This is part two of our trip to the northeast last autumn.  After visiting Bar Harbor (Acadia National Park) we headed west a few hours to New Hampshire.  Looking at a map of New Hampshire is a bit misleading.  Since it is a relatively small state you can move around it quickly.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I thought it might be a bit like North Carolina in the mountains but it wasn't really.  While the mountains were about half the height of those in NC, they just seemed taller.  I think it was because you saw more of an abrupt rise in elevation and they seemed to be more peak-like.  This gave them a more majestic look in my view.  In simple terms, they were gorgeous. With the trees at or near their fall peak colors, the views were beyond belief. I've heard too many times about the great color and thought "yeah, yeah, sure".  But they are spectacular and truly worth the effort to see.

We visited the area the first week of October and think the timing was perfect.  We came in near Gorham, NH in the northeast part of the state, headed west toward Bethlehem and down to Lincoln where we stayed.  Like Bar Harbor, you won't find many national chains so look at reviews closely.  Luckily we did find a Holiday Inn Express, which turned out to be very nice.

I was extremely fortunate to know of another photographer who live in southern New Hampshire.  We had become acquainted through Flickr and Facebook.  He offered to take me out for a day and we had so much fun.  Going with someone who knows an area helps so much.  You get to the best places at the right time.  We had pretty good luck weather wise with rain predicted for early afternoon.

The main highway you want to see is the Kangamagus highway which runs east-west from Lincoln to Conway.  The photo opportunities along this area are numerous and beautiful.  One of our first stops was right along the highway called Rocky Gorge.  Water flow was a bit slow but it was really nice.  We got there early enough that there were only a few people.  But we did have to be a bit patient for people to move out of view a few times.

Rocky Gorge

Toward the end of the day, we headed north of Conway to another great area to see Crystal Cascade.  Clouds were thickening so we knew we didn't have much time.  The hike wasn't too long but the trail was a steady rise in elevation.  We hustled the best we could with light rain starting to fall.  We just had time to set up our tripods and get a few very quick shots before the sky opened up on us.  I wish we could have spent a couple of hours around here but the time was late and my friend had a long drive home so we called it a day.  A really great day!   Thanks Keith.

Crystal Cascade - White Mountains

Another place that my friend told me about was the flume gorge in the Franconia Notch State Park, which is just a few miles north of Lincoln.  We was told to be the first one in line as this gets crazy busy so you have to really be fast up the trail to get photos without people everywhere.  We ended up being second in line and I apologized to my wife as I took off once the gate opened.  A ways up the trail you go into the gorge and walk along a boardwalk. A spectacular place.  Since the trail was a little steep most people took their time walking up the trail so I was able to get up the trail to a few locations to take various shots.  But people (and my wife) caught up to me.  So I did have to manage my tripod on a narrow walkway as people went around us.  Some people were very nice and didn't mind taking a break for a minute while I composed and got my shots.

My wife and I walked the entire trail.  While it was a nice hike past the gorge, there really isn't any great photo opportunities so I'd wish we would have turned around and headed back through the gorge to the entrance.

Toward the end of the day, my wife was ready to crash so I knew I had another opportunity to get the car and hit a few spots I'd missed earlier.  I headed back east on the Kangamagus Highway to Sabbaday Falls.  This is another location where you can spend hours.  But since I was a tight schedule to get back for dinner, I needed to hustle again and be VERY patient with numerous people visiting the park late in the day.  At times I felt some people knew I was waiting for a clean shot and purposely held their positions.  But the waiting proved the right choice as I was able to get some nice photos.

Our visit to New Hampshire was a great one.  During the fall, I can't think of a better spot to be.  This is definitely worth the travel to see.  We were very lucky to hit the trees at their peak color.

We took our first vacation to Acadia National Park in late September last year.  A very long drive from western North Carolina.  I had arranged for a private photo guide to take me out one day since I knew nothing about Acadia and was hoping to find some "secret" locations.  Overall, it was a bit of a disappointing day but luckily it ended on a high note.  The weather was very sunny, which didn't lead to too many "wow" photos.  It's sort of a gamble when you go on a vacation intending to take photos as you're highly dependent on the weather.  And not knowing the guide with only relying on customer comments, you're sort of shooting in the dark too.  I'd give my guide about a B- for the day on getting me to good locations at the right time.

