June 29, 2022
If I happen to drift off during this blog entry, please forgive me. I didn’t sleep well last night and got up very early this morning to go out to Thunder Hill on the Blue Ridge Parkway. So, it happened kind of like this, I have been wanting to get out to Thunder Hill for a sunrise shoot for about two weeks now, but something always gets in the way of my being able to get out there. It doesn’t help that we have had lousy weather in the mornings for the most part. My original plan was to go out there on Tuesday, but as that morning came, there were no clouds to speak of, so I didn’t even bother. As Tuesday was coming to a close Toni asked if I was going out for pictures on Wednesday and I replied that the clouds didn’t look good, and it was already too late in the evening to make plans to go out. It was all of 10:30, which wasn’t all that late, but in order to get out there for sunrise, I was needing to wake up around 4am and my contacts had to soak for at least six hours. I did check the weather real quick, and saw that there was fog forecasted right at sunrise which I love to see coming through the valley. I did some quick math in my head and figured out that if I pulled my contacts out right then, I could put them in right before I needed to step out the door.
I put all of that in motion and got ready for bed. Fortunately, I had already had my shower since I had mowed the yard earlier in the day. I was in bed by around 11 and realized that I wasn’t sleepy at all. That started a lot of tossing and turning throughout the night. At something like 2am Toni woke me up and asked if I wanted the fan on. I had totally forgotten it earlier as my routine was changed up, so I got up and turned it on. From that point on, I couldn’t get back to sleep. I was sure that I was going to skip going to the Parkway at this point, but as the clock got increasingly close to the 4:15 alarm I had set, I just decided to turn it off and if I was awake still, I would get up. At 4am, I gave up hope of going to sleep and got up. I checked the weather one last time and found that the fog was no longer in the forecast and the clouds had thinned out a good bit, leaving just a couple of hours of low clouds right at sunrise. It wasn’t ideal, but I did need to get back out and do some more landscape photography.
You see, since the last time I went out, I have done two different studio sessions which is a whole different type of photography. It is fast paced and more reactive than planned. I was also getting used to my new people camera, the EOS R5 which I have resisted getting for nearly two years because I just didn’t need the tech that camera offered, and the resolution was slightly less than my 5DS R. After having some difficulties with precise focus during a location shoot that I will be detailing in the next couple of months, I had decided that the new Eye AF feature was worth the price of admission for making sure I got the shot when I pressed the button. That started a whole domino effect as I started to put together a complete RF-mount lens collection which includes a 50mm, 85mm, 28-70mm, and a 70-200mm along with an adapted EF 35mm. I will say that the camera is a delight to use and is easy to use quickly in a studio setting. I’m looking forward to using it for an engagement shoot coming up this weekend to see how the primes work. In the studio, I pretty much use the zooms because I have limited space to work. I plan on talking about both the studio space and the new camera in two different upcoming Behind the Camera entries. I’ll just say that there have been a lot of upgrades to the studio, and I’m finally able to handle a large array of shoots right here.
With so much energy being spent on learning new gear and figuring out how to achieve the looks I want with different sets; I haven’t had the time to dedicate to my landscape or decay photography. Normally that would pose a problem, but in actuality my “normal” photography is becoming less and less lucrative which means that I am having to look into alternatives to keep me afloat. I’m not giving up on it and will continue to go out on these treks as well as conduct my workshops around this type of photography. I will just be doing it as I can fit it into my schedule around my clients. Of course, the entirety of my catalog of images are still available for prints, and I would love to help put a print of your favorite scene in your hands to be mounted on the wall. Just let me know what size and media you are interested in, or you can order standard sizes directly from this website.
OK, enough catching up on things. It is completely dark outside and I’m driving up US421 remembering that the first Parkway entrance is closed off which puts me entering off of Old 421. It seemed like an eternity since I had done this route in the dark. For so long, this was a once-a-month trip from Winston, and it increased quite a bit after moving to Purlear. It might have been a long time since I’ve gone this route in the dark, it certainly felt familiar and that was comforting after being way out of my comfort zone for the last couple of shoots that I have done in the studio.
