Unexpected

Several weeks ago I went to a Revolutionary War Reenactment with plans of shooting some action shots of the battle.   Before all the action started I was wandering around the fort mostly looking for shots of the actors.  If you've not been to one of these events you don't know what you're missing.  It's like being transported back hundreds of years.  These people are very good at what they do and seem to enjoy it immensely . 

Being primarily a landscape photographer, I almost always travel with my tripod but that day I didn't have it.   I needed to be able to wander around and a tripod would only get in the way.

Then I looked in one of the windows at the fort and saw that a table had been set with period items.  I was outside in bright sun and the inside was very dark (no electric lights in 1776).  No way I was going to be able to capture the entire range of light with a single exposure.   I needed to take multiple shots at different exposures to be able to blend time together using HDR software.   I always use a tripod when shooting for HDR so that the camera does not move.  Any camera movement will make an HDR image useless.   I decided, what the heck.  I have the time and it's only pixels.  I'll give it a try.

When I got home and started processing the images the result I got was totally unexpected. 

My three exposures were at 1/6, 1/13, 1/25 of a second, really too slow to hand hold and
I never expected the the shots to line up, but they did!

One of my sayings is "You'll never get the shot if you don't go".  That usually involves getting up around 3 AM and driving to get a sunrise that may or may not work.   My new saying is "You never know what you'll get until you try".  Conventional photography wisdom said this shot was a waste of time.  If I had followed conventional wisdom I never wold have gotten this photo.

This has become one of my favorite shots.   Maybe because I never expected it to work or maybe because it is different from what I usually shoot.   I don't know if anyone else will like it at all, but I went and printed it and it is for sale at the Star Trails Downtown Gallery in Kingsport.   Stop by the gallery and check out all the artwork that is on display.  It's really a nice gallery and some very talented people are represented.

Star Trail Gallery
246 Broad Street, Kingsport, TN 37660
Tuesday – Thursday  |  11 AM – 7 PM
Friday & Saturday  |  11 AM – 8 PM

Calm Before The Storm

Last week I got an email from a small hotel in Townsend Tennessee inviting us to come for the July 4th holiday.   Townsend, known as the quiet side of the Smokies, is a small one traffic light town just outside the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  Their fireworks were to be set off in the field next to the hotel.  That hotel didn't have any rooms left so we got a reservation at one of our other favorite hotels in Townsend - The Gateway Inn. 

Cosby Creek

You can click any of these photos for a larger version.  These and other recent photos are available online in my Recent Outing gallery.

With our reservation made we headed to the park on July 4th.  June and I tend to avoid Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge and the massive crowds as much as possible.  This day we came in from the East and stopped at the Cosby Campground for our big hike of the day.   We had plans to hike to the Mount Cammerer Watch Tower, which is 6 miles away and 2,400 feet up from the campground.   The hike up the Low Gap Trail to the Appalachian Trail was hot and tiring but worth it.  We were surprised to find a small creek and this foot bridge at the very beginning of the trail.  Time to take the boots off and wade into the creek for some shots! 

We found dense gardens of Rosebay Rhododendrons, Bee Balm, Turks Cap Lilies and other wildflowers along the trail.   When we reached the top we found the stone watch tower to be a great place with fantastic 360 degree views.  We stayed for a while and watched this storm move up the valley before heading back down the mountain.   We hiked and took photos for almost 7 hours and only saw 5 other people!  No crowds here except two very large wild turkeys near the trail. 

After a fantastic fireworks show on Wednesday night we got up and headed into Cades Cove just after sunrise.   We expected to find smaller crowds and wildlife in the cove that early.   The weather had been very hot and the wildlife was already back in the woods by the time we got there.   We were able to get out to the John Oliver cabin before the crowds and enjoyed watching the sun come up through the trees.   By this time the traffic was picking up and it was time to leave the cove and do some more hiking.

We picked a trail we had not hiked before and headed up the mountain.   After a mile or so we decided it was way too hot and muggy to keep hiking and there must be cooler spots so we turned around and headed for the Tremont Road and the Middle Prong River.   We found a shady spot in the river and got out on some large boulders, laid down and took a nap with our feet in the cool mountain water.   When we looked up we were treated to a beautiful canopy of green leaves and a blue cloudless sky.  It may have been the most peaceful place in the park at that time.   We had successfully avoided the crowds again!

