Wednesday, October 30, 2024
I really didn’t think that I was going to be doing another blog before the end of the month with all the sunny skies that have been forecasted. However, on Wednesday morning, there was a lot more clouds than expected, and the forecast was showing them to be lingering through much of the day. That got me wondering about what I could do to take advantage of them. Normally, this time of year I’m quite busy around the mountains during the first half of the month that by this point I am worn out. Thanks to the weather and the closure of the mountains, that hasn’t been the case so much this year. Also, when you add in the fact that I have been in a creative slump since the Spring, I have a lot of energy when it comes to creating photographs at this point. This is a very good thing considering that my last trek was one of my most successful ones in terms of keepers that I have had probably all year long.
I guess you can say that I wanted to keep that level of excitement going and keep with the momentum that I had started by going out again as soon as I could make it happen. With the weather conditions looking good, I just had to figure out where I was going to be going. After my visit to Price Lake not that long ago, I knew that Fall had pretty much passed the Blue Ridge Parkway by. This really isn’t that much of an issue because that just means that the colors are around peak down at my elevation and this is the area that tends to get forgotten in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Parkway. Having seen a few photos from Hanging Rock recently, I knew that area was looking pretty good, and it had been quite a while since I have visited that park. Once upon a time, it was only about 40 minutes from home and I was there many times through the year, but since moving, it is nearly two hours away now, so I don’t get by nearly as much as I once did.
Looking at the weather, the clouds were looking better closer to home than they did in Danbury, but there was still a good chance that the light would be good. I knew that there were a lot of great little places that I could potentially find good photos on the way which took the pressure off of finding something there at the park. Not wanting to be out there right at midday, I took my time with my morning activities in the office and decided to head out shortly after noon. This would give me increasingly good light as the day went on and as the clouds started to fade away.
I really didn’t have much of a plan, but I had an idea that I wanted to capture some Autumn color if at all possible. The colors this year have not been all that great, but the lower elevations have seen better than the higher ones for once. That was the area that I was planning on being for the most part and there was a pretty good chance of finding some good areas to work with.
When I got into Surry County the hunt was on. There were a few places along the way that I knew to look for that always had good compositions. One of the first ones that I passed was a disappointment because a very large tree limb had fallen on the truck that I have shot in the past. The composition was already a bit more complicated than I preferred and the tree limb changed the entire look of it. That scene was now a write-off for me and that made me sad. However, on the return trip, I found another potential area that I will be asking permission for the next time I’m out that way. I missed it in the direction I was traveling which was a shame because the light was perfect for it when I was there at first.
One of the other areas that I have shot a few times now is a lone white barn sitting off of the roadway that has a much more involved farm off in the distance. The first time that I shot it, I managed to capture a rain squall right over that farm which was maybe a mile away. That was one of my favorite photos of the year and while I don’t want to recreate that shot again, I do want to find different conditions for the composition because it is such a strong one.
As I got into the area, I could see that the sky looked fantastic over the barn and since I was here, I figured I would stop and give it a few shots. I got pulled off on the side of the road and pulled out the camera with the standard zoom attached. I knew that this was the right lens for the job as the composition was going to be the same one that I had shot previously. I added a polarizer to give the sky a bit more contrast and to add detail to the tin roof. The tripod was situated roughly where I usually put it, and I started framing up the shot. After about a dozen frames the sun started to come out and I could see all the difference with the barn illuminated. However, it threw the visual weight of the scene off, and I needed more room around it. I also wanted to get the distant farm to look a bit larger in comparison than it was currently. The only way to do that was to go with a longer focal length, but that would make the crop much smaller. The answer was simple, I needed to go across the road and set the shot up from a further distance.
There wasn’t that much difference, but it was enough to make me happy. I had more room around the barn, especially to the right. In full disclosure, I have removed a light pole and a small section of power line from that right edge. The proportions were better with this focal length and framing so I committed to this one as the light changed and the position of the clouds moved around. I was looking for that frame where the visual balance between the barn and clouds was appropriate while the light was shining on the side of the barn. This one frame worked for all of that, and it was the one that turned into the keeper from the day. While this looks like a simple photo, it took a total of 33 frames to get the right combination. This one was number 29 in that series. It was shot from two locations as I mentioned, but the overall composition didn’t change at all in that whole bunch of photos. There were just a lot of different combinations of clouds and light which is what made this image what it is. Had I stopped earlier, the image would have been flat and not nearly as interesting. This was the one that had the visual interest and depth that I was looking for. Once I had it, I was pretty well satisfied and shot those last few as the light was fading back to flat lighting once again.
