Saturday, Aril 9, 2022
It is Spring, right? I mean, according to the calendar we are fully into Spring by April 9th? As you probably are aware, I have a Spring Landscape Workshop coming up in a couple of weeks at Stone Mountain and I’m fully into scouting the area at this point. The last time I went out here was back in February, and it was actually rather mild that day. I remember wearing a sweatshirt and jacket and sweating pretty heavily while hiking. Knowing I was needing to take another day and go on the actual summit trail, I have been looking for a good weather day to get out there again. It was looking like Saturday was going to fit the fill. There were going to be low and mid-level clouds starting around mid-morning and proceeding through the afternoon. The temperatures were looking like mid to upper 40’s which wasn’t bad at all. I was expecting a bit of a breeze, but nothing terrible so I made plans to head out there after I finished a few last edits from a recent portrait session.
I ended up leaving around 9:30 or so which would get me arriving at Stone Mountain just about when the clouds were starting to roll in. I was having a hard time switching gears from portraiture which I had been fully involved with for about a week at this point. Honestly, I’m not quite sure what to make of my photography these days. It seems that I am all over the place and doing a lot of different things with a camera. It is nice because I am learning so many different skills along the way that work for other aspects and genres of photography. On the other hand, I am really enjoying people photography and I’m wanting to spend a lot more time doing that which will obviously take me away from my regular landscape and decay photography. I keep asking myself if I’m going through a reinvention of sorts, but it is way too early to tell. Right now, people photography is new and interesting for me, and I’ve been focusing a good bit on it for just about a year now. Having it in the forefront of my mind has resulted in it taking a large amount of my creative energy and I’m starting to see some really big improvements happening which is always exciting. Time will tell if that excitement fades away and it becomes just another type of photography I am doing.
In the meantime, I do have a job to do with my photography and that job has been based around landscape and decay photography. Case in point is a few workshops that are coming up soon that I have to be prepared for and ready to teach with energy and passion. Part of doing that has always been going out there and spending time with the location and subject matter that I’ll be working with. That always gets me motivated to teach and share some of the tricks that I’ve learned along the way. Getting out to Stone Mountain in preparation for this workshop has been a lot of fun and it has been very helpful since the landscape has changed a lot since the last time I was out here regularly. A while back, they did a controlled burn that really opened up the forested part of the park and that has affected a lot of the trails. Not wanting to get turned around or lost while leading a group of photographers has prompted me to go and explore the area once again to get reacquainted with the trail system that we will be on.
The last time I had been up to the summit from the lower trailhead was when I did the Fall Foliage Workshop back in 2019, so I was way overdue a refresher on that trail. All I remembered was that it was a lot of stairs and a bunch of climbing to get to the top. Sadly, that hasn’t changed, and my watch recorded a total of 91 floors climbed, and roughly 11,000 steps for the day when I was done. I do have to say that it was worth the effort as the views were better from this side than from Wolf and Cedar Rocks from the last time.
I realized something very interesting in this little trek today and it got me thinking about my last Behind the Camera. I mentioned that I don’t really see the world as a grand landscape under most conditions, but after really considering the details with two different portrait projects over the last couple of weeks, I was ready to look at the big picture once again. Without even realizing what I was doing, I was going wide with my focal lengths, and I was taking in the larger view in front of me while I would normally focus on details more than anything. It was definitely a change of pace, and one that helped to open my mind again.
The hike started at the lower trail head where I took the shortcut to the loop trail that would take me up to the summit. I could have done the hike rather than followed the road to the Homestead, but I wanted to cut out a bit of the none-photographic walking. I could have just started from the upper trail head and bypassed the very steep hike, but I wanted to go this way because it was probably going to be the way that the workshop would take it. I am very glad that I chose this route because there were two places that I missed turns on the trail because of paths being cut off trail through the area that was cleared by the controlled burn. In short order I was able to figure out the routing of the trail and was back on course. Better to do this now than when I have other hikers with me looking for the most efficient route to the top of the mountain.
