California Natural Areas Are Burning

Carr Fire - not my photo

Back in May, we visited the area around Redding California.   That area is now in the national news because of the terrible forest fires that are burning more of California than ever.  This has prompted me to go back and take a look at some of the photos we took of that area before the fires.

By now you have seen photos like the one on the right.  Take a look at some of my photos from before the fire to appreciate the beauty of the area.

Mount Shasta and Shasta Lake

When we were there it was the end of spring.  There was still plenty of new growth on the trees and shrubs but the grasses were just starting to turn golden.  The temperatures were getting up there and things were starting to dry out.  A day after we visited the Redding area we were in Sonoma County where we saw the aftermath of fires that ravaged the hills the year before.  Little did we know it was a preview of things to come.

We took an interesting tour of Shasta Dam.  It was built in 1938 - 1945 and created Shasta Lake which is the largest reservoir in the state. 

Shasta Dam

Bridge Bay, Shasta Lake

You can see from these photos that we were there on a clear sky day, which is the worst conditions to take landscape photos in general and especially waterfalls.  The waterfalls were beautiful to look at and enjoy, but next to impossible to photograph to create a pleasing photo.  I struggled with high contrast, intense whites, and dark shadows.  Normally I wouldn't even try to photograph the waterfalls under these conditions but this was the only time we will be there so I made the best of it.

We spent several hours at the Whiskeytown National Recreation Area surrounding the crystal clear Whiskeytown Lake.  The area is now closed until further notice because the Carr fire is actively burning throughout the Recreation Area.  The fire continues to grow and as of two days ago was 160,000 acres, with 1,604 buildings destroyed, including 1,080 homes.  Tragically, seven people have lost their lives in this fire.

Lower Crystal Creek Falls

When we were there the biggest issue was the heat and bright sun, neither of which slowed us down.

Lower Crystal Creek Falls

When dealing with intense high contrast light the best photograph can often be found in the details where the light is more manageable.  I found this shot off to the side in the shade. It's probably my favorite of the day.

Isolated Cascade

It's ironic that the trail we hiked on to Whiskeytown Falls is named after James K. Carr, Undersecretary of the Interior in 1963.  The fire that is ravaging this area is also named Carr, but was named after his father Francis Carr who was a prominent figure in the creation of the federal Central Valley Project to manage water in the area.

Top of Whiskeytown Falls

For over 40 years the Whiskeytown 220-foot waterfall was a secret to the few that knew it existed. For a variety of reasons, some people decided not to share the falls' existence with others. After two years of work, the NPS opened the Carr trail to the falls so the rest of us can enjoy it.

This area will be devastated but nature will eventually return it to a natural condition. It won't ever be the same, but new life will spring up.  God continues to renew the Earth.

Don't Be Satisfied With The First

Many landscape photographers, including myself, have a bad habit of shooting the first obvious composition.  That's fine, but the problem comes when we stop there and don't take the time to look for other different less-obvious compositions.

1/4 sec, f/22, ISO 200, 41mm (cropped sensor)

Here's an example from a recent trip to Charleston Falls Preserve in Ohio.  The falls are billed as a miniature Niagra Falls because of the rock strata.  When we were there the water flow was low and the falls were nothing like Niagra, miniature or not.  There is a nice footbridge that crosses the creek below the falls.  This bridge is the obvious place to shoot from and I made all these photos from that bridge.  The best thing I can say about this first photo is it accurately depicts the falls.  It's what I call a documentary photo - accurate, but uninteresting.

The nice footbridge was also a barrier to getting to where I would like to have shot the falls - standing in the water about 20 feet from the base of the falls.  I could have positioned my camera low near the surface of the water and used the flowing water as a nice leading line up to the falls.  The day was cold, rainy and muddy - not worth climbing over the railing.

When the water falls vertically, a portrait (tall) aspect composition will often work best when shooting waterfalls.  That's how I shot the first example.  It shows the entire falls and the pool below.   Another option is to zoom in to capture some of the details in the scene.   In the second photo, I stood closer and used a horizontal crop to emphasize the three places where the water hits the rocks.

