A Day In The Fog

Back on July 4, 2012, June and I hiked up to the Mount Cammerer Fire Tower in the Smoky Mountains.  It was a beautiful day and I got one of my favorite photos from the Fire Tower that day.

You can click on any photo to get a larger view.

View from Mt. Cammerer Fire Tower in 2012

Our daughter Holly joined us yesterday to hike back up to the fire tower, hoping for another epic view.  The weather forecast was for partly cloudy and only a 20% chance of rain.  What we got was 8 hours hiking in fog and rain with no epic views.

The view on October 12, 2020

While fog is not great if you are looking for that mountain top view, it is great for photos in the forest. The cloud cover and fog make the light very even and soft with no really bright spots. I took advantage of several "photography breaks" on the 5 1/2 miles up. Here are some of my favorites.

At the beginning it was misting rain and overcast, but no fog.  The trail was often covered with leaves.  Sometimes is was solid yellow and other times solid red, depending on the type of trees.

Cosby Creek

The fog got thicker as we continued the climb into the clouds.  These are the conditions I really enjoy.  The fog makes everything mysterious and beautiful.

This is not far from the top.  The fog was not as thick and we could see further down the trail.

Proof we made it!

The fire tower is at an elevation of 5,054 feet, about 3,000 feet above where we started.  It was built by the Civilian Conservation Corp (CCC) in the 1930s. The men who built the lookout drilled and blocked the stone by hand from a quarry about a hundred yards downhill from the tower. Some of these stones weighed as much as 600 pounds!  The architectural style used for the lookout was called "western" because it didn't require a raised structure to see above the trees.

After a short lunch inside the lookout we headed back down the trail.  About half way down we saw something we hadn't seen all day.  The sun broke through the clouds and we could see other mountain ridges in the distance.  The rain had stopped and things were warming back up. Not long after, the clouds closed in again.

It was a long day.  We are already talking about doing it again when the forecast is for no clouds.

Skies

It's been a busy few weeks.   I haven't blogged in weeks and have barely done anything with my fall photographs and we had our first snow flakes today! Time is passing by quickly but June and I have found time to get out and enjoy God's creation in gold, yellow, and red before the leaves are all gone.

We took one day and drove up to Burke's Garden, Virginia.  It's a favorite place for landscape photographers but we had never been.  Burke's Garden is a bowl valley completely surrounded by Clinch Mountain.  The valley is reported to be the highest in Virginia at around 3,000 feet above sea level.  This elevation brings fall to Burke's Garden before many other places in our area.  

The day we picked turned out the be cloudy and overcast.  When we got into the valley the clouds had come down far enough to cover the surrounding mountains and even creep into the valley.   Overcast days can be great for some photographs but challenging for others.  One of the most valuable lessons for an outdoor photographer is to know what to shoot under different lighting conditions.   A cloudy overcast day produces fantastic soft light, obscuring shadows and eliminating bright spots.  It can also make colors more vibrant. 

In this first shot you can see how the clouds were hanging very low over the mountains.  The clouds thinned a little allowing just enough sunlight through to highlight the trees in this shot.  Including the sky in this shot puts it in perspective and tells more about the place and conditions.

In this shot of a road lined by beautiful trees in fall spender you can see how the soft indirect light allows the color to pop without being washed out by bright light.  The sky does not add to this photo but there was no way to get this shot without including some of the sky.

Most of the time you want to avoid including the sky in the composition if it is bland and uninteresting.  Below is the same shot with different crops.

In the second version I cropped out that bland sky.  I also cropped out the grassy foreground because I didn't think it added anything to the image.  If something doesn't add to the image then think about cropping it out.

The next weekend we took a side trip to Cataloochee Valley on the way to meet friends for the weekend.  At times we had the same overcast conditions but later in the day the clouds started to break up and create some different conditions.

With some interesting clouds in the sky I had some different compositional opportunities.  In this photo of an old barn the blue sky and clouds added to the photo.  The clouds are cool and the blue is a nice contrast with the fall colors.   To make this shot I had to use a graduated neutral density filter to compensate for the sky being much brighter than the rest of the image.   I don't use these filters on every trip but when I need them they make the difference between an impossible shot and something worth sharing.