When I arrived at the top of the trail, I found myself at the edge of the summit just as I remembered it when I had a pretty full group following me. There wasn’t much in the way of pomp and circumstance when I arrived like last time. Previously, I arrived a few seconds before the group started to emerge from the stairs so that I could take their photos after the achievement. Even though that was the second time in two days I had made that climb, I wasn’t feeling bad at all. Two and a half years later and 20 extra pounds has put me in my place. That was a hard slog up the mountain with a 25lb pack on my back. Nope, I wasn’t getting ready to snap photos of the group, but when I arrived, there was a group already up there and one of them asked if I would take a group picture with their cell phone. Sure…why not. I was about to pass out and I needed to get my own photograph figured out, but what was I to do. I snapped the photo and then handed over a card to let them know that this wasn’t the first time I had taken a photograph up there.
With that group happy with their photo, I started to settle down and figure out what compositions awaited me. I recalled that this wasn’t the best place for compositions, but that if I paid attention to the textures there would be decent foregrounds to work with. I found just a foreground that had some interesting shading and came down at an angle. I could see what I believed to be Wolf Rock and Cedar Rock in the distance. I started to put together a composition that used those elements together. After I got the right angle, I selected my standard lens and added a polarizer with a filter holder in case I wanted to add an ND grad at some point.
I noticed that it was rather windy up on the top of the summit, and the gusts were probably around 20mph or so, and they were cold. I was still warm from the hike up, but where my shirt was damp, I was starting to feel the chill. I zipped my jacket up and eventually wished that I had brought my coat or a sweatshirt. It was colder now than it had been in February. Here is where things got interesting. The clouds were looking really good overhead and I had nice and even lighting which was my typical look for photos. However, with all of the work that I have been doing with lighting in the studio, I wanted to take advantage of the dappled light across the landscape. I just sat there and watched the light move across the distant landscape. I had a look in my mind that I wanted to see materialize, but it was going to have to be a stroke of luck as the clouds were totally random overhead. I sat there for about 45 minutes after I had gotten the composition figured out and waited on the clouds. As the light would get close to what I had in mind I would snap a photograph.
Even after I had what I thought I wanted, I continued to wait to see if it would get any better. When I finally had what I felt was the best that I was going to get I broke the camera down and went back to the trail. My legs were tired from the climb, and they were reluctant to continue on, but I forced myself to get things back in gear. I knew that the next section was going to offer more options for compositions and that was where the group had spent the majority of the time during my last workshop on this side of the park.
When I arrived at the section of the summit, there were more people than I could count standing around. The vast majority of them were kids and they were obviously part of a group. I just went down along the side and looked for something that I could frame up as a composition. As I worked my way down the slope, I found two pancake like rocks sitting on a slight ridge that looked interesting. I started to pay attention to what was around them and started to see a composition developing that included the distant balds once again. This time, I wanted to really accentuate the foreground so I knew that I was going to be shooting wide.
I pulled out my 16-35mm lens and screwed on the polarizer before working out the right place to put the camera to get the perspective I was after. It took a little bit of back and forth before I found the look I was after, but once I did, I committed to the composition and set things up. I could have grabbed a quick shot here because the clouds were really interesting and that would normally be my deciding factor, but I wanted to get the light better than what I was seeing, so I settled in and waited on the clouds to change the light on the landscape. It was my focus on lighting that was taking over once again and I had an idea of what I wanted to capture.
While I was waiting for the sun to bathe a certain portion of the landscape, I heard one of the group leaders talking about the options for getting back to the parking lot. One was the steep downhill that I had just come up, and the other was a more gradual drop, but over about four miles of hiking. As I heard everyone debating their options, I had to ask her why she wasn’t telling them about the elevator. Of course, that went over well with the group. Hey, it made us all laugh and it helped to pass the time while I was waiting for the sun. I was also getting very cold at this point because the wind was getting stronger and it seemed like the temperature was dropping. In fact, it was starting to flurry at this point, which is not uncommon for this time of year, but it was very strange after mowing a yard the day before and sweating.