The temps continued to rise into the mid-90's and we decided it was time for a late lunch and to head home.   Little did we know that by leaving early we avoided one of the worst storms to ever hit the park.   Thunderstorms brought 70 mile an hour winds and torrential rain, knocking down trees, blocking many of the park roads and killing two people.   It had been so peaceful a few hours before while we were napping on boulders in the river.  We had no idea of the destruction that was to come.

There may be some life lessons in our short two day trip to The Great Smoky Mountains. First, following the popular path may not lead to the best things in life.  Second, sometimes we have to go down a difficult path before we see the blessings.  Finally, storms are going to come through our lives, often when there are clear blue skies and we least expect them.  The narrow path may be difficult and there will be storms but God has promised his blessings for us.

The Smoky Mountains is one of our favorite places to visit and we will be back and we'll hike up to Mount Cammerer and enjoy the views again.   It's now one of my favorite hikes!

Book Review: Photographing Waterdrops

Recently I was given the opportunity to review the second Harold Davis photography book to be added to my library of photography books - Photographing Waterdrops.  Harold is a master in the art of macro photography and has written several books on the subject.  Each of his books are both instructive and a joy to look at and this latest book is no exception.

I enjoy shooting water drops.  Each one is a miniature world reflecting the world outside or refracting the world on the other side. They are always interesting to look at and almost always difficult to photograph .In this book, Harold instructs the reader the equipment and techniques for capturing these miniature worlds.

The book is organized into three sections - Waterdrop Worlds, Making Waterdrop Photos and Waterdrops in the Digital Darkroom.

After several pages on the importance of water to our world and the lifecycle of a waterdrop, he gets down to how to deal with extreme magnification of macro photography, the physics of a waterdrop, different kinds of waterdrops, and the difference between reflections and refractions.  He spends several pages on waterdrops on spiderwebs.  I've shot these before, but never like the extreme closeups he shows in the book.   I'm inspired to try it out next opportunity I get.  He also explains how to get the starburst effect in waterdrops.

In Making Waterdrop Photos he covers some basics of good exposures, the exposure triangle, and reading histograms.  A new photographer will appreciate this instruction and the more experienced may benefit from the review.   He spends several pages on equipment - lenses, extension tubes, close up filters, tripods, and flashes.   He also talks about some of the challenges of extreme macro photography and how to over come these challenges.

In the final section, Harold explains his techniques for post processing using Adobe Photoshop.   If you're an Aperture, Lightroom, or other software user you will benefit from the concepts, but not the technique.  

Harold includes many of his own photos as teaching examples in his books.   With each photo he explains the situation, how he approached the subject, and the technical specs on each photo.   The examples are great teaching tools and are a pleasure to look at.

This book retails from $29.95 (USD) and Amazon is selling it for $19.37.   If you have an interest in photographing waterdrops you'll find this a very worthwhile investment.

Now if it will only rain here in East Tennessee I'll get out and practice what I have learned.

Appreciating My Backyard

This is what I see right now when standing in my backyard.   It looks a little different from the March 25 view I posted earlier.  The field is full of yellow buttercups.   Cattle graze here and I wondered why they didn't eat the buttercups.   I've learned that buttercups are poisonous and the acrid taste and the blistering of the mouth caused by their poison means the buttercups are left alone to grow and spread across the hills. 

I've been watching for dramatic skies at sunset but it does not happen very often and when it does it's usually gone by the time I can get out there.  I'll keep watching and trying to get out there in time.

This photo reminds me just how blessed I am.   Sometimes I focus too much on the material things and miss the blessings God has placed right in front of me.   This view is just one of those blessings.   My photography has made me appreciate God's gifts of beauty all around us.   June and I both notice that we are stopping and looking at things we would have passed right by without noticing a few years ago.   Canada Violets are pretty common around here in the spring.  They're not something that you would stop and take time to appreciate, especially in the rain.  But this one was taken last weekend in the Smokies in between rain storms.   If we hadn't taken the time to stop and been willing to risk the rain, we would have missed this wildflower decorated with jewels of rain.

