Charleston, SC is a city that needs to be seen by all.  Everywhere you look there is an amazing opportunity to capture a beautiful image.  From the cobblestone streets, to old plantation homes, and even to erie old cemeteries, nothing compares to a South Carolina sunrise.  Before a day touring the city, my wife and I ventured to Folly Beach to watch the famous Charleston sunrise.  We camped out on the perfect spot and eagerly waited for the sun to reveal itself for the day. After taking several images that were “so-so” the perfect moment came.  The moment the sun arose from the water I had my camera ready, and caught the sun at the ideal position and snapped away.

Sunsets and Sunrises are a beautiful moments that should be seen as much as possible throughout your lifetime, but the next time you’re out chasing the sun be sure to bring you camera with you.  Sun images take patience and composure, but once you capture it through a lens, it is yours for an eternity.

Most people tend to avoid any shrimp boating area for the simple fact that there are generally swarms of yapping, yelping, pestering, seagulls.  But, during my last trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina I decided to venture where most would never go, and amazingly I was able to capture some amazing images.

The backdrop of rough water and rusty boats may not sound too appealing, but when you contrast that to the gracefulness of a pelican, and you have an intriguing picture. I followed these guy around for most of the morning and he certainly gave me a few good poses.  Out of all the pictures I took of them, the images of him in flight were the most intense and inspiring photos I have gotten from an animal in a while.

Whenever you’re traveling whether for pleasure, or for photography, or both you always want to be sure to think outside the box.  Go to the more industrial side of town, or a different cultural area, or even deal with pesky birds, because you never know what things look like through your lens.

We had been planning this trip for quite some time now.

5 photographers, 5 cameras, and unlimited possibilities to capture fall foliage at its finest, in the Great Smokey Mountains.

We headed to the Tennessee side of the mountain range for this trip, and majority of the time was spend at Cades Cove which is part of the Great Smokey Mountains National Park.  This area is the most highly toured and traveled in the entire system, so get there early!

Lucky for us the weather held up and we ended up having an amazing scene to capture everywhere we looked.  This old mill was the perfect contrast to the vibrant fall hues that covered every inch of the Park.

Fall continues to be a photographer’s favorite season with its vivid and rich colors that seem to bring any scene, even an old mill in a soggy, decaying, forest to dazzling life.

Next autumn be sure to check out The Great Smokey Mountains National Park, or any other parks in your area, and capture the colors before it’s too late!

Way up on the North Carolina side of the well known, Blue Ridge Parkway, is the charming and quant town of Brevard, North Carolina. The town is full of small, locally, owned shops that make one feel like they are taking a trip back to “the good ol’ days.”  Nostalgia is flowing through the air here.
Naturally, this nostalgic breeze leads locals and tourists up the hill, shall we say.  Here, in the heart of the Parkway one can capture the essence of nature, and that is exactly what I planned to do.  Luckily, I had my hiking boots on! We traveled deep into to forest and what we found, can only be described as a Mecca for the outdoor lover.
The trees here in North Carolina, especially those that inhibit the Parkway, are known for their verdant and lavish colors, which are known to assault ones senses with their richness.  Your eyes are naturally drawn to every fiber of chlorophyll that is fleeing these trees’ leaves.  It was honestly a simple and convenient backdrop to anything, and finding one of the many bodies of water, especially this waterfall here, was just whipped cream on old timepiece of apple pie.
We went on a beautiful, crisp, fall day, and stumbled upon a group of kayakers.  To some photographers, they could have been impeded on their ideal backdrop, but for me, they were just characters in the natural moment I was trying to immortalize.
Of course, when you are going out into a public location you run the risk of running into people who are also there to enjoy the beauty that you are soaking up as well.  Don’t always try to avoid these people, just simply add them to their natural environment, and you’ll be capturing a real moment in what life is really like.  And life here, in Brevard, is 100% Americana, kayakers and all.

Babcock Mill

It is the time of year for that one special hunt …… the hunt for fall colors. As the season changes from summer to fall most photographers start the ritual of trying to get those great fall colors.  It is easy to get a picture of leaves changing but I was out for more than color. After seeing picture of a mill in West Virginia at Babcock State Park, I knew that was where I should begin my hunt.

I left Stokesdale, North Carolina at 5 am on a Saturday and drove to the mill.  It took about 4 hours. We were told that the best light this time of year was about 9 am, but it would not have mattered on an overcast and dreary day like this.

What could we do? We did what any other photographer would do! We took some photographs of the colors which were almost at their peak. But without the sun’s natural light to make leaves pop, and a bald white sky you do the best you can. The overcast sky created a large soft box which gave us nice even light without hot spots or hard shadows, but it does tend to mute the colors some what.  But with a little help from Photoshop we were able to get extremely similar results.  We spent the rest of the day driving around New River Gorge looking for other opportunities with mixed results.

Grandveiw WV

Cataloochee is a valley in the Great Smoky Mountains of North Carolina. This weekend I had the opportunity to spend a day and a half there. The weather was very overcast and rainy (got to love early fall in North Carolina) but that never stops me from trying to get some shots.  It is still a little early for fall colors, but I hope to return in a couple of weeks to capture that amazing spectacle.

