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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Scale (Part 2)

South Dakota Badlands National Park

Back to the subject of showing scale. The two people at the overlook illustrate the scale of the distant landscape of the South Dakota Badlands. I took a similar photograph without any people at the overlook and it doesn't give the same sense of vastness that having the two people in it does. At least the way that I look at the images.

Follow the jump for the other photograph.


Badlands Scenic Overlook

What do you think about it?

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In North Dakota

Rolling Field, Big Sky

Everything up in North Dakota is so very different than here in South Carolina. The fields, prairie, and sky seem to go on forever.

The lines in the field make me think that the closest hay bail was trying to roll toward the ones in the distance. The nice clouds also added a great texture to the sky.

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Niagara Gorge

Niagara Gorge

We hiked down into the Niagara River Gorge one day. It is a few miles downstream from the falls, but the water is still quite rough. Not too far from this location is the Niagara River Whirlpool. It is just upstream and out of the frame near the upper right corner of the picture.

More after the jump.

This was one of the days that we had nice weather while out and about. The hike down into the Gorge was not that bad. We made sure to take the less steep and less slippery trails. We made it all of the way down to a lagoon on the river's edge. That lagoon must be a popular place as there were a couple of other families down there when we arrived.

The hike back up the Gorge's wall was more strenuous though. Going up is always harder than going down. For some reason our hikes usually end with the going-up part for the end after we have already spent so much energy. On the way up we took a few more breaks than on the way down. Plus, we each had water bottles to keep ourselves hydrated. Luckily, most of the climb was shaded by the forest on the Gorge's walls. Only the very last part was in the direct sun. Still, we all had a fun time and saw a part of the Niagara River a lot of tourists don't get to experience. That is a big plus when you have a local to guide your around.

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