I still had another three days in the area after the photo tour so I was able to get out to some new places and back to others I wanted to revisit.  Since I was with my non-photographer wife, splitting time (and the car) was important but she is supportive of my photography passion so it generally worked out.  

We thought by going in late September the fall foliage would be present.  Learned that peak colors usually don't start until mid-October. But really, don't go to Acadia hoping to see a lot of great autumn scenes.  Go to Vermont and New Hampshire early October for those.  I'll be covering New Hampshire in an upcoming post.

About half our time in Bar Harbor was in rainy cold weather so that impacted some of my shooting plans.  Don't get me wrong, its a beautiful place to see.  For me, once was enough.  My wife on the other hand would love to go again.  If you plan to go, get reservations early.  Check them out thoroughly.  We ended up renting a house since our son was joining us.  It came with high ratings but we didn't like it at all.  Not comfortable at all and VERY old.  Since the TVs and something else didn't work, we ended up getting a credit for one night.  Accommodations and dining are expensive in Bar Harbor and there are nearly no major hotel chains in the area.

Here are just a few photos I took during our visit.

Here is one from the Park Loop Road - likely a bit south of Sand Beach.  The cliff in the background is Otter Cliff.  That was one of the bigger disappointments for me.  I thought the rugged cliffs abounded through the park.  They don't.  There is just a fairly short stretch of them along the southeast section of the park.  The area is great, don't get me wrong.  I just imagined there being more.  Also a word of warning.  Know the tides and don't go out on the beaches as the tide is coming in.  You could get caught not being able to get out in time.

This is one of my favorite photos of the trip, the lighthouse at Bass Harbor.  A word of advice here too.  Get here about 3 hours earlier than sunset if you want one of only six prime spots.  My guide got us here about 45 minutes early and the area was packed with people making it very difficult to get a shooting spot.  As it turned out I had to shimmy up a very pointy and uncomfortable rock.  Lucky I had a tripod with very long legs so I was able to have a secure camera.  Also my composition was limited due to all the people in front of me.  Their heads are just below the frame.  But I was rewarded with a nice sunset and light so that's all that mattered.

Bass Harbor Lighthouse, Maine

I saw this location on social media.  It's called Boulder Beach but you won't find it on any park map the and the park rangers will say there is no such beach.  Not sure why.  Although in certain tide conditions, I could see where it might be dangerous.  Look on the web for best directions but from Park Loop Road, it's south of Thunder Hole and the Gotham Mountain Trailhead.  I believe there is an unmarked parking lot just past Cliff Road and its on the right side and comes up quick.  I missed it 2-3 times.  Once you find the parking lot, just walk across the road and there's this great beach.  By the time I left my car, the rain started and just increased.  On the beach, the better compositions were out a bit and closer to the waves.  As a result I was constantly having to clean off my lenses from either the rain or ocean spray.  I was using an umbrella locked on my tripod but that proved hard to use but did help a bit.  I ended up taking a ton of shots and I did manage to get a couple without too much water on my lens.  Would like to go back in better conditions but I do like the resulting photo.

On the way to Bar Harbor we stayed in Kennebunk, ME one night.  Thirty minutes out of town you go through Portland and we stopped at their landmark lighthouse.  Here again, get there really early as the buses flood in there right away.  We did and walked at a fast clip to get to this spot.  I had to erase many people from the photo that were lining the front of the building.  Much later and I think it would be impossible to clean up the shot.  I was fortunate to get some dramatic skies but I was only able to stay a few minutes.  I've also seen some gorgeous photos from here at sunset and from the other side of the lighthouse.  People, as always, are the main compositional issue here.

Maine, Bar Harbor and Acadia were nice.  Wish we would have had better weather and accommodations.  I'd like to visit other places before going back there.  In my upcoming post, I share some thoughts on our visit to neighboring New Hampshire, which I really loved and hope to get back to soon.

