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Photo Trek: The Blue Ridge Parkway
Photo Trek: 10-17-2007, The Blue Ridge Parkway
Price Lake Photo Copyright © 2007 G. Kiser
In spite of the severe drought that North Carolina is facing (actually, the whole country is), the leaves have really come to life in the mountains. Last week, I made a Trek to the Parkway and spent most of my time around Julian Price Park. The leaves were just starting to change, so I thought I would go back for a last time this leaf season, to try and get some color. Peak is actually forecasted for next week, but I will be tied up on call for all of my off days next week, so it was now or never.
This Trek started out like so many others...many visits to the weather web sites to check conditions. With Wednesday being the only chance for me to go, the weather was actually looking pretty good. The morning was supposed to be partly cloudy with the clouds fading to mostly sunny skies by early afternoon. This sounded good to me, so I made plans to get up early and head out before sunrise.
Things were going pretty much as planned, and I arrived at Price Lake for another attempt at a sunrise. This time, I arrived early enough that I could actually hike around the lake to find a better location to see the sun come up. What I found was actually a little dock right off of the trail. It looked to be in a good position for the sunrise. As the early morning light overtook the sky, I could tell that this was going to be a soso morning for a sunrise. There was a thick bank of clouds right at the horizon that would block the warm light from the sun until it had gained altitude. Oh well, I made due with what I had, and actually ended up with a fair photograph to add to the Sunrise and Sunset Room.
After the sun was up, I spent a couple of hours or so hiking around attempting to find a worthwhile composition to show off the leaves. The problem that I ran into was the mostly clear sky that I had seen during the sunrise, was now pretty much covered in clouds. This made what I wanted to do quite difficult as the sky was a featureless white. With some careful compositions, I was able to reduce the impact of that sky in my photographs.
Upon my return to the trail head, I came upon the stored canoes used by the park. These had stuck out in my memory from my last visit and I regretted not working them into a composition. I was going to rectify that oversight on this visit and I spent a good deal of time working with the canoes. Again, the white sky restricted my available compositions, but I was able to work around that.
The Fortunate One Photo Copyright © 2007 G. Kiser
After finishing up at the lake, I decided to take full advantage of the clouds and work my way down to Linville Falls to maybe get a few new waterfall pictures. While I was on the way South on the Parkway, I came upon a location that had caught my eye from time to time near the Linn Cove Viaduct. With a bright yellow tree situated all alone, I thought it would be worth a couple of frames. The growing cloud cover was low in the sky and enveloped the distant mountain with a fog like shroud. Using a split ND filter in a creative way, I was able to regain a good deal of the detail in that mountain as well as controlling the exposure of the clouds.
When I finally did make it to Linville, the clouds had all parted and the sun was shining brightly...not a good thing for waterfall photography. There were also tons of people here, so I turned around and headed back North. After coming to terms with the sunny conditions, I started looking forward to photographing the leaves in earnest. However, much to my disgust, as I got back to the elevation where the leaves were changing, the clouds were back. I just couldn't win here.
Ironically, as I passed through Price Park, the sun was back out, and there were some great, fluffy white clouds in the sky. I decided to end my Trek where it began. I was able to capture a few frames before the clouds rolled back in, and destroyed the light that I was making use of.
I have added a total of eight new photographs to the gallery. You can find them in the Blue Ridge Parkway Room, the Landscapes Room, and the Sunrise and Sunset Room.
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Lots of color in those trees and I love the clouds.....
Linda :) -
breath taking as always.
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Very nice, I really like both of these, as well as the additions to the gallery. I had to chuckle at your weather experience, so many changes in one day. You managed some great shots in spite of it.
betsy
10/29/07 3:34 PM