Now that I had one in the bag, because certainly out of 33 frames I had something usable, I was ready to continue on and look for my next subject. The route was continued to Hanging Rock where I saw one more barn that might have made a good photo, but it was mostly due to the sky above. There were a lot of problems that I was going to have to work through around the barn to make the image work. It was between two other structures and there were lots of Halloween decorations in the yard by the road. It just wasn’t worth the stop in my opinion, but I will keep it in mind for another time when I am out this way.
By the time I got to Hanging Rock, the clouds were mostly gone, and the light was really quite harsh which was not ideal on any level. I drove around the park to get an idea of what I might want to work with, but nothing really jumped out at me. My original plan was to hike up to the summit with the hopes that the colors in the leaves would look good from up there, but I knew that the sky was going to be difficult to deal with. It was actually harder than I expected, but that was the choice that I went with.
Judging by the cars in the parking lot, there was a good chance that it was going to be crowded up there. I was hoping that many of them were going to the waterfalls, but with the lack of rain I figured they weren’t holding much interest today. It was a gamble to hike up to the summit and it was going to be an investment of energy with all the steps that had to be climbed to get there. As I was getting started with the hike, I noticed several signs saying that the trail had been rerouted and was now 1.8 miles one way. The distance wasn’t a problem, but I was pretty sure that the original trail was only like a mile. Having a hike twice the duration might change up my timing assumptions on the light. Oh well, I was here and needed to get some exercise anyway, so I continued on.
The hike went really quickly and was certainly not a strenuous one like it had been. I kept expecting to find lots of stairs to climb, but eventually I found an exposed rock to the side of the trail that told me I was at the summit. Looking at the time that I had been hiking, I think that there was no difference in time that I would normally take which was amazing considering that I was going about twice as far. It was a great trade-off for sure and the trail is much nicer now. Anyway, once I got to the summit, I could see that there were a lot of people floating around which didn’t make me happy. I much prefer this scene without people standing or sitting on the outcropping.
Historically, if I am patient enough, I can find those times to shoot when it is all clear. That was the hope for me this time. The spot that I was going to shoot from was off on the side and was a little sketchy to get to carrying a 30lb load on my back. I took it slow and managed to get to the edge of the rock that I like to shoot from. I pulled the bag off and set it on the higher ledge and removed the tripod to get it set up. I then got the camera with the standard zoom attached with a polarizer. It was then a matter of getting things framed up.
This was where the sky was causing me problems because I didn’t want to include too much of it, but I needed the section well above the horizon because the horizon was just too hazy and looked horrible in the photo. By extending the upper frame a bit, I got some clouds which helped balance out the haze. Usually, I will include the small trees on the summit for a bit of scale, but they seemed to clutter the scene too much and they would have forced more sky into the frame. There was also a guy sitting at one of the trees reading a book that I didn’t want to include or ask to move. The composition was starting to come together, but I didn’t like the way that the ledge that I was standing on was looking in the frame. There needed to be more of it.
While working out all of these details, a couple of young ladies came out on the summit and called over to me asking me to take their photos. This was going to be complicated when it came to getting any shots to them, so I opted out and said that I was far too busy getting this set up which was the absolute truth. They went on about their day as one took pictures of the other doing things like handstands and other poses right at the edge. I’m sure that this was going to be on Instagram soon enough, but it wasn’t something that was interesting me. I just made some test shots to see how things were looking.
The decision was made to change my angle so that I could at least crop the second girl out and get a bit more of the lower ledge in the shot. The only way to do that was to move to the left and elevate the camera. That meant getting onto the ledge that my camera bag was perched on. I moved it over to the base of a tree and started to climb up on that ledge with my tripod in hand. This is not easy, and certainly a little puckering when I consider what happens if I get unsteady or drop the tripod. Fortunately, with the exception of a scraped knee, I managed to get up on the ledge easy enough.
Now I had the right vantage point and was able to get a stronger composition. With this, I also decided that the sky was much too bright in the frame, so I carefully retrieved a 3-stop hard edge ND Grad to slide into the filter holder. This made all the difference in the world, and I was starting to get good test shots without any clipping and having a strong composition. I just had to wait for the girls to get bored of their mini shoot.
There was a moment when they switched places, and I had about 30 seconds to get some frames without anyone in them. I grabbed three and noticed that there were shadows moving along the landscape. I hoped that I had one where the lighting was good because now I was looking at the other girl out on the summit. I took this time to adjust the composition slightly and to reframe things. She eventually went back with the other girl, and they pulled their phones out to get to posting I assume. They were on the ledge that was framing the left side of my composition which didn’t make me happy at all. The summit was clear except for them. I took a series of shots thinking that I could just remove them in Photoshop, but the lighting wasn’t quite right when I looked at the photos on the computer.
