Well, we're going into our second week of November and autumn colors are quickly fading across western North Carolina.  How'd you do with the fall photo season?  It was a tough one in my opinion.  With the warmer weather, colors up around the Blue Ridge Parkway were about two weeks late in starting.  Coupled with the dry warm summer, water flows in rivers and streams were very low.  So for early colors around streams and waterfalls, it wasn't the best time to photograph.  

Luckily, we did start to get some rain, heavy in places, which did help replenish water levels and flows.  I did manage to get some photos I liked.

This first one was taken at a new location a friend showed me.  It was around Looking Glass Falls.  We hit the colors near peak and conditions were perfect.

Woody Falls Oct. 2020

The morning of the same day I was in the DuPont State Forest at sunrise.  I started at Hooker Falls and found wonderfully warm light and no real wind.  This was taken before the recent rains but the waterfall flow was still great.

Hooker Falls

Hooker Falls - Oct. 2019

After Hooker Falls, I hiked up to Triple Falls.  While this is a beautiful waterfall, I've never had much luck getting a photo I've really liked.  But on this day I lucked out.  It was still early in the morning and sky was clouded over.  A bit of fog was even evident. So while not my best work, I like this the best of the photos I have of Triple Falls.

Triple Falls - Oct. 2019

Colors around Grandfather Mountain were quickly fading when I was able to get up that way.  The forecast said cloudy skies in the morning with light wind.  Well, I got up there shortly after sunrise and skies were almost totally clear and the winds were really blowing hard around the Linn Cove Viaduct.  That area was pretty well ruled out then.  My friend and I decided to try shooting the bridge at the Roaring Fork turnout.  It was a bit protected so the wind was less of an issue.  Colors were pretty good but the water level, as you can see, was really low.  But overall, it's an OK shot but I was hoping for so much more.  But you take what you get, right?

Oct 2019

One of the better outings I had was hiking down to Linville Falls late one afternoon.  It was a very sunny day so getting there before sunset was the only good time to shoot this great waterfall.  Luck was with us and conditions were perfect, i.e., no wind, no people, good water and great colors.  We thought we'd have an hour to shoot before sunset but ended up staying longer and it was getting quite dark down there.  We managed to get on the trail before is got totally dark but did have to hike up in the dark with one headlamp.  I have not done that before and it's very disorienting and not easy to follow the trail.  But for the great time we had, it was well worth it.

Linville Falls - Oct. 2019

The last location I hit through mid-October was Dry Falls.  I was holding a private workshop and took my client there late in the day.  We lucked out and conditions were very good.  If we had arrived a week later the water flow would have been awful with the heavy rains we had.  Here, in the lower flow, the water had more character, which I prefer.  This is one shot I was able to take while my client was busy with his shots.

Dry Falls - Oct. 2019 So I guess it was a pretty good start to the autumn photo season.  As I posted last time, I lost all of my gear late October and had to replace all of it.  During the week it took to arrive, I missed three stellar days with great conditions.  Grrrrr!!  Oh well, there's always next year, right?

I'll be sharing more after I try to get to South Carolina and northern Georgia to catch the last of there autumn season.