1/3 sec, f/11, ISO 200, 28mm

There is still a lot more rocks than water in the second photo.  I think the water hitting the rocks is the much more interesting than the rocks.   By zooming in even more I can emphasize the white water on the rocks. I also put a polarizer filter on my lens for this third photo.  The polarizer cut some of the glare off the wet rocks.

1/4 sec, f/11, ISO 200 66mm

My favorite part of this third photo is the flowing white water contrasting with the hard dark rocks.  The splashing water throws up a mist where it hits the rocks making it appear to glow.  Personally, I think this is a better composition than either of the first two.

When a photo is about contrast and shapes it can be a good candidate for black and white.  When you take away the color it can draw the viewers attention to other parts of the photo.  In this case that is the misty glowing water, the shapes or the water and rocks, and the contrast between the white water and the dark rocks.

The third photo converted to B&W

All of these photos were taken from the short footbridge.  By moving to different positions on the bridge and trying different compositions I was able to find multiple compositions I would have missed if I had stopped with the first.  When you arrive at a photo location, take time to look around.  You might try leaving your tripod and walking around with just your camera looking for interesting shots.  You can always go back for the tripod when you find a composition you like.  Just don't be satisfied with the first.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.

I should be out in the yard working today but instead I'm working through some photos I took over a month ago.  I'll get out soon, but I want to share these two photos.

Both photos were taken at Anna Ruby Falls in North Georgia.  They were taken a few minutes apart on the same day.  Here's the first one.

Anna Ruby Falls

This is the classic shot taken at a wide 17mm focal length.  If you Google Anna Ruby Falls you will find dozens of very similar photos of the falls.   I took this to show that Anna Ruby Falls is actually twin waterfalls created by two separate streams- Curtis Creek and York Creek.  It was a bright sunny day, and I had to take three shots at different exposures and combine them using HDR software to balance out the super bright and very dark areas.

I really don't care for this photo.  There are too many rocks, logs and other stuff within the frame.  Too much to look is a distraction and doesn't give the viewer a single place to look.  When I look at it,  my eyes wander around the photo looking at everything but not focusing on any one thing.  It's not a pleasing photo.

Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication. ~Leonardo da Vinci

Here's the second photo taken from almost the same spot.  This time I shot at 200mm allowing me to zoom in and isolate down to a small tree and a section of the falls behind it.  Because I didn't have to worry about the dark areas, I was able to expose on the dark side, keeping the bright spots of the waterfall from being too bright and losing all detail in the water. The light on that morning was bright and harsh, but on that section of the falls it was beautiful.  I also slowed the shutter speed down to 1/4 second, giving the water a nice silky blurred look.

This second photo is much simpler, and in my opinion, more pleasing to look at.  The tree in front of the falls gives the photo a feeling of depth that it wouldn't have if it was just the falls.  There are only two things in this photo - the tree and the falls.

Simplification in my photography is something I want to keep working on.  It's also called minimalist photography.  Here's a good article that explains that better.  Give it a try and see if your photos aren't better.

Calendar Chronicles for February - Palouse Falls

Welcome to February 2014.  It's time to turn the page on the calendar.

The photo for February is Palouse Falls in eastern Washington State.  It was surprising to find falls this high and a canyon as spectacular as this in the region of low rolling hills. The reason they are here is the falls and the canyon downstream were created by the great Missoula Floods that periodically swept across eastern Washington and across the Columbia River Plateau during the last ice age.  The floods changed the course of the river and started the process of carving the canyon.

The canyon at the falls is 377 ft deep, exposing a large cross-section of the basalt. The lower falls in this photo are about 180 ft. high.  The upper falls are just to the left behind a rock outcrop and are about 20 ft. high.  On April 21, 2009, Tyler Bradt ran the falls in a kayak setting an unofficial world record for the highest waterfall run (You Tube video).