Just before they left, another guy came out onto the summit and sat down near the edge. He looked to be there for the long haul, so I waited a brief period and decided that my best chance for a shot had come and gone. Hopefully, it was one of the three that I had shot while the girls were changing positions. Fortunately, it was that first of the three before the shadows moved across the scene that worked the best.
When it comes to landscape photography, this is a great example of how frustrating it can be to get a simple photograph. While the hike was immeasurably easier than it had been other times in the past, I was faced with changing light conditions and lots of people. My goal was not to create a snapshot, but a meaningful photograph of the landscape to capture the season and the emotion of being there by yourself. In order to capture that, I had to wait and wait for all the different elements to line up just right, and even then, I wanted to see if I could get it any better. There is so much more to landscape photography than folks give credit for. This photograph represented roughly two hours’ worth of work between the hike and the waiting. It was the only photograph that I was able to capture while I was up there which was worth sharing. Hopefully it was worth the effort.
After nearly an hour on that ledge, the wind was kicking up which was making it harder and harder to safely stay there so I decided to call it quits. There were too many people up there to really work the area like I would have wanted to do. There are other compositions that I could have worked on the summit itself, but there was no way to do it with everyone in and out up there. I just enjoyed the gentle hike back to the parking lot which was a lot easier without all the stairs.
I took a slight detour on the trail and went out to the lake which I had driven around earlier. The lighting wasn’t much better, and I saw nothing with the lake that I wanted to shoot, but there were a couple of very bright trees in the parking lot that I wanted to take a closer look at. I had discounted these earlier because there was no way that I was going to be able to include the trunks like I typically prefer to do thanks to them being in sections of median in the parking lot. However, the colors were so vibrant on this one tree that I really couldn’t help myself. I went over to it and started to look up at the branches to see if I could find an interesting section to work with.
There was one limb that had a really pronounced structure to it and I was going to be able to get an angle on it with a predominantly blue sky in the background. The sun was just off to the right which was creating a backlit situation on the leaves that made them glow. This was normally a case for a telephoto lens, but in the situation with this tree, the branch wasn’t too far off of the ground. in order to capture it the way that I wanted, I was going to have to go wider. I started off with my standard zoom but found that I was looking at the wider end of the range which prompted me to switch to the wide-angle lens that I haven’t used that much this year. That one did the trick and gave me all the wiggle room I needed in the compositions.
The first shot that I made was at 32mm for that isolated feel. I liked it and everything felt very balanced in the frame, but I wanted more of the red. I started to zoom out a bit and see how the larger scene was looking. What I realized was that the tree had a very interesting structure with some dominant branches curving off to the left while the majority of the color was off to the right. There was a framing of sorts happening here that made for a very dramatic composition with a lot of movement within the frame. The fact that I wasn’t able to get the base of the trunk in the shot didn’t really bother me at all which kind of surprised me. The composition worked just like it was, so I fine-tuned the framing and then had to wait for the sun to pop out from behind the clouds to light up the leaves once again.
While I was waiting on this to happen a nice couple came up to me and offered me a chocolate bar from Trader Joe’s. That was a first for me, and I wasn’t real sure what to do. I took the chocolate and thanked him. Not wanting to miss the light, I put it in the bag and waited on the light to happen. Once the sun kicked off, I was able to get the shot. I fired off a few options with some different shutter speeds because the breeze was causing the tree to move a little bit.
When the sun went back behind the clouds, I took a quick break and ate some chocolate. It was actually quite good, and I realized that I was a bit hungry after all the hiking and working with the camera. My breakfast of oatmeal was long gone at this point, and it was creeping up on dinner time. Now that I had a little fuel in my body, I picked up my gear and started over to the lake. I really wanted to get some water shots, but the lighting was terrible and everything that I wanted in the frame was in shadows. Looking around at all the people milling about, I decided that I was done at the park. I put everything away and made the short walk to the truck.
I was pretty sure that I had two photos from the park which made the stop worthwhile. Added to the barn from the beginning of the day, I was looking at three photos which really wasn’t bad at all considering the light that I was working with. It had been a good day, but I was going to keep my eyes out for something else to shoot on the way home.
Before I left Stokes County, I passed by a scene that I had spotted on the way out to the park. It was an old boat sitting in front of some type of enclosed porch right off the side of the road. There was a street sign close to the boat and the whole scene had just looked very cluttered when I came through before. I think that the light was also very harsh putting most of the trees in shadow. Whatever the case, the scene didn’t appeal to me, even though I loved the fact that there was this old derelict boat sitting in the middle of a scene like this. I have a bit of a weakness for this kind of scene I’m learning.