After about 30 minutes or so, I finally got the light that I was after and grabbed a few quick photos before the clouds obscured the sun once again. Feeling that I had the right look for the landscape that I wanted and seeing that there was very little chance of getting a break again in the near future, I went ahead and broke the camera down. I looked at other compositions in the area and found one that I liked, but the light was flat, and the clouds overhead were too thick at this point to indicate that I would get any light on the landscape. I opted to move on and get off the summit because I wanted to get a panorama of the summit before I left.
Getting off the summit was a bit of a hike, but at least it was downhill. That made me happy until I realized that I was going to have to go back up that same hill to get back to where I started. The wind was getting worse, and I was staying cold even while hiking. My jacket was zipped up and I was wanting more clothing than I had with me. The snow was off and on with it coming down pretty heavy at times. It was really strange considering that I was out here scouting for a Spring workshop, and had seen better weather back in February. However, there was no denying that the sky was really good this time, so I was willing to put up with the wind.
When I arrived at the vantage point that I was looking for, I was all alone which was very nice. There was a good view of the summit just on the other side of a thin line of bare trees. I had shot this view several times over the years and saw some better potential this time thanks to the breaks in the clouds. I had always come back from here wishing that I had a bit of light on the summit, and there was a pretty good chance that I was going to get that opportunity this time. I started to look at the compositional opportunities and I went to the standard choices that included some small trees as a foreground interest. I didn’t really like how that was looking and with the wind, there was a high probability that they would blur too bad for a good photo. That wind was probably about 25mph at this point, and it was howling over the rock I was standing on.
Instead of using the trees as a foreground, I decided to go with the sloped rock for a bit of textured foreground. It was a simpler option and one that wasn’t going to move in the wind. I considered going with a panorama, but the light wasn’t good at all, and I knew that if it did get good, it would move so fast that I wouldn’t have time to get a series of shots lined up, so a pano was out of the question. I wasn’t really upset about that because I wasn’t really feeling a panorama here this time. There really has to be a certain look for that to work, and I didn’t have it this time. Instead I just fitted the wide angle lens once again and framed up a shot that I was hoping would work out when the light started to move around.
My concept for this shot was to have either the summit bathed in light, or the foreground. I wanted there to be a differentiation between the elements highlighted by the light to show the distance. It was going to be another sit and wait affair as the light moved around. I had the shot picked out and the camera was stationary, but I was having to hold it as the gusts of wind might actually blow it over. I also had to shield the front element as the snow was blowing right into the camera lens. The last thing that I wanted would be for the lens to fill up with snow so that I would have distortion where the droplets were. It was aggravating, but part of being a landscape photographer.
After about 20-30 minutes of waiting, I could see the sunshine moving across the landscape coming towards me. I moved quickly but took a while to cover the ground. I started to see a good recipe developing as the sunlight hit Cedar Rock in the distance first. It then made its way closer and eventually lit up the summit. I was grabbing shots as this was taking place, and even continued as the light hit the foreground slope that I was standing on. The shade didn’t return in a way that I had hoped, but that was fine because I wasn’t all that convinced that having the summit in shade would be a good idea. I had the separation I was after to show the depth and I was happy with what I had. I broke the camera down and started back up the trail to where I had been. I was pretty sure that I was finished at this point as I had shot around 100 frames already for basically three scenes.
It was a long hike back up the hill and over the summit. Before I got to the descent, I stopped back where I had found another composition to shoot, but the light hadn’t been right at the time. This time, the chance of getting good light was a little higher. The clouds were broken up in the distance, but everything was still in shadow. I decided to get things set up and give it a try before calling it a day. Again, I fitted my wide-angle lens because there was a puddle in one of the potholes that I wanted to use as a foreground interest. In the distance was a pair of trees that I would use to link the foreground to the midground. Cedar Rock and Wolf Rock were firmly planted in that midground with more mountains off in the distance. It took me a little bit of time to get the position of the camera right to have everything in the right perspective. Once I got it all set up, I took a test shot to make sure that my exposure was right for the sky. If I could get that set, then I wouldn’t need to change it as the sun moved across the landscape.
