Colorful Slope

Autumn Mountainside

As the Sun got higher in the sky, it became more difficult to get the "good light". While it was harder to get good, wide-angle landscapes, using a telephoto to zoom in on to isolate small sections seemed to work.

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More Fall Colors

Waterfall and Colors

A waterfall near the Blue Ridge Parkway surrounded by seasonal Autumn colors. These falls are along a popular trail and this is one of the few frames that I got of them without people climbing over the rocks.

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Fall Colors 2010

Colors on the Blue Ridge Parkway, 2010

The weekend after I got back from the North Dakota trip, I went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway with some other members of the Spartanburg Photography Guild. We were attending a photography workshop on that Sunday, but went up the day before for some sightseeing of our own.

To be honest, there was not a lot of color in the mountains at that time. The seasonal colors were limited to particular areas. The photograph above is from one of the better areas of color we found that weekend.

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The Maid of the Mist

Approaching the Falls

We rode the Maid of the Mist while in Niagara Falls. There are several boats that leave on a staggered schedule. They pass by the American and Bridal Veil Falls. The highlight of the ride is a close approach to the the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. This is why you are supplied with a raincoat. Once you are at the base of the falls you will get soaked. Not wet, but soaked from head to toe. The roar of the water crashing into the pool is quite loud as well. The force of the air being displaced by the water is strong enough to push you around if you aren't steadied. While you can "experience" Niagara's fury this way, you can't really see much of the falls themselves. They are hidden by the mist into an almost whiteout condition. Still you do feel the falls all around you.

More after the jump.

After reading that, you might be wondering how I kept my camera dry. I used an Optech Rainsleeve to protect my camera while on the Maid of the Mists boat. Actually, I used it whenever I was near the falls or was concerned about rain. The Rainsleeves are not very expensive and you get two in a pack. They are not intended for long-term, heavy duty use. However, they are very portable and easy to use. Perfect for stuffing into a corner of a camera bag for those times where you find yourself in a wet environment. While they are meant to be used on a tripod, I did not have any trouble adjusting them to hand held use. They definitely protected my camera from the worse that Niagara could throw at my camera save an actual trip over the falls. Even in that extreme case, I would be more worried about the fall than getting wet.

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Canadian Horseshoe Falls

The Horseshoe Falls

Here is a view of the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. The photograph was taken from the top of the observation deck at the Maid of the Mist pavilion. You can see a couple of the Maid of the Mist boats below. From this observation deck you get a great view of both sets of falls.

Stay tuned for another photograph tomorrow.

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Niagara Falls

Niagara Falls

Our first full day at Niagara Falls was overcast and rainy. First we ate lunch at the Elements restaurant that overlooks the Horseshoe Falls. It was a nice view, but a bit obscured by the rain. Plus, the wind was blowing the mist from the falls right into the visitors' center and observation deck making it even more wet.

More after the jump.

Next we went on the Niagara Fury's exhibit/movie which was in the visitor's center. It starts with a short cartoon that teaches about the history of the falls. Then you go into a 360 degree cyclorama theater where you stand up, watch full motion video of the falls while the floor tips around and you get rained on and splashed in order to "experience" Niagara's "Fury". They do give you a disposable raincoat to keep you dry. Actually, you get a disposable rain coat for almost everything you do at the falls.

After Niagara's Fury, we went on the Journey Behind the Falls tour. This was pretty neat. There are a couple of tunnels bored into the rock behind the falls. Two tunnels have openings where you can see the water falling over the falls from behind. The main tunnel opens out onto a two-level observation area next to the Horseshoe Falls. You can see a close-up profile of the water cascading over the falls which I thought was interesting. You can also watch the Maid of the Mists boats as the approach the falls to get their passengers soaked by the falling water.

Although the tour and view was interesting, the cloudy skies were not very good for photography. Another issue I had was keeping the lens dry. The wind was blowing the mists from the falls right into us which made it difficult to keep water off the front of the lens. I did have a rain cover for the camera itself though which worked like a charm. The camera still works and is none the worse for the wear of getting so close to Niagara's Fury.

More photographs next week. Have a good weekend.