I got turned around and checked it out again. It had promise, but I wasn’t sure if I could make a good composition with it or not. There was a convenience station right next door, so I pulled into that parking lot and grabbed my camera. Feeling pretty certain that I was going to be using the standard zoom once again, I fitted that with the polarizer before mounting it to the tripod. Since I wasn’t quite sure what I was going to be needing and didn’t want to leave my camera bag in the bed of the truck without me nearby, I took the whole bag. I walked the 25 yards to the boat and started to look at the angles to see what would work the best. It was a slow walk around in an arch as I would occasionally hold the camera up to my eye to check framing.
Things weren’t really looking all that great, but my attention was fully on the boat which was probably not the best idea because as I stepped forward just a little with my left leg, I could tell that the ground wasn’t where I thought it should be. Of course, my right leg was already in the process of lifting up which made my left foot fall faster through this small hole that the grass was covering up. I landed hard, but flat footed at the base of the hole. I was in almost to my skinned-up knee but wasn’t hurting. I was still holding onto the tripod and camera which had landed hard enough to cause the camera to rotate the ballhead. I had also seen something fly by my head on the left side. I looked on the ground after I pulled myself out of the hole in case it was a snake den. I found one of my hand warmers that Toni had gotten me last year. I had just charged them and put them back in the bag for the Winter season. I had been lazy and left the top pocket of my bag unzipped for easier access to filters which is how it had launched out. It appeared as though I was missing the other warmer though as it wasn’t in the bag either.
The next 10 minutes were spent looking for this small warmer that was only a little bigger than my camera battery. It was not looking promising, so I turned my attention back to the boat in hopes of getting a photo to justify nearly breaking my leg and losing a gift. I was rewarded with a good angle, but things were not lining up right with this focal length. I needed to change the perspective to get the shot to work. There wasn’t much room to work with, so I played with some ideas and eventually gave up and just went across the street.
The shoulder of the road was very narrow and there was just enough room for the tripod with one leg on the edge of the asphalt while I was on my tip toes on a slight embankment. The camera was raised as far as I could manage it so that the structure behind the boat would have enough separation. The composition was looking good, and the sun was just over the trees to the upper right. This caused some lack of contrast in the frame and some flare concerns. I used my hat to shield the lens the best I could from the sun. Fortunately, there was no flare in any of the frames, and the backlight on the leaves worked fantastically to add to the saturation. This would not have been possible earlier in the day when all of this was in the shadows.
After a handful of exposures trying to avoid the breeze in the trees, I picked everything up and crossed the street once again over to the boat. Now that I had the photo, I started to look for the hand warmer once again. There was no way it could have gone far, but I wasn’t seeing it at all. After another 10 minutes or so, I pulled my bag off and looked through the top pocket. When I pulled out my filter wallet, I found the other warmer tucked in under it. That was a relief, and now I had all my equipment back where it should be. I made a quick look around the boat to see if there were any other isolations that I could shoot, but I saw nothing that interested me. It was getting late, and I was getting rather tired.
A few moments later, my camera was back in the bag, and I was on my way home. I ended up getting home at nearly 7pm, just as it was getting dark. That was too late to worry about processing the photos, so I waited until this morning to import them into Lightroom. I’ll admit that the photos turned out better than I had suspected. The barn one was always going to be a solid photo because I knew how that one has looked in the past and I had loved the conditions this time. The colors from the grand landscape looked much better than I had expected, and it turned into a much stronger photograph than I had imagined considering the hazy sky. There were actually two photos of the parking lot tree that I was happy with which turned into keepers, so right there I was at the number that I had been hoping for in terms of keepers. It was the boat photo that really surprised me though. I was thinking that it was going to be ok at best, but as I worked the processing out, I liked it more and more. The colors went so well together and there was just so much story to this photo. It might actually be my favorite one of the day, and to think that I almost passed it by…twice.
Thank you for tagging along with me on this trek. I do hope that you have enjoyed reading about it and seeing the photos. I certainly can’t complain about five keepers out of 82 frames when I had so much issue with light and people in the frames. It hasn’t been a typical fall foliage trek, but it is one that I think went very well for the way that the season has been unfolding. While I don’t get overly excited about the leaves, I do enjoy when they can help create a different narrative in a photo. I really think that it was the leaves that made the boat photo because of how they work with the porch to frame the boat, not to mention that they work so well with the blue tones on the boat that would have gotten lost if the trees were all green.
Happy Halloween, and until next time….