In 2001, 25 elk were reintroduced to the area. Then in 2002 another 27 were added to the herd. The elk that were reintroduced wear radio collars and are monitored. Project partners include the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, Parks Canada, Great Smoky Mountains Natural History Association, Friends of the Smokies, the U.S.G.S. Biological Resources Division, and the University of Tennessee.

Elk once roamed the southern Appalachian Mountains and elsewhere in the eastern United States, but they were eliminated from the region by over-hunting and loss of habitat. The last elk in North Carolina is believed to have been killed in the late 1700s.  In Tennessee, the last elk was killed in the mid-1800s.  And by 1900, the population of elk in North America dropped to the point that hunting groups and other conservation organizations became concerned the species was headed for extinction.

The elk is an amazing animal, and to see it in its natural habitat is something everyone should experience.  Grab your camera and head to the closest natural habitat in your area and see what you can capture with your lens, you never know when it may disappear.

Need something to do this weekend?  Head up to Sparta, NC to a place that has the nickname of the “Tractor Graveyard.”  The president of one of the camera club’s I belong to, had grown up with the family that owns this great piece of history. So naturally, I wanted to check it out…

My buddy and I decided that we were going to get there for the first of the morning light, he got to my house around 4:50 AM for our drive of less than two hours. We set the GPS to the address and off we went.  We raced against the sunrise while we tried to get to this unknown wonderland.   As we reached the mountains we contemplated taking our time and to just simply catch a few good sunrise shots, but we decided to press on.  The Tractor Graveyard at sunrise was an amazing opportunity that we could not miss.

As we came closer to our location a light fog was slowly rolling in.  We came around the final bend and we could see an abundance of old tractors lined up on both sides of the road. We had arrived just before sunrise. There was heavy morning dew on the ground, and we quickly noted to bring water resistant shoes next time, but the moisture didn’t put a damper on the amazing backdrop that was before us. The sun gently came through the trees and we had a great look at what we had to shoot; tremendous amounts of old, decaying tractors, covered in moss, dew, and spider webs.  These tractors were full of personality that needed to be captured with a lens.

On Tuesday the 1st of September we had our photo contest at the Bokeh Photography Club, and honestly, there were some amazing images there. Sadly, I did not take first place; however, I did have two images that were in a three way tie for third place. First place went to John Poer and in second place was Stephanie Thomas. We had a panel of three judges, which included, Pam Krist, owner of Dalmatian B&W Lab in Greensboro, Deanne O’Connor, art director and photo editor of Our State Magazine, and John Carroll a award winning photographer from Winston Salem, NC.

The whole event was incredibly fun, but the best part of the evening was when Pam took control of the computer along with the other two judges and began critiquing each image and showing how each one could be improved. To have people of this caliber give you feedback on your work is a welcomed and valued moment.

And here comes some even more good news! Pam will be back to judge our B&W contest and she is asking that we include a raw image of our entrée and she will select a few and do the conversion of these to B&W the Dalmatian way! For those of you that don’t know, Dalmatian Lab is by far the premiere B&W Lab in the country, and prints many fine art prints for some of the best photographers in the world.

I can only hope that she picks one of mine!

Last weekend, I spent the day at the Reynolda Gardens of Wake Forest University, along with a number of other photographers. We all just wanted to get out and shoot, and the Reynolda Gardens are an amazing place to explore with the lenses of your camera. The 300 acres property was gifted of to Wake Forest College in the late 1940s for its new home in Winston and is now part of Wake Forest University. There are about four-acre formal garden with a number of large green houses. And honestly, there is no better company than a bunch of fellow photographers. We met at about 8am and stayed until noon, then of course had a quick bite to eat and great conversation full of photo tips and tricks. Flowers are not my favorite subject, but it’s always good to shoot outside of your comfort zone and try new things. I’m currently still trying to find my favorite subject, and exploring will be the only way to discover it.

Reynolda Gardens is located at 100 Reynolda Village, Winston-Salem, NC 27106

Floyd VA; What a place to be on a Friday night!   A good friend and a fellow photographer, Paul Salazr invited me to join him, and do some street photography.  Whenever I get a chance to pick up the camera I almost always say yes. So off we went to Floyd, it’s about an hour and a half from my house. Now what you have to understand is that I am a rock and roll kinda guy growing up in the 60’s and 70’s, and bluegrass I thought that was something you cut with a lawn mower, what the heck I am going for the pictures?  The best I can describe what happens on a Friday night is similar to what you would see if you have been to New Orleans’s Jackson Square, basically a bunch of musicians get together and play. If I saw one person with an instrument I saw fifty. It all starts at The Floyd Country Store; a true country store where you will find a dance floor and a stage where different groups setup.  There’s only a small fee to sit and listen or dance. But I am there to do street photography, not dancing.  This is where it gets interesting… all around the main drag you will find small groups of musicians.  As I watched a group of older gentlemen playing, a young girl asked if she could join them and the response is sure sit right down. She sat down pulled out what I believe to be a mandolin then they asked her what song she wanted to play and what key. She named a song and off they went playing, she started sing along to the music. After about 15 or 20 songs later the girl politely excused herself, packed up her instrument up and moved on. Not twenty feet away a gentlemen was sitting on a bench playing fiddle and just having a great time. As I moved from group to group to get some shots, I found myself enjoying the music so much I was forgetting to take pictures. After about 3 hours I did mange to take a few.