If you've ever had the pleasure of listening to Kevin Adams, a notable expert on waterfalls in western North Carolina, or reading one of his several book on the topic, he'll usually show photographs of English Falls.  When he tells his audience and readers about the waterfall, he's sure to mention the high level of difficulty of getting to this particular waterfall.  As a frequent user of his waterfall guide book, I've come to appreciate the accuracy of his ratings for beauty and difficulty of the noted waterfalls.  With that said, English Falls has always intrigued me but the stated difficulty and danger of getting to this waterfall has always prevented me from trying to photograph it.

But last fall, I saw a photograph of English Falls posted by one of my photography friends.  I reached out to him to see just how difficult he found it to be.  He agreed with the assessment presented by Kevin Adams but said with the right preparations, it was doable.  He said he could get me to it.

I thought this adventure over in my head and asked my buddy a couple more times about it and looked at some YouTube videos to check it out more.  I finally decided to try it with the understanding if at any point it seemed too much I'd back off.

Mike and I met up on the Parkway, gathered our gear and ropes and headed off.  The hike quickly began a steep descent requiring some butt slides and grabbing on to bushes to control sliding.  We came to first very steep descent and Mike tied up a long length of rope.  With a heavy pack on, this proved more difficult than I expected.  I was very happy of my decision to bring along leather gloves. They definitely helped my grip.  If you lose your grip here, you're in for a long slide without anything to grab unto.  The result would likely be very painful.

Having made the first section OK, we skirted around a steep area finally reaching the second steep drop around some rock cliffs. Using another section of rope and with a lot of Mike's help, I made it down.  We were then within sight of the waterfall.  At this point, the top view really hid the overall beauty of the waterfall.  The final hurdle was getting down a straight drop down a rock face of about 7-8 feet.  We were out of rope at this point.  With his much younger legs than mine, Mike jumped down OK.  At this point, I was quite unsure if I should even try not knowing how to even attempt getting down much less knowing anything about how to get back up.  Mike encouraged me to try with his help.  He quite literally grabbed my legs as I lowered myself over the embankment and safely lowered me to the ground.  It only worked because my buddy was big, young and strong.  Otherwise, no way.

Then I saw the full waterfall and it was breathtaking.  But there was a lot of spray off the waterfall since you have to be very close to it as there is very little area to walk around.  The color in the trees above the falls was great but the sun was still too high so we had to wait about 30 minutes before shooting.  I would have liked moving around a bit to get different compositions, but the rocks were wet and extremely slippery.  A fall here meant broken bones or worse given the steep grade of the hill. However, another photographer showed up a bit later and he rock hopped across the stream to the other side.  It wasn't worth the risk to try moving from my relatively safe flat small spot.  

Finally the sun went done and we started clicking away being sure to constantly clean off our lenses from all the spray.  Getting a very low exposure in this spray was impossible.  I managed to get a 1.6 sec shutter speed.  These photos were taken with a wide angle lens at 30mm and 32mm on a full frame Nikon D850.  Anything larger would likely not work very well.  We only had about 45 minutes to shoot as we had to be sure to get back to our car before darkness came.

The hardest part of the hike back was getting up the initial rock face.  Mike gave me a strong boost up and handed me my pack.  We then used our ropes to literally pull ourselves up the steep hill.  There would have been no way to get up without ropes securely tied to trees.  We did see some ropes there but their condition was extremely suspect.  While the distance isn't far, it's the steepness that makes this a very difficult hike.  But happily, we made it back safely.  And for this old dog, I was quite pleased with the adventure and my buddy's help.

I was pretty pleased with the post processed photos I came away with, see two below.  We were lucky with the colors, the flow of the water, and the overall lack of wind.  But we still had to contend with the spray.

If you go, please understand this is a very hard hike.  By far the hardest I ever have done.  Have plenty of rope too.  But the last sheer drop is the one to worry about.  Getting down and back up should not be underestimated.  I'm not providing directions as I don't want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt.  I'm not sure I'll ever attempt going here again.  The internet provides directions if you feel you have to go.

English Falls English Falls

The summer of 2018 in western North Carolina was super rainy and warm.  For 2018, the region set an all-time rainfall record.  The summer was not a good time for landscape photographers.  Since I predominantly lean toward long exposure water photography, it was hard to find anything but flooding streams and raging waterfalls.  Many people might think we'd be in heaven but not in my case.  The water was just too high and brown with mud runoff.

