PICTURES OF THE WEEK

I try to keep up with weekly 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.

I've got two pictures this week.  First is a quick picture I took in Cades Cove in the Smoky Mts.  This mother bear was keeping eye on me while the year old, foraged behind her. 

Second, is our son Ben at his graduation from the University of Tenn.   Yeah Ben!  It took a few years but he now knows all the words to Rocky Top.

Sometimes you don't get the best image, but being there was fun.  I spent some time at Dam #4 on the Potomac with the herons and egrets that were feeding there.  I really enjoy watching these birds fly.

It's pouring down rain.  We got 4 inches in the last 24 hrs.   So as I sat on the porch reading an article by William Neill on his impressionist work.  He explained his "In Camera" technique (not photoshop).  So as I sat there I looked out and saw great textures and colors with the different greens of the spring, the red buds, and the wet black bark of the trees.  I might have to try this some more.

Spring flowers are popping up everywhere.  This Squirrel-corn flower was shot along the Shenandoah River in Harpers Ferry National Historic Park in the Virginias Island area.  This is a nice place to walk around, wild flowers, some ruins of the island, and a lot of water birds including herons.

These falls are one of the two falls in Twin Falls state Park.    This could be a nice location in June when the Rhododendron are blooming.

The Wheeling skyline.  This was one of the few trips I had made to Wheeling where the skies were clear and not raining.

Spring is almost here.  We have few crocuses  that are trying to come out but I still want some color.   A project I was working on for the Buckhannon Strawberry festival gave me some.   Can't find color outside?  Make a trip to the grocery store.

If you don't like what is outside, try shooting inside.  This is the Barbour County Courthouse.  I used a stitched panoramic method to create this image.  The courtroom was renovated several years ago after a dead bird fell through a drop ceiling onto the prosecutors desk.  This revealed a wonderful stained glass skylight in the center of the room.

Sometimes March is not my favorite time to shoot.  There little snow right here and not much color.   So I thought I'd try something I've not done for a while, Black & White.    I went for a hike on the C&O Canal near Shepherdstown, WV.   Since I was shooting digital I could have had the camera do the B&W for me, but I would loose too much information when it processed it.  So I shot in RAW mode and did the B&W processing in Photoshop.   That way I retained much more detail information.

A day after Ansel Adams' birthday I was treated to a wonderful day in Tucker County, WV with 6" of fresh powder, little wind, and blue skies.   Of course the temperatures started out at -3F, but that was OK.   This image is from Douglas Falls, located just off the rail trail near Douglas, WV.  the main falls is over 40ft tall.

"Have you heard?"

I've been a little behind in keeping up with my weekly images.   I've been spending the last few weeks going over my pictures from the previous year and working on some new items for 2008.

These two deer were at Blackwater Falls State Park 

This panorama taken at Harpers Ferry WV was after about a 3 hour wait for the fog to lift.  It was very high this day and visibility was down to a few feet until around 10:00.  When it lifted there was only about 1/2 hour before all of the fog was gone.

When taking night pictures of cities, like here in Roanoke, VA, you need to anticipate how some things will look, like the highway that runs through town.   Knowing that the long exposure would give the classic white and red streams, I used it as part of the composition.  A leading line to the fog and mountains beyond.

The fall colors have been 1 to 2 weeks late this year.  It has been dry, but this day was rainy.  Sometimes the rain or cloud cover can saturate the colors of the few leaves that have changed to make the picture more interesting.  This picture was taken from the hill behind the tent camping area at the Shadows of Seneca Camp Ground.

I've been trying to get this sunrise in the New River Gorge from Diamond Point for a few months now (see 7/29/07).   I knew that the sun would be coming up toward the center of the image this time of year and I arrived just a little too late (about 15 minutes prior to sunrise) to reduce the hot spot where the sun was coming up.

The leaf color in the Blackwater Canyon is normally fairly well along by the 10th of October, but this year it is running a little late.   I found a single tree from the Lindy Point overlook that had turned and composed it with the fog that was rising from the canyon.  I then waited until the sun rose enough to light the tree and still leave a little shadow on part of the image.