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Color Corrected Image

Looking Glass Falls in Autumn 2

It is a slow week this week blog wise. I am still working on the histogram post. I am having trouble getting images of histograms for illustrations. It is difficult to discuss them without a visual reference. Plus, our plans fell through this past weekend. My parents had come up to visit and we planned to go to a local festival. However, it rained all weekend and we decided to stay in. We still had a good visit though, and that is all that really matters.

More after the jump.

One thing that I have been working on is a color corrected version of an image I took last Autumn. The photograph up top is the result of the color correction. The original had a slight blue cast to it that was particularly pronounced in the water itself. The original photograph is shown below for comparison.


Looking Glass Falls in Autumn

I had been wanting to make some prints of this image, but color cast had been getting on my nerves so I hadn't ordered any prints. I spent a few days on and off working on the image to remove the blue cast. At first I tried simple white balance adjustments. However, none of the adjustments made really satisfied me. While they corrected the water, the other colors were affected too much for my liking. Eventually, I used a combination of the HSL color range saturation and lightness adjustments. Those allowed me to target just the blue ranges leaving the other colors alone. Plus, I could use those other color ranges to put a little more pop into the colors that was lost by removing the blue tones globally. I am much more satisfied with the photograph now.

One other adjustment that gave me problems was sharpening. I had originally processed this in Nikon Capture NX 2. However, when I reprocessed it with Lightroom 2 / Photoshop I seemed to loose some fine detail and crispness that I had in the original version. I finally pulled out a couple of my Photoshop CS4 books and tried a couple of other sharpening methods and got results that I was much more pleased with. I'm not sure that the final image has quite as much detail as the Capture NX2 version, but it is so close now that it is hard for me to tell the difference.

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Mountains and Waterfalls

Looking Glass Falls

Well, it is Autumn and that means it was time to head up into the mountains for the annual color hunt. We went a different route this year. Instead of heading up to Asheville, NC first; we took US Highway 276 up the escarpment toward Brevard, NC. Along the way we stopped at the Bald Rock overlook and Caesar's Head State Park in South Carolina. A big rain system was moving through the area and gave us equal amounts of dramatic clouds, overcast skies and rain until finally clearing out after lunch. Then we went through Pisgah National Forest to the Blue Ridge Parkway. We headed south on the Parkway for a while, but the higher elevations there were heavily clouded so we turned around and head back toward Asheville, NC. We had lunch at the Mount Pisgah Picnic Area on the Park and the front started to clear out afterward. Finally we traveled to Chimney Rock, NC before heading home. The seasonal colors had not yet started at Chimney Rock. Most of the trees there were still green.

The photograph above is from Looking Glass falls in Pisgah National Forest near Brevard. It is easily accessed as it is right along the highway through Pisgah National Forest. A couple more after the jump.


Bald Rock Panorama
This is the first panoramic photograph that I have made by stitching together separate photographs. This particular image was made from three over lapping photographs. I used Microsoft's free Image Compositing Engine software to merge the photographs together. It was very easy to use, and I like the results and that fact that it was free.

The Illuminated Bush
There was a small rainbow at the top of Caesar's Head when we were there. A light cloud was coming over the mountain and into the foothills below where it caught the sunlight and gave us this part of a rainbow. It was almost close enough to touch.

Colorful Blue Ridge Mountains
A shot of the Autumn colors exploding in a valley along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Lake Lure
This shot was taken from the parking lot of the Chimney Rock Park's Visitor Center. I found it interesting that the trees had not started changing colors here yet while they have already started back home.

There are more photographs from the trip over on the Zenfolio gallery.

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Fall is in the Air

Blending Colors

The past couple of days have been fairly cool. I'm sure that we will still have a few scorchers ahead of us, but it feels as if the seasons are beginning to change. I have noticed that the squirrels are starting to bury acorns around my yard, so I guess they are starting to feel it too. I'm looking forward to heading back up into the mountains again for the colors. We hit them at just the right time last year. I hope that we can get as good of a show this year as well.

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Fall Colors

I've been working on a new book review, but it isn't ready yet. So, here are some shots from last fall when we went up to the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina during the fall colors. It started off cloudy and rainy, but cleared out at lunch time to beautiful blue skies. Enjoy and I hope to have the review up by Monday.

More photos after the jump.


Tourists Crossing the Road

From the Car

Cresting Mt. Mitchell

Blending Colors

Painted Slope

Blue Ridges

Autumn Flame



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