Getting this shot required a couple hours and a lot of patience.  The skies had been cloudless or what photographers call "bald skies" for days.   Our group had arrived at the falls a couple of hours before sunset.  The June sun was very bright creating very bright areas and much darker shadows.  Our eyes and brain have been created to be able to see the bright and dark areas at the same time.  I could see the canyon and sky at the same time, but the range of brightness, or dynamic range, was too extreme for a camera to be able to capture. 

I could adjust my camera to bring the exposure down and darken the bright areas, but that made the shadow areas too dark. 

Under exposed 2-stops

I could also adjust the other way, making the photo brighter so the details can be seen in the shadows, however that made the bright areas too bright.

Over exposed +1 stop

Here's where patience comes in.  If you look at the two photos above you can see the sun was hitting the left side of the canyon creating a bright spot.  These shots were taken at 8:00 PM.  We decided to hang around a while longer waiting on the sun to set, which would reduce the dynamic range of the light, potentially making a photo possible.   The photo on the calendar was taken 49 minutes later.

Even at 8:49 the sky was still much brighter than inside the canyon.  To compensate I took three shots at three different exposures (-1 1/3, -1/3, +2/3 stops) and blended them together using Nik HDR Efex software to create the February photo.   Of course this burst of three shots was taken with the camera on a tripod.

I wouldn't have gotten this shot if it wasn't for June.   It had been a long day, we had been at the falls for two hours and we had a long drive back to the hotel.  Many of our group had already left and I was ready to pack it in and leave.  June said "why don't you take one more?"   I have learned to listen when June gives me a suggestion like this.  I walked over to the canyon edge and took the shots.  They turned out to be the best of the day!

The Benefits of Mentors and Encouragers

Everyone needs to spend time with others.  God has made us to be in relationship with other people.   It's the way we we're wired.  We gain from spending time with people who mentor and encourage us to be better at what we do and to be better people.   This applies to all areas of our lives, including fun times doing what we love.

I am blessed to have a wife who encourages me to spend time with my photography hobby.  She is the one person I most want along when I go out taking pictures, and she doesn't even bring a camera or take any pictures herself.  Not only does she encourage me but she mentors me in my photography as well.  I've learned that when she says "come over here and take a look at this" I need to see what she is looking at.  Some of my best photographs came about when June saw something and pointed it out to me.

I also have several good photographer friends that I enjoy spending time with and learning from.  

Harold Ross

They encourage me and teach me when we take off on a journey in search of photographs. My friend Harold Ross invited me to spend last Saturday with him in the Smokey Mountains, on the Blue Ridge Parkway and where ever the Lord led us.  I've not gone out to take landscape or nature photos many times in August because I thought it was not a great time.  I thought the flowers were gone or almost gone, the skies would be hazy, and the creeks low or dry.  He encouraged me to go out and was I glad I did!

We found waterfalls in great light, wildflowers in abundance, and flocks of butterflies.  Because he encouraged me to get out I have 19 new photos to share in the Appalachian Travels August 2013 folder.

Every time I go out with Harold I learn about a new place to shoot, new wildflowers, and new photography ideas and techniques.  

If you don't have friends to share your love of photography with then I suggest you join a local photography club, take a class, or look for other opportunities to make new friends.  Then get together, go out, mentor and encourage each other.   It's one of the best ways to improve your photography.

Laurel Falls in The Great Smokey Mountains

Estatoe Falls in NC

We Just Think We Have A Plan

The forecast for this past Saturday was for clearing skies and less humidity.  My friend and photographer buddy Jim Rigsby and I decided we were going to head to the mountains to take pictures of the sunrise.  We made plans to meet at 5 AM and drive up to Beauty Spot in Unicoi County TN.  Beauty Spot is one of the high mountain grassy balds similar to Roan Mountain and Max Patch.  At 4,400 feet above sea level we expected to see a great sunrise with some patchy clouds.  By 5 AM we were on the road and executing our plan.