Fog changes so quickly, especially at sunrise.  Just before the sun came up this day this field was totally clear.   Right at sunrise this low fog came up behind me in the field.   Then within minutes after the sun came up, the fog moved off this field. 

I've been wanting to get a better image of the Charles Town, WV courthouse for sometime.  One of the problems with taking pictures of tall buildings or other things like waterfall in cramped spaces is that a wide angle lens can distort the picture.  Sometimes this is a good artistic thing.  To eliminate this you want to become level with the subject.  In this case I was given permission to go to the roof of the building across the street.

A bog area at Dolly Sods provides opportunities to experiment with patterns in different textures and colors

The start of Autumn in WV is the turning of the huckleberries at Dolly Sods.   This shot is to the South East during sunset.  Sometimes the better colors of sunset are not toward the sun, but away from it.  I also used a graduated neutral density filter to allow me to get color and detail in the foreground while keeping the soft colors in the sky.

Sorry I missed a couple of weeks.   I went to Harpers Ferry to hopefully get a little fog on the river.  There was not much so I went for some sunrise colors.   Two fly fisherman were on the river and I used them as components of the composition.   In another few weeks the sun rise will be in the middle of this view.

The village of Helvetia in Randolph County, WV offers a feeling of a Switzerland.   I used the flower planter on the porch of the Library as foreground interest to shoot the Museum building

Taking a walk down a foggy road one morning in Canaan Valley  I tried to make sure that the tops of the trees were left out where the bright sun was starting to break through the fog so that to mood was not broken.

The New River Gorge is one of my favorite places to shoot.   It has a lot of my favorite things, water falls, consistent fog, and good places to shoot sunrise/sunsets.   This one is taken at sunrise from Diamond Point.

It is always good to great the sun on top of Dolly Sods.   I've seen better displays of color up here,  but after a night of thunderstorms in my tent, any blue sky looked good to me.

I spent several days at Seneca Rocks camping and doing a show at the Discovery Center.   This image was taken during that trip of Sites Homestead.

A trip to Grandfather Mountain near Linville, NC provided me with an opportunity to get very close to a Mountain Lion.   The viewing into this enclosure is above ground level.  But Aspen, the male lion,  climbed a tree just in front of the viewing area and we were no more than 20 feet apart.   I think he was trying to see if he could make the jump for a quick snack.

A fast pan as the gull sweeps past the ice.   It's actually from the previous week, but it's better than anything I shot this week.

This is as close as I have ever been to an eagle.  There were two soaring overhead for about 15 or 20 minutes.  

Here is image I took while going over the Denali Highway.

I spend time in Preston County this week, and was drawn to the waters of Muddy Creek near an old iron furnace on the road between Bruceton Mills and Kingwood.

This week I went out looking for panoramic images around Harpers Ferry.  What I came back with were wildlife images.    You don't always get what you went for, but try to come back with the best image that is available.  You just have to look for it.

During the past two weeks a small stream near my home has become the home for a family of Beaver.

It is amazing how quickly one animal can change an area, but also how quickly other animals come to the newly formed habitat. 

I spent 2 days shooting covered bridges and other sites in Bedford County, PA.   While I was unloading my gear at one bridge I noticed this very simple scene in the field beside the car.    

There are many great photographic opportunities just off the interstate.   This mill  is at McCormick Farm, less than a mile off of interstate 81 south of Stanton, VA.   

Spring is starting to make it finally.  The redbuds are full in our area and provide a great source of subjects.   I captured a honey bee on this one as the vanishing of many hives made the news during the week.

I spent this week traveling all over WV from the Ohio River in the west, south to the Kanawha & New Rivers and back to the Potomac.     This picture is of the Middle Falls of Hills Creek in the Monongahela National Forest near Richwood.   The creek was high with the spring rains and snow melt.  

I spent Saturday at Jackson's Mill in Weston,WV.   The mil pond there offers a lot of opportunities to capture reflections.

Last snow of the year?  Thought I'd catch the last  of the Easter weekend snow before it melted at Babcock State Park.  

Sorry I missed a week.  I was a little under the weather.    The picture here is from an afternoon hike I took along the Blackwater River in Canaan Valley.   I was drawn to the way the light was playing with the ripples in the water and worked with that