Tanawa Trail Footbridge - The September 2014 Calendar Photo

The Tanawa Trail is a 13 1/2 mile hiking trail in the North Carolina mountains that parallels the Blue Ridge Parkway near Grandfather Mountain.  This footbridge is easily accessible from one of the many trail access points along the parkway.  It's been some time since I made this photo, but I think this is on the section of the Tanawa trail that goes to Rough Ridge.

Tanawa is the Cherokee name for fabulous hawk or eagle.  On this day the scene was a fabulous painters pallet of warm fall colors.  To the east the sky was becoming overcast which obscured the grand vistas, but created really nice conditions for taking photographs in the woods.  

There are any number of ways to photograph this bridge.   If you do a google search for Rough Ridge Bridge and look at the images you will see the compositions others have come up with.  I like this angle because it shows off the beautiful arch of the bridge and the stone column in the center.   In the fall the creek is reduced to a small trickle, which shows up as a black section under the bridge.  For the photographers who are interested in the more technical points this was taken with a full frame DSLR, 17mm, f/22.  This image is an HDR image created from three different exposures to capture the brightest and darkest parts of the scene.

This photo brings to mind quiet walks to peaceful places.   The busyness of life can wear us down and we need to get away to these quiet places to recharge.   Luke recorded that Jesus would slip away to a quiet place to pray.   What better place to pray than in the midst of God's creation with no distractions to compete for our attention.

I'll be selling the 2015 edition of my calendar this fall.  For information see the previous blog post - http://thesiggins.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-polls-are-open-its-time-to-vote-for.html  Stay tuned for more information on how to order a calendar.

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.

Previsualization

I went to Hungry Mother State Park for the first time several weeks ago.  While I was there I took this shot.   It's not very interesting but I thought, hey this will look great if I had a picnic basket and some picnic food laid out on a colorful table cloth on that table.    I had previsualized in my mind exactly what the photo would look like.  


A couple weeks later I was back.   June had gotten our picnic basket, a colorful quilt to use as a table cloth, some fruit and classes to put on the table.  I brought my long lens so I could compress the apparent distance between the table and the bridge in the distance.  This is going to be a great photo.

When I got there I found the table had been moved and was being used by a father and son as their fishing station.   Plus, a group of shirtless men were on a pontoon boat right in front of the bridge I wanted to include in the photo.   Neither group of fishermen were moving.   I was not going to get that shot this day.

I really liked that bridge with the setting sun shining on it.   We found our way down to the bridge and crossed over to try and find a good angle to shoot.   I was able to get this shot.   It's not the shot I came to get but I'm pretty pleased with how it turned out.

I hope to get back there before all the leaves drop off the trees and try the shot again.   Maybe conditions will be better than I even imagined.

A couple months ago I heard Bob Krist say "The key to making more interesting photos is to stand in front of interesting stuff."   Sometimes we have to go multiple times to stand in front of interesting stuff before the conditions come together to get a good shot.   Fortunately for me I live in a place with interesting stuff all around.  I have the camera.  I have the subject material.   All I need is enough time to get out there and shoot.  

Come back and visit this blog again and you may see the next attempt at this photo