What else has God placed before us?   The grand panoramas and the little jewels are all around us and say "Look what God has done here!".  A friend sent me an email this week with this verse that says it better than I can.

"God's invisible qualities and divine nature have been clearly seen in all creation, so that men are without excuse."  -  Romans 1:20

Let's slow down and appreciate God's invisible qualities and divine nature all around us.

Springtime In The Smokies

Every season is special in the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  Fall brings a blaze of color as the leaves change before falling to the ground.  New fallen snow in the Winter makes everything quiet and pure.  With all the different elevations in the mountains you can find wild flowers blooming in the summer and later in the summer you can find Elk and other wildlife out in force.

My favorite season is still Spring and Spring in the park brings an explosion of new growth.  The green of new growth on the trees is brilliant, the moss on the rocks and downed trees is almost electric, and wildflowers are everywhere you look.  Over 1,660 kinds of flowering plants can be found in the park, more than in any other North American national park!   Right now the park is changing almost daily as new varieties bloom and others fade away for another year.   Spring also brings rains that fill the creeks and waterfalls throughout the park.  

Last weekend June and I spent Friday afternoon, Saturday and part of Sunday hiking and enjoying the beauty of God's creation busting out everywhere we looked.  We went to some new areas of the park we had not visited before and a waterfall we had never seen because it's always  been too crowded (Laurel Falls - a little rain can drive people away).  As with most all our vacations, we got up at 4:30 AM Saturday morning to drive to one of the best spots for sunrise in the park.   When we got close the fog rolled in and we were creeping along at about 5 mph.  The fog cleared but the clouds blocked the sunrise.   The cars passing along the Newfound Gap Road allowed me to create some interesting long exposure photos.   I call this one "Close Encounters of the Smoky Mountain Kind".   If you are old enough to remember Close Encounters of the Third Kind you may remember the scene where the spaceships were flying through the mountains just above the road with nothing but their lights showing.  This reminds me of that scene.

If white is the color of winter, yellow/orange the color of fall, then green is the color of spring in the mountains.   The new growth on the brush and trees is that bright green that says Spring!  But it's not just leaves and grass that are green this time of year.  The moss on downed trees and rocks in the streams is beautiful.  It's a soft green blanket that covers the forest floor, banks of creeks, and rocks sticking up out of the creeks and rivers.   There are times that it looks like the moss is electric it's so bright. 

Because of the mild winter and the warmer that usual spring the wildflowers are blooming 2 - 3 weeks early this year.  Normally the third week of April is the peak wildflower time but this year we found an abundance of flowers blooming in the lower elevations of the park.   We saw multiple varieties of Trillium, Jack-in-the-Pulpit, Phlox, Wild Geraniums, Wild Columbine, Bishops Caps, Fringed Phacelia , Bluets, Shooting Stars, Violets, Showy Orchis and even one Lady Slipper Orchid that had bloomed very early. 

My favorite wildflower spot of this trip was actually right on the Newfound Gap Road at a pull off.  We we heading back towards Townsend and it had started to rain.   We saw some Yellow Trillium on the side of the road and decided to pull off and check it out.  What a find!   There were beautiful large Yellow Trillium surrounded by Fringed Phacelia and Bishops Caps on a hillside.  It was raining enough that water was pooling in the large leaves of the Trillium and the overcast skies made the colors more intense.


We hope to get back to the park again before the end of the too short Spring wildflower season.  We'll hit some more places and hopefully see different varieties.


These three photos, plus 23 others are available in the Recent Outing Gallery on my website.  Check them out and let me know what you think.

View From Our Backyard

I was washing dishes Saturday afternoon and looked out the kitchen window to see this.

We get some awesome sunsets across that pasture and I've tried to capture them before.  Most of the time by the time I get my camera and tripod out, run outside, and set up the light is gone.   I've never been able to capture any of those light displays.  This time was different.  I had just gotten a new Canon 5D Mark ii the day before and it was sitting out where I could grab it on the way out the door.   I didn't bother with the tripod and decided to do the best I could without it.