Of course these bright conditions made other photographs very challenging.  I had to wait a while for the sun to go behind a cloud before I could get a picture of leaves in that little stream.  

The secret to getting good photos outdoors is to understand your light conditions.  Unlike the studio, you take what God gives you and make the best of it.

Some Seasons Just Don't Last Long Enough

I'm blessed to be able to live in a part of the country that has four seasons.   Although some of my friends and family in Florida may not think so, even winter is a welcome change from the monotony of tropical living.

My favorite seasons are Spring and Fall.   The freshness of Spring with all the wildflowers blooming all around just makes me feel good.   Walking though the woods surrounded by flower and brilliant new green growth can recharge the deadest personal battery.   With the many different varieties of plants and flowers Spring can last for many weeks.

Fall is a different story.  Once the leaves start to turn it's not long before they go from brilliant to gone.   Often I only get one good weekend to get out and shoot fall colors before the yellows, reds, and oranges are  brown and down.  This fall I had a free day to go out and shoot and I chose to head up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina and see what I could find.

On the way from Kingsport to the Parkway I got to Lake Watauga at sunrise.  I was the only person out there that morning.   I don't think anyone even drove by while I was there enjoying the peaceful morning on the lake.   The "golden hour" light gave the clouds a nice pink color.

After a stop in Boone NC for a Hardee's biscuit I stopped at the Moses Cone Mansion on the Blue Ridge Parkway.   My favorite shot of that stop was looking out from a walkway tunnel under the parkway.   I went for that shot because of the fall colors and blue sky but was given a bonus when a girl rode by in her equestrian riding outfit.   I should have stayed in the tunnel and took some more shots but I didn't want to spook the horse in the tunnel.   I wish I had that opportunity again.

A little ways up the road was a small pond surrounded by fall colors. There was little to no wind but the skies were starting to cloud up, which made the colors really pop, but was a preview of the rest of my day.

Soon after leaving the pond the clouds rolled in and descended on the Parkway eliminating any chance of the grand vista with blue sky shots.   I stopped and hiked up the Rough Ridge Trail which is a great trail.  The fall colors were still pretty nice but the clouds were still with me.   I made the best of the overcast conditions by taking several pictures under the trees with no sky, including this one that looks like Elves and Hobbits should be walking by, and a great arched bridge where trolls could be hiding.

I did take one shot of the Blue Ridge Mountains from near the top of Rough Ridge.   Nice fall colors but wouldn't it look great with a blue sky and white puffy clouds?

It was the best day for fall color photography I had this year.  Six days later everything was past peak and done for the year.   Now we've had an early winter with more than a foot of snow in the mountains.   This time I was at Hilton Head and missed the whole thing.   My son got great pictures from Roan Mountain, which makes me wish for more snow.  The good thing is winter lasts much longer and I'll have more opportunities to get out and shoot some in the snow before we start over again with spring in 2013.

These photos can be ordered from my website under the Blue Ridge Gallery.

Are you ready for Winter?

It snowed in Kingsport Tennessee today!   The temps were still in the 40's so no one was worried about accumulation on the roads.  Snowing before Thanksgiving is a bit early for us but it does remind me that winter is not to far off.

Ready for Winter?

Seems like just a couple weeks ago we were enjoying the fall colors.  Recently I put together a calendar with some of my favorite photos from the past year.  Here's the calendar page for November 2012.

I really like the quote I found for this photo.   I can look at this photo and remember what autumn was like just a few weeks ago.  Fall just does not last long enough.

Right now we are in that in between time where the fall colors are gone and everything is either brown or grey.   In a few weeks we may have some snow accumulation, which can be a beautiful time to go out and enjoy God's gift of snow.   I can hardly wait.

If you are interested in buying a copy of my calendar you can send me an email at r.siggins@charter.net.   The calendars are $15 each and all the profit goes to Hope Haven Ministries of Kingsport.  You can see some of the photos used in the calendar by clicking here