The reason that I had picked Thunder Hill to go to is there is a certain uniqueness to the overlook that has always drawn my attention. The side that most everyone enjoys looks like every other overlook along this section of the Parkway. The views on the other side of the road are what I love. There are two different areas that I love to shoot from when I go here. The first is up on the embankment next to the fence. There is a section where one of the posts is laid over for support and it happens to be right where the stone surface comes through the dirt making a wonderful foreground leading off to the Parkway from the opposite side of the frame. Both of these elements bring the eyes to a wonderful horizon where the sky will do some amazing things with the right conditions. I was hoping for those conditions this morning. The second area that I love to shoot is just down the road from the fence and is a view of the valley below leading out to the mountains in the distance. This is a view that I rarely ever see photographed which makes it that much more special to me. It always looks fantastic in the fog, and I was hoping that the low clouds would lead to some fog effect coming through the valley.
When I arrived at Thunder Hill, it was still very much dark, but I knew that the sun was going to be coming up quick and my window for good light was going to fade fast. That meant that I needed to be in position and ready to go long before first light. I took a very quick survey of the area to see what I had to work with and found that there was no fog in the valley, and the sky wasn’t less than interesting in the direction that I like to shoot sunrises from here. The interesting clouds were over areas where there wasn’t a composition to be had due to the lighting. Knowing that the valley needs a touch of morning light to really come alive, I opted for the fence line as my starting point for the morning. It would give me a good composition regardless of the light, and once I had that in the bag, I could move down to the valley to catch the light as if fell in the lower areas.
I knew that I wanted to make this a dramatic wide-angle shot, and I considered using my 14mm which I have recently enjoyed greatly with landscapes. Looking at the sky though, I knew that I was going to need filters, and that was where the 14mm fell short with the permanently affixed lens hood. I went with the second best option, my 16-35mm lens because it would accept filters. I left the lens bare to start with because the light was just starting to hit, and the exposure was pretty even across the scene. I started off with a 6 minute exposure to see what the clouds would look like. It actually looked pretty good, but the flat lighting on the landscape detracted too much from the image. I changed up a few things with the composition now that I could see everything clearly in the image review and went for another exposure with a much shorter shutter speed. I had it all dialed in and started to play the light at this point.
This is the time-consuming part of a sunrise. You never know when the light will reach its peak, so you just keep making exposures as the light gets better just in case the clouds snuff the color out. I was cranking off a shot about every minute or so, and they were settling in at 30 seconds a piece. As the light increased, I saw the need for a bit of contrast in the sky, so I fitted my polarizer, and just to make sure that the sky remained exposed correctly, I slid in a 3-stop grad just to take the exposure down a tad. As I was adding filters, and adjusting for the light, I stayed at 30 seconds and manipulated the aperture until I had f/11. At this point, I began shortening the shutter speed until I had plenty of exposure to tighten the aperture to f/14 to stretch the depth of field. I was very lucky that when the sun did finally pass the horizon, the clouds over the scene had opened up a bit allowing for a bit of color to shine through over the distant mountains. It was just enough to balance out the foreground beige tones and really pull the image together. The photo here represents the 39th exposure made during the morning, and it is the last one that I shot of this angle before the clouds snuffed out the sun. That’s correct….I had shot 39 frames of essentially the exact same composition. What happens to the other 38 frames? Well, they get trashed because they aren’t this good. I normally strive for a 10% hit rate, but I know that when it comes to skies and quickly changing light, I will be shooting a lot of the same thing. That is just the way it goes, so don’t ever think that I go out to a scene and set the camera up to nail the first image I shoot. It happens so rarely, I would consider it a fluke when it happens. If we do the math, I think that comes out to a 2.5% hit rate for my first composition.
