MY PHOTO LOG

I try to keep up with updates of images I am working on through my travels.   I hope you enjoy them and if you have any questions just let me know.

Elakala Falls in Blackwater Falls State Park is a favorite place of mine to get some winter shots.   The falls (under the bridge) is usually frozen over, but my main draw is the ice that forms on the rocks to the right.   There is always a range of color from brownish to blue.

This was shot as a 3 shot panorama so I could included the most information in the vertical but also get the range from the bridge to the ice.  

I've done a great deal of shooting this last few weeks, but it seems most of it has been underground.   I've mentioned this before, but HDR Processing is a great help in cave shooting.  You will need a wider range of exposures than you would normally in outdoor shooting.  You also want to try to hide or turn off the source of most of the commercial lighting as they cause hot spots you just can't get rid of.     This image was taken in Grand Caverns in Grottos, VA.  It is a blend of 6 different exposures.

Wow, time has been running by fast.  I've said this before, but when you are out shooting you need to keep aware of your  surroundings.  sometimes for safety and others so you don't miss a shot.  I was in Cades Cove in the Smoky Mountains slowing approaching a buck to get a nice shot.   I saw a quick movement to my right and took a look to find this meadow lark in the grass near me. 

Sometimes taking pictures at the Glade Creek Mill is like the crowd at a Hollywood awards show.  There were several of us waiting for this one guy to move.  But when the light hit him, I just added the rouge photographer to the composition.  

I always try to use a little photographic etiquette in these situations.  When I arrive at a location if there is someone taking a shot, rather they are set up with pro equipment or a point and shoot, I wait until they are done before stepping into the position I want.

If your driving down Skyline Drive and see a bunch of cars stopped and people looking up, its probably a bear in the tree.   With a good zoom and some patience , it is fun to wait and get a good picture while the bear rummages through the tree for acorns. It is also fun to watch the crowd run for cover when the bear decides that it is time to come down.  

I enjoy sunrises (and sunsets), but not for the time when the sun is actually at the horizon.  I do take that picture, but find that the color is always more intense before sunrise or after sunset.   This image at Spruce Knob Lake was taken about 30 minutes prior to sunrise.   These require long exposures, and no wind, but are worth the effort.   Another photographer came a few minutes later and got the sunrise, but missed all of this color.

Your all set to get that picture of the train pulling into the station and when you look at the picture it is WAY over exposed.  What happened?  Well if you left you camera in Auto Exposure when that big black engine rolled in, the camera adjusted to expose the black engine to grey and all of the other stuff then became over exposed. 

The best way to avoid this is to get the correct exposure before the train arrives.  Then set the camera to those settings in MANUAL!   Then when the  train rolls in, the camera does no make other exposure changes you don't know about.

I was at Pricketts Fort State Park to update some of my images of the re-built fort and the original Homestead.   While there I saw this guy fishing in the lake.   

I was shooting at Blennerhassett Island State Park and had the opportunity to shoot this image that combines the mansion in the background with a sense of  history with the horse drawn wagon.   I could have used some HDR to brighten  up the horses and wagons but liked the semi-silhouette look and it hid some of the modern attributes of the team better.

I want to get a shot of the Sites Homestead at Seneca Rocks that showed the homestead, the rocks, and the garden (I love the caster bean plant on the lower left).   The best time to shoot the rocks is late afternoon, but by then the homestead is in shadows.   In order to get everything in I used a panoramic shot and in order to get proper lighting on both the rocks and the homestead I used HDR processing.

OK I did a  class the week before and we talked about compositional tools.   I was at Blenko Glass this week and found this great example of leading lines (blow pipes) and framing (the opening to the oven).  

During the Sunday morning shooting session of a class I was giving,  I saw this dragon fly and liked him.

This month I am the photographer in residence at the Canaan Valley National Wildlife Refuge.   I will be around a few days a week wondering the trails of the refuge looking for pictures to take.   To see a few of my selections so far, click on the link below.

LINK TO JULY CANAAN VALLEY NWR IMAGES

Sense of Place:  Last week we traveled to Lancaster PA for a few days and I liked the old windmills.  But how to get the viewer to know where the windmill was?   Why not include some Amish laundry?   It may not isolate the location to Lancaster, but at least to a community.

It is a bright shiny day and I am going to take a short hike on the C&O Canal.  I have my camera gear and I'm off. But I forgot my flashlight.  Actually I had my flashlight, but no charged batteries.    This would not seem like a problem, but when you are in the middle of the over 3000 ft Paw Paw Tunnel. it gets REALLY DARK.

I wanted to get a shot in the tunnel showing some detail of the brick work along with an entrance.   With no flash (no charged batteries), I went with my new toy, HDR.  

