Blue Ridge Parkway Sunset, Day 2

Sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains

Sunset on the second day up on the Blue Ridge was nice. Not spectacular, but nice. There were no clouds on the horizon to add texture and drama. There was a haze that ... well, hazed over the distance. I was having a hard time during this sunset getting a good exposure for the sky and the foreground. As you can see in this shot, the foreground went dark very quickly. The one little bit of light kissing the nearest ridge does add a hint of the ridge's texture. Again, this was an HDR blend with a little additional post-processing in Lightroom 3 for color and contrast.

All in all it was a good workshop, and I did come away with a few images that I liked.

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Sunbeams

Three Trees

After the close-up session, we waited for sunset at a particular overlook that Richard had decided to use. We were hoping for some clouds to form as the sky was very bare and uninteresting. Some clouds did form over us, but none of them made it to the western horizon for the sunset.

This image is an HDR blend I took as the sun was getting lower in the sky. The "sunbeams" are actually formed by using a very small aperture with the sun in the field of view, in this case f/22. It is also cropped just a little for compositional purposes in order to get the sunbeams coming in from the very top of the frame.

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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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Just After Sunrise

Blue Ridge Backlight After Sunrise

A second image taken during the Richard Bernabe workshop on the Blue Ridge Parkway. He pointed out that there might be some interesting back lighting effects, such as with the Autumn leaves in this photograph, when the sun has risen past the horizon. This helps to bring some detail into the foreground while still keeping the distant ridges in silhouette.

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Blue Ridge Sunrise, 2010

Blue Ridge Sunrise, 2010

Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010, me and a few other club members attended a photography workshop on the Blue Ridge Parkway given by Richard Bernabe. Richard is a local, professional landscape photographer who was gracious enough to give us a club discount for the session.

We met Richard before sunrise, and headed up to the Blue Ridge Parkway to meet the sun. This is one of my favorite shots from the sunrise location. I used my 70-300mm lens for the photograph rather than a wide angle as I wanted to make the sun larger in the frame and isolate some of the distant ridges.

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Blue Ridge Parkway Sunset, Day 1

Parkway Sunset

The first day of our trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway ended with a sunset session. This image is an HDR in order to get some detail in the ridges while maintaining the colors and textures in the sky.

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In the dark

In the dark

We drove up to the mountains and visited Linville Caverns. During the tour, there is one area where the guide turns out the lights so you can experience "total darkness". The guide then turns on an old lantern so you can get an idea of the amount of light that the first explorers in the caves had with them.

There isn't much in this photograph, but I still like it for some reason. I suppose it gives a sense of the isolation of being in a cave with only a small light to guide you through it.

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Fly Away!

Fly Away!

To end the week is this photograph of one of the statues at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. This was taken late afternoon when the light was starting to turn really nice. It filtered through the trees and illuminated this statue with a nice golden glow.

Have a good weekend.

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During Class

Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens

This was one of the images I took during the afternoon class session. We were supposed to be practicing with our depth of field (DoF), i.e. the amount of the photograph that appears in focus. For this particular picture, the idea was to get as much of if in focus from foreground to background. I'm happy with it, plus it helped to have a good, interesting sky that didn't blow out to all white.

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Strutting Around

Courting Pose

Finally, today we have the male lizard strutting his stuff for his lady. Isn't he a handsome little devil? I'm quite pleased with how all of these photographs of these lizards turned out. A few things about them that could be better, but some of those were due to the location in the conservatory and the lizard's position which didn't lend itself to trying different angles. There was basically only one angle available to see him, so I was kind of stuck with some of the background that I don't like. All-in-all though, I like them.

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And the Suitor

Lizard

This is the male lizard that was trying to court the female in yesterday's photograph. He was moving around on that big leaf trying to get a good view of the female and get a position where she had a good view him. Periodically, he would buff out his neck sack while "singing" to her. It was quite a little show he was putting on for her, although it did seem like he would look at me sometimes wanting some privacy.

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The Lady ...

Playing Coy

I was back out at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens this weekend for a couple of photography classes. The classes were taught by Charlotte, NC based wildlife photographer Dave Kelly. The morning class was on metering light for proper exposure, while the afternoon class was about using depth of field. Both classes were well attended and I recognized several of the people from last weekend's photography show. I enjoyed both classes and look forward to taking some more of Mr. Kelly's offerings at the Gardens.

More after the jump.

This particular photograph is one of several I took of a little scene that was pointed out to me by some other visitors in the conservatory. While the class was in the conservatory practicing our morning lesson, a group of visitors got my attention and said something like, "Here's a picture for you!". Curious, I went to look and found a couple of lizards engaged in courting. This was the female lizard who was kind of hiding and playing playing coy. You can see that she is changing colors between green and brown, which I thought was kind of a neat catch. The real star of the scene was the male who we'll see tomorrow.

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Daniel Stowe Botanical Garden

Yellow Flower

This past weekend I went to a small photography show near Gastonia, North Carolina. It was held at the Daniel Stowe Botanical Gardens. The show it self was called "Picture Perfect" and had a program of speakers as well as a small vendor exhibit.

More after the jump.

I also got to spend a couple of hours walking around the gardens and in particular their Conservatory. Currently, they have a nice collection of orchids in the Conservatory. I'm certain that the gardens are quite beautiful when Spring is in full bloom.

The Gardens also has a series of photography workshops / classes in association with a Charlotte, North Carolina professional photographer. I've signed up for the two classes that are being held this next Saturday. So I hope you like seeing photographs from here as there were be quite a few more over the next week or two.

I don't know what the flower in this photograph is called. Someone told me it was a "Shrimp Plant/Flower", but I don't know conclusively. I just thought it was pretty and would make a good subject.

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