On the way we noticed you could not see any stars in the sky.  A little while later it started to sprinkle, then rain, then we saw lightning ahead.   By the time we hit Johnson City it was raining hard and when we got to Unicoi it was still raining, maybe even harder.   Being outdoor photographers with nothing else to do at 5:30 AM on a Saturday we kept going.  When we started up Unaka Mountain Road it had gotten so foggy it was difficult to see to drive up the single lane dirt road to Beauty Spot.  We arrived to find several people camping and a few others sitting in their cars.  Obviously we weren't the only nuts on a quest for a sunrise this foggy wet Saturday.

We hung out there for a while waiting and wondering what we were going to do.  I had been through there the day before with another photography buddy Harold Ross and knew there was a second bald a little ways up the road called Deep Gap.  I remembered lots of wildflowers along the road and some interesting looking trees in the grassy field.  We decided that we weren't going to see the sun come up and we might be able to find something to shoot up there.

By the time we got to Deep Gap it was light enough to walk around without a flashlight.  It was still very foggy and raining off and on.   These turned out to be the best conditions for photography we could have had!  I think we spent two hours wandering around the bald and along the road taking pictures of trees and flowers in the fog.  The fog gives everything a soft even light with no harsh shadows to deal with.  The color of flowers and green leaves viewed close up were vibrant when compared to the muted colors that faded to white in the distance.

There were Black-Eyed Susans, Pale Touch-Me-Nots, Spiderwort, Tall Ironweed, Goldenrod, and lots of ferns.  It was a pleasant surprise to find so many wildflowers this late in the season.  Harold and I had seen many others along the road the day before.  We decided it was all the rain we have been having for the past 5 weeks that resulted in a bumper crop of summer wildflowers.

At one point the sun broke through the clouds and for the first time we saw that there was a high ridge above us.  With visibility at about 100 yards we had no idea it was there.  We were hoping for some sunbeams shining through fog in the woods but these clearing skies only lasted a few minutes then we were socked in again.

After a couple hours we went on down the Unaka Mountain Road to Red Fork Falls.  We stopped at this great little cascade along the way before getting to the falls.

Foggy overcast days are the best conditions for taking pictures of waterfalls.  Unfortunately, it also results in wet slippery rocks.   We made our way down to Red Fork Falls and then on down a ways further to a couple smaller falls.   The really tall falls are exciting to see but it's the smaller ones that make better photographs.

It took a while to climb down and back out and we were muddy, sweaty, tired and very hungry by the time we got back to the car.  It was time to call it quits and head to Unicoi for burgers.

Saturday didn't work out the way we planned.  We didn't see the sun at all, let alone the sunrise.  What we got was even better than we had planned.  Perhaps God was saying, don't let the rain discourage you.  Go on up the mountain and see what I have in store.  It will be beyond your plans!  That's the way life is.  We think we're in control but in reality we're not.  All it takes is a little rain to derail our best plans.  Sometimes it's something much bigger, discouraging, and more than we can handle on our own.  But, God has a plan and all we have to do is trust and keep heading up the mountain to see what he has in store for us.

Here's a shot of Red Fork Falls from Friday afternoon with Harold. 

I want to thank Harold Ross for taking me up to Red Fork Falls and across Unaka Mountain on Friday and Jim Rigsby for going with me on Saturday.  I had two of my best days in less than 24 hours.

All of these photos are available for purchase in my Unaka Mountain Gallery.

Great Landscape Photographers

If you're reading this on my blog site you may notice a list just to the right labeled

Be sure to check out some of my favorite websites

 

You'll find listed there a few photographers I admire.  Some I know personally, others I just know from their photography.   All are excellent and inspire me to improve my photography every time I go out.   At the bottom of that list is a link labeled The Worlds Greatest Landscape Photographers.   This is a larger list put together by David Herreman in Belgium.  If I attempted to make such a list it would be very similar to David's.  If you are a landscape shooter or just enjoy looking at outstanding landscape photographs, check out David's list.  If you click on the thumbnail picture you will go to that photographer's website.  

 

Many of these photographers are on Google+ and clicking the G+ will take you to their Google+ page.   I don't know what will happen if you're not a Google+ user.   Maybe you can see the pages, maybe not.   If you're a photographer and not on Google+ then you're missing out.   Go sign up and start adding other photographers to your circles.   It's an amazing online community.