After what seems like weeks, the sun is shinning today.  But when I made this image it was very overcast and there was drizzle.  the images is from Valley Falls State Park near Fairmont, WV.   It is a combination of 40 shots.  I used a combination of HDR software and panoramic stitching software to combine them.

OK this picture is from last week, but I did not have an interesting one from this week.   Michelle and I were out hiking to see wildflowers and found this guy near some wild irises.   I thought it was a good opportunity to try out my new zoom lens.

I'm still rooting for spring.   I was at the Museum of Appalachia in Norris, TN and found some color to brighten the day.

OK Winter's last Hurrah.  Dolly Sods with a spring snow.

IT'S SPRING!  

Wow, it has been a long time between updates.   Winter has not been good around here for snow, so I did some underground shooting,  where the weather does not change much.   The wildlife does not move much either.   The Bat was at Natural Bridge Caverns and the Painted Desert was at Skyline Caverns.  Both are in Virginia.  

Normally you are with a guided group in most tourist caves, and using a tripod is not possible.   But I was doing some work for both recently and was allowed in to shoot.  The painted desert was captured using only their lighting and HDR processing.

FINALLY!    A half inch of snow can make a lot of difference in the final image.  This Black Fork Falls,  one of the two waterfalls at Twin Falls State Park

OK, this is two weeks in a row with people in the shot.  During the Christmas season, there are a lot of opportunities to get shots like this that are just fun.   This is from the Old Time Christmas events at Harpers Ferry, WV.  No I did not join in.

Winter becomes a tough time for me to shoot if there is not any snow.   I look for night shots, especially ones like this with Christmas Lights at the Daniel Stowe Gardens near Charlotte, NC.

Sometimes you just see the lines.  Here I saw leading lines to and from the subject.  This barn is located on the WVU farm in Reedsville, WV.  When ever possible I like to start my lines from a corner.

I finally made the trip to the Catalochee Valley in the Smokys to see the Elk herd that was re-introduced a few years back.   The dominate bull here, #67, is the son of the 1st dominate bull brought here originally.  One thing that is tough to do with shots like this is to have some type of composition while watching the action.  here I wanted to get the antlers in the more plain grass area so as not to conflict with the trees.  I also wanted the 1/3 of the lower portion and the vertical lines of the trees above.   I had to move around and wait for the Elk to move around to get it.

On some days you just have to look close to you to see the small things in nature.   The backlit milkweed seeds had a nice appearance and the diagonals of the seeds adds a nice touch.

If you've seen much of my photography, you know I like fog.  Well this morning in Harpers Ferry, there was no fog for my sunrise.  But just as the sunlight was peaking through the gap, one solitary wisp of fog appeared.  I quickly lined up the cross on St. Peters and took the shot.

I wish I could have gotten the coal barge schedule set a little better so that one could have been here at this right time.

I'm still working on all the shots I took this morning at Seneca Rocks, but there was phenomenal color.   What made it so nice was the combination of the higher cirrus clouds along with the lower cumulus clouds.   This in combination with a "crack" in the cloud deck right at the horizon.

Red Creek in Dolly Sods is one of my favorite places to go to shoot water.  There are a lot of small cascades and they present infinite compositional possibilities depending on the time of year and the water level.

Putting things together.  I liked this composition because it shows both the grapes and the vine.

There is always something to shoot as long as you keep your eyes open.   I was out hiking in Dolly Sods and the sky was cloudy and there was not much color or other things to shoot that I was looking for.   But keeping my eyes open,  I found this nice little subject.

Trying to tell the whole story.  This is an image of the Antietam Aqueduct on the C&O canal.   I tried to get the picture to show both the canal on top and that it is an aqueduct with the creek flowing below.   I would have liked to been a little higher and to the right, but I left my sky-hook at home.

I went to take a sunrise at Lake Buffalo and as soon as I got there the clouds moved in.  I waited and finally there was a little break and I got a little bit of color.

HDR (high  dynamic range) processing.  Our eyes see a much wider range of bright and dark areas. So at sunset we can see color in the sky and also detail in the foreground.  But film does not have this possibility and digital is only marginally better.  But now there is software that will allow you to take several images at different exposures and basically overlay them so that the exposure is more balanced for the dark and light areas.   

This was my first attempt at this.  I took 5 exposures 2/3rds of a stop different.  The one on top is processeed with the HDR software and the one on the bottom is the best single exposure from the scene.

"The Morning After"  - I'm in my tent at Blackwater Falls and about 1:00am & it starts to rain hard and lasts for over an hour, then stops.  I hear very little wind and in fact when I get up at 5:00 to see what I can see, the stars are bright.  I know there will be fog in the canyon, so off to Lindy Point I go.