So what to do when its raining hard but you still want to keep your photography juices flowing?  Well, in my case I tried my hand at still life photography.  I already had two speed lights and umbrellas.  I went to a local florist and picked up a few flowers to photograph.

I find still life photography so different than shooting landscapes.  The photographer is in complete control of all aspects of the shoot, i.e., set up, composition, background and, most importantly, the lighting.  Post processing is another very important aspect of finishing the photograph.  A few of my results are posted below.  For my first attempt, I was generally pleased but you don't see how many throw aways I also had.  But it was fun nonetheless and I learned quite a bit.  Main thing is that while umbrellas will provide nice soft light, its not as good as using a good soft box.

I'll dive into flash photography a bit more in future posts.  I'm in no way an expert in this aspect of photography but I'll try to share a few tidbits I have managed to learn.  The key is to try and have fun learning another branch of photography.

I've been out of the blogging business for much too long.  I had issues with the accuracy of my prints and my monitor's calibration.  Since I only want to add high quality prints to my site, I had to wait until I got the issues resolved.  Then came a long vacation to Maine and New Hampshire followed by a great fall season in the Smokys, western North Carolina and north Georgia.  

But I have my calibration issues resolved so I can try to get back on top of adding posts on a regular basis.

In this post I want to briefly talk about how vital it is to have your monitor properly color calibrated.  Have you ever sent one of your beautiful photos to print being so anxious to proudly display it only to get it back and be so disappointed with the result?  Was it too dark and lifeless?  It's not the photo or the printing facility, it's your monitor.  Generally, any reputable external printing business, e.g., AdoramaPix or Black River Imaging, use a standard color calibration.  I won't begin to discuss all the science behind it as it's over my head.  But let's just say you have to match your monitor's color scheme to the printer you're going to use.

I was very fortunate in that a member of our camera club had a photo printing business and knew a lot about the issue.  With his help we were able to successfully calibrate my monitor again.  Generally, monitor calibration is very easy and straightforward but my prints were still not coming back the way I like them.  So in the end, I still have to raise the exposure about .8 stops and add a touch for vibrance and saturation.

I use the Spyder 4 Elite colorimeter from Datacolor.  This isn't the latest version but it still works for me.  This model is no longer available and has been replaced with the Spyder5PRO.  Search for it on Amazon.  Price is $148.  It will be the smartest $148 you'll spend.  Before buying, look at videos on YouTube to learn more about it.

A friend from our local camera club invited me over to photograph hummingbirds in his backyard.  He is an avid bird photographer and had quite the setup.  Located in dense woods, it was a great location to attract these tiny birds.  He had a quasi permanent set up to shoot from, being located under a portion of his home protected from any rain.

I always thought that you would need to use high shutter speeds to freeze the wings but that is not the case.  The shutter speed was only set at 1/250th of a second.  The key is using speed lights to freeze the movement.  In this case four speed lights.  ISO was set at 400 and I used an aperture of f/20.  So how did we get the bokeh in the background?  My friend had an enlarged photo of a blurred background hung from a light stand about seven feet behind the focus point.  When you looked through the viewfinder, all you could see was the blurry background.  Pretty slick.

He had all sorts of bird feeders set up.  We were seeing woodpeckers only five feet from us along with bluebirds and many other types.  Of course, there were several hummingbird feeders set up too.  Once attracted to the feeder location, we swapped out the feeder for a flower squirted with sugar water.  The hummingbirds just kept coming to the same location to continue feeding.

As stated, we used four speed lights.  The flashes were not expensive in the least.  Around $80 each I think. One was for the background and three for lighting the birds from each side and the bottom.  Their power was set relatively low, only 1/16th power.  I borrowed his Nikon 200-400mm lens to get in fairly close.  The photo below was cropped to get in even tighter to show more detail.  Then it was time to sit back in comfy lawn chairs and keep hitting the shutter every time the birds came around.  Since we using low power on the flashes, the recycle time was very very short so you could press the shutter over and over without waiting for the flash.  The birds didn't seem to mind the bursts of light at all.  You can't time when to press the shutter so you hit it repeatedly and hope for the best.  For my first attempt at photographing hummingbirds, I'm happy to have gotten a few keepers.  The lens caught some incredible details in the feathers.  Amazing.