 

 The photo is Laurel Run Falls in Hawkins County, TN.

First Day of Fall

Today, Friday, September 23, 2011 is The First Day of Fall.   

Welcome to fall!  The colors have already started to appear in Maine and other northern states.  Only a very few trees have started to turn here so we have a few more weeks before the peak arrives.  I'm told this year will be a good one for fall color in East Tennessee.  

Other than raking leaves, which we have a lot of, fall is my second favorite time of year after spring.   I look forward to the contrasting brilliant yellows, oranges, reds and clear blue skies.   The problem is, fall just does not last long enough.

Here's a shot from last fall to celebrate the first day of fall and to get you in the fall mood.   This was taken in Babcock State Park, WV at f/9, ISO 100 which gave me a 0.3 second exposure.  Just long enough to blur the water but not so long that the water lost all texture.   Sunrise is a better time to shoot the Glade Creek Grist Mill but our travel plans put us there for sunset.   We had to wait about an hour for the sun to drop behind the trees.   There are large rocks in the creek that allow you to get some great angles on the falls and mill.

Glade Creek Grist Mill

I have this printed on a 20x30 gallery wrap canvas in my den and it looks great!  It's available for purchase online here

I'm looking forward to taking a lot more fall color this year.   This fall June and I are blessed with the opportunity to travel to some places we have never been before.   Watch for new fall photos in a few weeks.

Happy Birthday Ansel

Today, February 20th, is Ansel Adams Birthday.   Perhaps the greatest landscape photographer of all time, Ansel shot almost exclusively in black and white.   His zone system is still used today to determine the optimal exposure to get contrast right and give photos true depth.

If he had hiked the Appalachian Trail through the Pond Mountain Wilderness, he would have passed by Laural Falls.  He might have made a photographic image like this




Stairs

 At which point he would have tossed the negative in the trash. 

I love looking at his photos and reading about his life.  One of my favorite quotes is :

"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter" - Ansel Adams 1902 - 1984.

Rise and Shine

How many times have we heard, or said to our kids, "Rise and Shine!", usually followed by something like "sleepy head".   June and I went to church Saturday night so we could rise on Sunday and go to Rock Creek Park near Erwin TN for a little hiking.   Our goal was Rock Creek Falls.   We didn't make it to the falls because the creek was too high to rock hop across and the thought of falling in that icy water was not very appealing.  

We decided to hike the Rattlesnake Ridge trail instead and came across this little creek beside the trail.  In fact, we had to cross this creek several times, but this time the water wasn't too high to cross.   On the way back we stopped off to explore this creek a little bit.  

I was shooting almost into the low winter sun but with the mist in the air I got a pretty cool spot light effect where the sun was shining through the trees on to the creek.   What you don't see here is June holding her hat out over the creek the shade the lens.

We came away with several nice photos from our day at Rock Creek Park and I'll post those soon.

"Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you."  -  Isaiah 60:1

West Virginia Icon

Earlier in October we took a few days and went looking for fall color in the beautiful state of West Virginia   It was beautiful, but the fall colors were late.  There was still plenty of beauty to be found in The Mountain State, including Babcock State Park.  

We didn't get to stay long at the park but we did hang around the Glade Creek Grist Mill.   This is an icon shot.  You'll find this exact shot with much better lighting on any number of websites and travel magazines.  It's a wonderfully photographic old mill.   The mill was created by combining parts and pieces from three mills which once dotted the state.  The basic structure of the mill came from the Stoney Creek Grist Mill which dates back to 1890.  It was dismantled and moved piece by piece to Babcock from a spot near Campbelltown in Pocahontas County.  It's almost like the mill was placed in this exact spot for photographers.  

If you go to shoot the mill, go early in the morning or late in the afternoon.   We were there early afternoon and had to wait around for the sun to go down enough for most of the scene to be in the shade.

Prints of this and other photos are available here.

