out as it was too early to be knocking on doors to ask permission to be on the properties.

I arrived at the falls about 8:30am and grabbed my gear and started out on the hike.  I was a little surprised to see about a half dozen cars in the lot already, even though Michael had said to get there early to avoid the crowds.  Regardless, I was here and I had time to work this waterfall before going home.  The hike was a little longer than I expected as I hadn't really researched the distance.  After about 30 minutes of hiking what seemed like constantly up a hill, I stopped and checked for internet connection on my phone.  I was able to pull up the hiking information for the waterfall and found that it was about a mile and a half.  based on my normal pace, that meant that I should be just about there.  I continued on with the hike and started to climb some rocks.  Just around the corner I found the waterfall.  Had I waited about two minutes, I wouldn't have had to stop to check the phone.

I was really happy to see that there was nobody at the base of the falls, so I was totally alone with it for the time being.  I got the camera set up for an overall shot in case somebody decided to join me.  For this, I started out with the 16-35mm lens along with my ever present Singh-Ray Color Combo Polarizer.  This filter would stay attached throughout the day regardless of lens choice.

My first shot used one of the rocks as a foreground interest to introduce the scene.  The waterfall was rather impressive in sheer size, but there wasn't a ton of water running down the drops.  What was there was really interesting and I was here for the isolations anyway.  I had been more excited about that potential since the beginning.

Water Cairn

One of the features that I found early on that I really liked was a cairn situated near the base of the falls.  It was surrounded by some really nice cascades and that made for an interesting picture in my mind.  For this, I was going to need a little more reach so I swapped lenses for my 70-200mm and started making compositions.  I tried both landscape and portrait, but found that the tight portrait orientation seemed to work a little more effectively.

Marking the Falls

That is not to say that the horizontal composition was lacking.  It stood on its own right, but the cairn lost some of the visual importance.  I was able to capture another cairn to the left that I had not been able to see when scoping out the falls at the scene.  I actually only saw it when I was starting the editing process of the pictures.  That is the benefit of a nice long lens, you can see details that are hidden from view many times.  I really liked the way the rocks framed the single cascade in this composition, along with the moss on the rocks.

Forest Drops

While shooting isolations on this waterfall, I wanted to get some compositions up near the top.  For that, I was going to need a bit extra reach.  I grabbed my extender and mounted it between the lens and camera.  That gave me the ability to reach out to 400mm to capture some of the smaller sections near the top of the falls.  I liked this section a lot because of the two colors of moss on the rocks.  The cascades were also quite interesting in their patterns.  If you look closely, you can even see a number of small streams coming off of a ledge that links everything up at the base.

Saturated Moss

It was the moss that really made the compositions for me.  I loved the shades of green and burnt orange.  It was almost like Autumn colors at the end of Summer.  I found a few areas that had interesting cascades, or like this picture, just a runoff from the ledge.  It really is amazing to me how the terrain works with these waterfalls and in the mountains in general.  Always so rugged and inhospitable, yet so beautiful and full of life.

Catawba Cascades

I was really having a lot of fun with the reach of the extender and kept finding more and more compositions.  This turned out to be a really good thing because while I was shooting up at the top of the falls there were several groups of hikers that showed up and wanted to experience the waterfall.  For many of these isolations, I was actually shooting over the heads of other hikers.  They were all very respectful and made sure it was OK to enter into the scene.  I don't think they quite understood what I was trying to capture as I could tell they were feeling awkward standing in front of the guy with the camera while actively making exposures.

Berries by the Water

I really took this time to experiment with compositions.  I found a lot of nice elements to include near the cascades like these berries to the upper left.  They added another dimension in color as well as texture to the images.  It was still the moss that captivated me for this section.  I loved the browning tones and it gave a richness to the image that is lost with solid green moss.

Collection Point

As I had a break in hikers, I decided to try something a little different.  I swapped lenses once again to my 24-70mm so I could get some midrange compositions of the cascades.  I again turned my attention to the cairn that I had shot earlier.  This time, I made it the base of the photograph with the larger cascade drawing your eye to it.  The smaller cascades provided visual interest and patterns through the rest of the image.  I was able to include the different color mosses as well which was a great bonus.

Catawba Falls is an interesting waterfall to photograph.  It is hard to have it make complete sense in the overall view.  The isolations are very interesting, but have a certain careless quality about them.  Finding patterns and lines is a difficult task.  I see that as a plus as it probably means that each photographer will pick out their personal favorite sections which will probably be different from the next one.  I haven't seen a lot of pictures from this waterfall before, but I can say that it is a really nice one with a lot of potential.

Staccato Drops

One technique I found that works well with this waterfall is focusing on a single side of it.  By including both exit points, you start to lose the top and mid sections.  What I did here was eliminated the left exit, and chose to focus my attention on the dominant exit to the right.  That allowed me to crop in closer to the rest of the waterfall and show more of its true character.  I think I like this view better than my original opening image, although I do miss the rock as the foreground interest.

Foot of the Falls

While I was working on that half composition I decided that the exit of the waterfall deserved a little bit of attention on its own.  I got in close with the 24-70mm lens and isolated what looked like a foot at the end of the waterfall.  I was surprised that this hadn't spoken to me earlier.  It photographed very well I thought and was one of the more simple scenes within the entire waterfall.

At this point, more and more people were starting to join me.  Considering I had used every lens in my inventory with the exception of the 14mm prime, I figured I was pretty well spent for compositions.  I went ahead and packed up shop to begin the hike back to the truck.  I left about a half dozen people at the base of the falls, and passed another 20-30 on the way out.  Michael was right, even in a light rain, early on a Sunday morning, this park is packed out.

My impromptu weekend was now over and it was time to make the drive home.  In all, I had 330 frames shot with several HDR compositions and a panoramic composition.  I ended up with 32 images that I felt were worth keeping.  I have now completed the processing on them, and will work on getting a few of them in the gallery here before too long.

Friday:  The start to my journey
Saturday:  A full day driving in the mountains
Sunday:  You are here