Give it a try.  Pretty fun.  

Hummingbird

I've been asked to display a large selection of my landscape prints at the Woodlands Gallery in downtown Hendersonville, NC.  The address is 419 N. Main Street.  The exhibit runs from August 12 to February 28, 2019.  This comes after a fairly good showing at the Hollingsworth Gallery in Brevard, NC during July. 

If you live nearby, please stop in to see it.

Most anyone reading this post has heard it many times.  To improve your compositions, get low and get close.  I wanted to illustrate that point here with two examples of Eastatoe Falls located in western North Carolina.

The first photo is a mid-falls isolation at 92mm.  Beginning photographers often think you need to get an entire scene in your photo.  Sometimes, in fact, many times, getting a closer composition can provide vastly better and interesting photos.  Look for interesting lines and other compositional elements.

The second photo was taken at approximately the same distance but using a 24mm focal length on a wide angle lens.  But rather than take it from a standing position, I got in the water and put my camera about 8 inches over the stream.  I primarily did this is add a foreground element into my composition to get some interest in the viewfinder.  

As another example of getting close, review your compositions for any flower photography you may do.  Most often, you'll find photos other either a grouping of flowers or of a single flower.  Take it in even closer to only get a portion of a flower.  You may be pleasantly surprised at what you see.

In an earlier post I wrote about moving your body around to look at for various compositions from different angles.  But as importantly, move you focal length in and out from where you are to look for compositions within a composition.  I think you'll find your photography will improve.

Eastatoe Falls Isolation Eastatoe Falls

During the winter months or the dry hot summer, I don't often get out as much as I'd like to for my normal landscape photography.  So I've found myself bored but wanting to still photograph something.  I've been slowly accumulating flash equipment and now finally have some flashes and modifiers get started experimenting.  I've been watching a lot of YouTube videos on flash photography and still life photography and have actually picked up enough knowledge to get started.  The kicker for me was when I switched to the Nikon D850, which does not have a pop-up flash.  The Nikon cameras had used optical flash to trigger remote flashes, which was a bit of a pain.  With the D850, I splurged on some Phottix triggers.  After enlisting the help of a knowledgeable flash expert from my camera club, I got them to work (well . . . most of the time).

The photos below are all examples of flash photography using high speed sync.  This is where you shoot at a higher shutter speed to cancel out all ambient light and only use flash to light the scene.  The flower was in bright sunlight, which wouldn't look good.  But by using flash, I could control the amount and direction of the light.  I used a Rogue Flashbender to light it.  The other two photos were taken at a nearby antique mall.  Luckily the owner was very nice and let me set up some umbrellas I used to shoot the flash through to get softer light.  The beer keg photo used one umbrella, the Rogue Flashbender and a black reflector to block out the distracting background.

While none of these would win any print competitions, it does illustrate the flexibility and creativity that can be achieved by using off-camera flash.  If you've never considered trying flash out, its worth experimenting with during those times when getting out to hike to those lovely landscape scenes isn't possible.   Then I'll also have something to continue shooting when my hiking days come to an end. Days of Old Blue Blossoms

Beer and Moonshine

It's been a while since my last post.  May was a month of record and flooding rains in western North Carolina.  In the last two weeks of May, most of this area had in excess of 25 inches of rain.  Waterfalls and streams had unheard amounts of water flowing through them.  Many trails were closed with washouts and mudslides.  Five people killed and damage in certain areas was extensive.  So landscape photography took a bit of pause.  Additionally, the Blue Ridge Parkway was closed and only reopened after most of the rhododendron bloom was past.

I had been looking forward to hiking the Appalachian Trail on Roan Mountain to catch the blooming rhododendrons and blaze azaleas but a bad back kept me sidelined until this past Monday.  This has been a poor year for rhododendrons just about everywhere in western North Carolina and Roan Mountain was no exception.  Even during peak blooms, blossoms were sparse.  When I hiked there this week the vast majority of rhododendrons were gone, past peak or not able to be put into a favorable photo composition.  While the blaze azaleas were a bit better, the bright sunny day didn't help matters either.  On the hike back from Grassy Ridge, there was more cloud cover and I did find this one good bush of healthy blossoms on Round Bald.  This was my only "good" shot of the day so I'm glad I saw it.