The bright sky and relatively dark field was much to big of a dynamic range of light for the camera to capture.  Either the sky was going to be blown out bright white or the field and trees were going to be very dark.  I shot three exposures (-1 EV, 0, +1 EV) to capture the entire range of light.   I should have gone with a wider spread because the brightest part of the sky was blown out at -1.   After I made those shots I changed the settings and poof the light was gone!   Unlike the light in my last post, this time it only lasted a couple minutes.

I used ISO 800 and f/22 to try and get a star burst from the clouds.  At that setting I got shutter speeds of 1/20, 1/40 and 1/80.  I was hand holding with image stabilization on.  I had no idea if the three images would line up or if I had too much camera shake.

My workflow for this photo was longer than most:

1. Ran the three exposures through Nik Define to remove the digital noise due to the ISO of 800.
2. Combined them using Nik HDR Efex Pro using a Natural setting.  I used some control points to tone down the dramatic clouds that HDR processing created.  I used another control point to brighten up the tree on the right that had come out too dark.
3. Edited in Photoshop Elements to remove some severe lens flare created by shooting into the sun and some power lines in the distance.
4. Edited in Nik Color Efex 4 to fix the clouds (they came out light brown), make the rolling hills more distinct, and bring out the "God Beams" of sunlight.  Also added a little dark vignette  around the edges.

I am truly blessed to live in such a beautiful part of the country, have such a great view right outside my back door, and have a God that creates such beauty each and every day.  I'm also thankful for my wife June who first pointed out the light and offered to finish the dishes while I went out and played. My photography would be dull and uninteresting without her spotting the shots for me.

Of course, you can buy prints of this photo online 

The Sunrise That Goes On and On

June and I spent last weekend at Pine Mountain State Park in Kentucky.  June went with me for a photo workshop that the park puts on to bring people in during the winter.   I was hoping for a foot of snow because winter in the mountains without snow can be a bit blah.  What we got instead was a beautiful sunrise that just went on and on.

A good sunrise has enough clouds to pick up the reds, oranges, and yellows but not so many that you can't see the sunrise.  Many times we have gotten up long before the sunrise to drive to a spot and wait to see what God does with the break of day only to find the sky completely overcast or no clouds at all.  We never know what we will see when we head out.  

On Saturday morning we went to what I thought was the best spot for sunrise.  When we got there we found my friends Bill Harris and Roddy Addington from Wise VA already in place and set up waiting on the sunrise.  As time went on other photographers began to show up.   It was cold up on the mountain that morning but we all hung in there waiting.  We were not disappointed.

Before the sun rose above the mountains to the east the undersides of the clouds were brilliantly lit with oranges, reds and yellows.  There was even a sunbeam shining up from behind the mountains in the photo below.  The valley was still dark but the fog reflected the warm light from the sky contrasting with the cool purple of the shadows.

As the sun rose above the mountains a layer of clouds formed just above the ridge.  I was able to catch the sun shining between the two and radiating upward out in all directions.

As the sun rose above the cloud bank above the ridge the colors turned from red and orange to yellow.  I shot this picture just as the sun was peaking over the clouds.   A small aperture of f/22 produced the cool sunstar effect.

The cloud cover was moving and changing as the sun rose, constantly changing the scene.   When the sun was high enough to shine down on the fog in the valley it burst out radiating golden "God Beams" down across the valley.

We were blessed with thirty minutes from the first photo to this last one, which is a long time for a sunrise.   After this last shot the clouds closed in and the morning became overcast and rainy.  Saturday's sunrise was over and it was time for breakfast.

The next day we went back to the same spot.  This day the sunrise was completely different with no clouds and less fog in the valley.   The sky just got brighter as the sun came up with very little color.   The interesting subject this morning was the valley and the fog that was slowly burning off.   I used my 400mm telephoto lens to zoom in on this community and church in the valley while capturing the fog in the hills and valleys.  You couldn't see these buildings at all on Saturday morning because they were completely fogged in.

I hope you enjoy this series of sunrise shots from Pine Mountain Kentucky.  These photos are available for purchase in my Pine Mountain Gallery.