Shortly after I got things dialed in and ready, a pair of hikers came by and asked if I was videoing or photographing the scene. I let them know that I was taking still photos of the scene. They remarked about how pretty the scene was and walked past me to my left. They started to come around to the right and entered my frame. Surely, they weren’t going to camp out in my composition after asking if I was taking a photograph. Sure enough, they sat down at the pair of trees that I had placed in the left side of the frame. They took their backpacks off and got what looked to be snacks out of their bags. Well, this wasn’t going well at all. I had just spent about 10 minutes getting the shot set up so that I could wait on the light. Now I wouldn’t be able to get the photo because they were sitting in it. To make matters worse, the snow was really falling hard at this point and the wind was easily 30-35mph and blowing the snow horizontally right into the lens. I had to shield the lens with my hand which made it numb from the cold. The light still wasn’t right and there were no indications that the sun was going to light up the portions that I needed so I didn’t stress the couple at all at this point.
The longer I stood there, the more I started to worry that the camera was going to blow over. I had one hand holding the tripod which was extended as tall as I could get it for the composition I was after, and the other hand was shielding the lens from the snow. I had nothing left to secure my hat which I just leaned into the wind with to keep it on my head. I was really hoping that this extreme weather would prompt the couple to leave soon because I knew from firsthand experience that this was not fun to be exposed to.
Sure enough, after about 10 minutes they got up and walked back by me. They looked at me still in the same position I was in when they had come by the first time. I wonder if they knew they had been in my shot the entire time and had prevented me from making any photographs. At least the light hadn’t really changed, and I wasn’t missing anything at all by not tripping the shutter. I continued to wait there until I saw the light starting to creep closer to Cedar Rock. It was gradual and painfully slow, but it eventually did get to where I wanted it to be. The snow had stopped as well, but the wind was as brutal as ever. I had to brace the tripod with my left hand which I hated to do, but it was the only way to get the camera somewhat stable. I made a series of images as the sun moved across the landscape.
When the shadows were all gone, I decided to call it quits. I was frozen and had gotten plenty of options for lighting on the landscape. I packed up the camera and retreated into the trees. It was still cold, but at least the wind was blocked for the most part. I could hear the snow hitting the leaves as it had started up once again. It made no difference to me though as I was headed back down the mountain to the truck. The hike down the hill was much faster than the hike up, but it was rather painful on my ankles and knees as I was trying to control my rate of descent. I was happy when I arrived at the bottom of the trail and was on the road back to the truck.
It had been a fun four hours that I had spent out here scouting. I figure that if I do this section for the workshop, I will have at least 5-6 hours worth of time spent on this trail. It would make a great morning session which will leave the afternoon open for waterfalls, or the other section that will take us to Wolf Rock and Cedar Rock. It is nice to have options for workshops so that I can adapt to whatever weather presents itself. That is the key for a successful workshop I have learned. When I have one set up that requires a certain type of weather I am usually behind the eight-ball to put the participants in good locations for photos. This is a great location for a number of different weather conditions and as long as we aren’t dealing with heavy rain, there is plenty to photograph here and lots to learn.
This scouting trek ended up with about 136 frames shot and I have four images that I like from the day. That is a far cry from my normal 10% keeper rate, but when I am dealing with quickly changing light, I end up taking a lot of the same photo with different light in the hopes that one of them will work out. That was the case this time and I knew that I was going to have a very low hit rate long before I even started making exposures. I’m happy with the images that I ended up with and have found that a lot of what I am learning for portraiture is helping out with my landscapes. Knowledge is a wonderful thing and there is always something new to learn with photography.
I hope that you have enjoyed this trek and the resulting photographs. It was nice to get back to doing some landscape photography, but I’m also really enjoying my people photography. If you are interested in purchasing a print of one of the images from today, or you are wanting to schedule a portrait session, I would love to hear from you. There is also one more spot open for the upcoming workshop so if you are interested in photographing Stone Mountain with me in a couple of weeks, you can still get signed up. If you don’t want to hike quite that much and are more interested in learning the basics of composition, I still have room in my mini-workshop scheduled for mid May at Doughton Park. Maybe you are wanting to discuss something else entirely. I do offer mentorship services where I can tailor the material to your specific needs. Just let me know what you are wanting to learn and I’ll get something put together for you.
Here’s to hoping that Spring comes back soon, and we can start wearing shorts again.
Until next time…
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