I'll be hoping for a better blooming season next year. Round Bald - Roan Mountain

During the month of July, an exhibition of my photos will be held.  If you're in the area, please stop by to take a look.  The exhibition will be held at:

The Hollingsworth Gallery

147 East Main Street

Brevard, NC  

In just a few days, much of western North Carolina has seen triple its normal "monthly" rainfall.  Streams, creeks and rivers are flooding.  Waterfalls are gushing with a super heavy flow of water.  Most people would think this would be great for waterfalls.  I disagree as I think most photographers would.  Too much water in most waterfalls results in a lost of character and detail of the water flow.  All you get is one immense patch of white.  I don't think this creates a very photogenic image.

Some waterfalls, like Moore Cove Falls (pictured below) is normally a trickle.  With our heavy rains, it had a nice flow.  Great, right?  Well, not so fast.  The heavy flow of water creates its own wind and if there is any foliage nearby, the leaves will be blowing around.  This was the case today when I hiked to Moore Cove Falls.  There was no wind around but the water flow had nearby bushes blowing around.  Hard to get a good photo in these conditions.  Crank up the shutter speed?  Even with raising my ISO to 3000 didn't even get the shutter much better than 1/80th of a sec.  Conditions were generally on the darker side today.  Increase the aperture?  Then you get depth of field issues.  Plus using a circular polarizer takes out about two stops of light too.

To handle this situation, I kept moving around to find a composition that would not contain the blowing leaves.  I ended up walking under the waterfall and trying for a side shot.  I also wanted to use a slower shutter to help blur the water flow.  On the left side were the rock walls which were very dark, which also required using a longer shutter speed to expose this area properly.

So in the end, I'm generally happy with this photo given the less than perfect conditions with blowing leaves.  If you run into these situations, keep moving around to attempt to find a composition that works.  Keep trying as many options as you can.

On the some other photos I took I may also try to exposure blend a couple of images.  One with a faster shutter to slow down the leaf movement and another to capture the waterfall with a longer exposure.  In many cases, this is the best option.  However, today was a bit unusual.  But as always, getting out for a hike to a great place can't be beat.

Moore Cove Falls

After four years of trying to time the Carolina Rhododendrons up on Hawksbill Mountain, I finally got lucky and was blessed with overall good conditions. I made my first attempt for this year about ten days earlier and the buds were just starting to emerge.  So when the forecast appeared good, I made the hike again with Greg Schneider.

​​​​​​​If you've never been up Hawksbill Mountain, I will say its a bit of a tough hike when you are loaded down with heavy camera gear.  While its short, only about 8/10 of a mile, the final half of the hike is very steep.  The first half isn't a cake walk either.  But we took our time and made it up OK.  We were relieved to see the blooms out when we reached the top. Made the hike so worthwhile.

If you go, I would suggest leaving your longer lenses home.  This place is made for wide angle or medium telephoto lenses.  For 95% of my photos, I stuck with my favorite lens, the Nikon 17-35mm.  I've managed to get out to practice with my D850 and must say I really like its focus peaking option.  While using live-view and manual focus, it outlines those areas in focus with bright red (or a color of your choosing) lines.  So even in fairly bright sunlight, you can see what is in focus.

​​​​​​​Given the dynamic range of the light, I bracketed many of my photos, including those included here, and that seemed to work pretty well.  I also used my Lee 2- and 3-stop GND filters along with the Lee 105mm polarizing filter.  When using a circular polarizer filter on a wide angle lens, care needs to be taken to avoid getting some odd colorization in parts of the sky.

All in all, we stayed on top about three hours before heading back down.  Since some nice clouds were just starting to roll in, I would have liked to stick around a bit longer but lunch was calling for us.  : ).

I highly recommend making this hike next spring.  But the weather on Hawksbill can be harsh and the blossoms are usually short lived. That's why I've missed them so many times.  Give it a try next May, you may hit it just right.  Hawksbill is also very nice in the fall.

Hawksbill Mountain is located near the  Blue Ridge Parkway in Linville at the intersection of Hwy 183 and US221.  Check Google for more specific directions in interested.

Hawksbill Mountain 3 Hawksbill Mountain