With the first composition finally in the bag, I grabbed my gear and walked down the trail to the lower section that overlooked the valley below. I didn’t quite make it to my normal position though because there were still flowers on the Rhododendron at the edge of the slope which caught my eye. Without the fog down below creating a nice leading line and depth, I decided to make this bush my foreground interest which balanced the mountain in the distance as well as broke up the sea of green that took up most of the scene. This scene was going to need an interesting sky to pull off a wide-angle composition, and at the current time there was no such sky overhead. The clouds were breaking up gradually and I had high hopes that the sky would do something interesting, and hopefully the sun would illuminate the left slope of the hill.
I kept my same 16-35mm lens attached and I started to frame up the composition that I had in mind. It all fell together at 24mm which is a sweet spot for this lens. I had removed the filters, but knew that I was going to need an ND Grad back on, so I opted for that same 3-stop soft edge filter to ease the exposure slightly in the sky. I had the composition set and started to work the light as the clouds changed. It was a repeat of the sunrise as the light changed. As I got into the really good light, I wanted more contrast in the sky, so I added my polarizer knowing that it would be a risky choice at this focal length due to banding in the sky. The fact that the sky was filled with clouds and haze, I felt that it was a good gamble for the overall outcome. I kept cranking off shots about every minute or so until I had another 27 frames captured. The one that you see here was actually number 15 in that series. I had a few that showed better light on the landscape, but the skies were not as dramatic as this one. Usually, I will go for a sky before selective lighting on a landscape because I just have that relationship with clouds. It was this image that had the softest sky, and the most color from the sun’s second blush of the morning.
I will be forthcoming with this one and share that the colors were not that vivid at the scene. There was a hint of amber in the sky, but it was barely visible. I could have left it as shot, but that image really fell flat in my opinion. I wanted to bring more of the color out in the sky, so I did some work with color grading until I had a sky that looked like the real one felt to me. I made sure that I didn’t go overboard with the colors as I could have gone full on neon orange, but that wasn’t what I was seeing in the clouds, and I knew that would be a total lie in the photo. Instead, I kept it subtle and muted along with the soft light over the trees. The fact that the hill to the left wasn’t receiving the warm direct light from the sun wasn’t too bad because the hill to the right was fully in the shadows which gave a needed bit of depth to the scene.
When I reached that 67th frame, I knew that I had at least two photos worth editing and after looking around, I found nothing else that interested me. I had been out here for a little more than an hour and a half by this point and with the light getting flatter and flatter, I knew it was time to move on. I didn’t have a clue where to go next, so I decided to continue down the Parkway to Price Lake. There was nothing that called out to me during that part of the trip, so I turned around and headed back to the highway.
Remember how I didn’t sleep well the night before? Well, it was catching up with me. I was having a hard time holding my eyes open, and decided it was best if I pulled off under some trees and took a little nap. I was out pretty quickly, and I think I slept for about an hour. I woke up feeling a bit more refreshed and got back on the road. After a quick stop at Lowe’s Hardware, I was at home and editing through the images. I pulled out five that I wanted to work on, and the two that you see here are the ones that won out for the day. I’m glad that I got to go back to Thunder Hill as it rarely disappoints if I spend any time there at all trying to get a shot.
I do hope that you have enjoyed this trek. Stick around for my next Behind the Camera which is scheduled to be published Friday morning. I’ll be looking into what “Fine Art” really means…or at least what it really means to me. I’ll let you be the judge as to whether or not these two images fit that theme. I’m not going to give you a hint on that either. You will have to read my thoughts on the subject in a couple of days.
Thanks for joining me and do remember that I am doing portrait and boudoir sessions these days. If you are interested, I am still doing some free, or reduced-price sessions depending on what is being asked. If it is something that I am still needing practice on, you might just get a whole session and digital prints at no charge. let me know what you are interested in creating and I’ll be happy to discuss it with you.
Until next time…
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