Dennis Cove in Cherokee National Forest

Several more photos from Dennis Cove available in the Dennis Cove Album

After getting a hint that Pink Lady Slippers were still in bloom near the Dennis Cove Campground we headed up the mountain above Hampton TN to check out the trail from the campground towards Dennis Cove Falls.   We have been hiking in that area for 27+ years and had never hiked this trail.   In fact, we didn't even know the campground was there.  We normally park at the AT trail and hike to Laurel Falls.

There were many Pink Lady Slippers all along the Dennis Cove trail.  The trail follows a pretty little creek that afforded some nice photo opportunities.   We had plans to hike on up to Dennis Cove Falls but were blocked at the first creek crossing.  The water was about waist high, cold, and too fast to wade.  The log that others have used to cross was gone and we decided to give up on those falls and head to Laurel Falls.

White Oak Sinks - God's Flower Garden

In the summer of 2009 I saw a photo by Jeffrey Stoner of what looked like a magical place full of wildflowers.  He told me it was White Oak Sinks in the Smokies and gave me directions to this land of wildflowers. I decided that was a definitely a place to put on my list of place to hike and photograph and June and I made the hike on April 30 this year.

The Sinks is a small valley near the top of a ridge.  You can hike to it via a couple different trails, but the sinks area itself does not have any officially maintained trails.  We took the 3.6 mile Turkey Pen Gap trail to get there.  There were plenty of wildflowers along the way, including the usual Dwarf Crested Iris, Flame Azaleas, Trillium and Phlox.

When we reached the White Oak Sinks we hadn't gone far before we found two Yellow Lady Slippers growing off the side trail.   What a fantastic find!  We had never seen the yellow variety before and were very excited. 

That was just the beginning.  We saw a forest floor carpeted with Phlox with different varieties of Trillium, Shooting Stars, Columbine, May Apples, Wild Ginger, Little Brown Jugs, and Dog Hobble.   In addition to the flowers, there's also a bat cave, some old artifacts from earlier residents, and a waterfall that drops into Rainbow Cave.

This place is truly amazing with the number and varieties of wildflowers.  Since they grow there naturally I've decided to call it God's Flower Garden. 

After hiking down we took a drive through Cades Cove to check out the newly paved road.  We saw one bear family in a tree and a beautiful sunset to finish up our day.

I posted 19 photos in my gallery.  They are available in the White Oak Sinks Album in the Landscape Gallery.

A Day of Hiking Pisgah National Forest

After spending a day at Biltmore and the NC Botanical Gardens in Asheville, we needed to get out into the woods for some hiking.  We drove down to Pisgah NF near Brevard, North Carolina.  This is know as "The Land of Waterfalls" for good reason.  Our hiking book lists about two dozen waterfalls within a few miles of Brevard.

Click on any of the photos for a larger view.

We only got to two falls - Looking Glass Falls (left), which is right on the road, and Moore's Cove Falls (right), which is a short hike of 6/10 mile.   Looking Glass Falls is a popular spot, because it is easy to get to, but also because it is a beautiful waterfall.   The best spot to shoot these falls is standing in the middle of the stream.  Since it was still in the low 60's and the water was even colder, I decided to climb out on some old logs for this shot.

Moore's Creek Falls is about 50' high, with not a lot of water flowing over the falls.  The cool part about this one is you can walk behind the falls.

We decided to hike to the top of Looking Glass Rock, which took a few hours to complete.  During the winter, water flowing down the sides of the rock freezes into ice, creating a glistening coating that makes the rock a “looking glass.”   The panoramic view from the top was fantastic.  You get a sense of the beauty in the photo below.   One interesting thing about this hike is the helicopter pad about a mile from the top.  It's a natural smooth rock area that the crews use as a landing spot when they need to rescue injured rock climbers.

The best part of this day of hiking was the wild flowers that were in bloom the third weekend in April.  There were Jack In The Pulpit, Foam Flower, Wild Violet, several varieties of Trillium, and some we couldn't identify.  There were many others that had not bloomed out yet.  We wish we could go back the next two weekends to see what else is blooming.

Several more photos from this day of hiking are available in the Pisgah National Forest Photo Gallery.