Reconnecting with nature through hiking, camping, and paddling
Looking over the gunwale of my canoe I’m struck by the peace, quiet and stillness of the scene. My paddle, the clouds, trees and even power lines are all clearly visible in the slow, calm water just inches below me. Continue reading “A Simple Gift Over The Gunwale”
A Great Blue Heron was flying up the Rivanna River as friends and I were floating the down it. Continue reading “Watching Over The River”
On a bright, warm winter day I found myself in the company of white giants reaching for the deep blue sky. It was about 60 degrees fahrenheit but the naked sycamores and the hard light reminded me not to get used to the weather.
I had some other ideas for this week’s photo challenge but I was walking through the woods and the reflection of the trees in this stream caught my attention. Perhaps too literal a treatment of this week’s theme but I liked the color and the stillness of the water at this spot.
I’m not much of a pine cone photographer (is there such a thing?) but the colors on this cone really caught my eye. It grew from the branch of a fallen tree that was clearly still very much alive.
The trees, silhouetted by early morning fog, make the houses seem small and almost insignificant. A neighbor’s porch lights offer the only evidence anybody else might be awake. Within an hour this scene will be transformed into a more familiar arrangement. It might be months or even a year before it looks like this again.
As I hiked past this puddle of melting snow I stopped to look at the reflections in it. Snow was falling off the trees in clumps and caused ripples in the puddle.
A bright, nearly full moon shines in the clear evening sky.
When I reached the upper falls on the Doyles River in Shenandoah National Park, the lighting was horrible. The foreground and most of the photo above and to the left of the falls were bathed in bright, direct sunlight. The falls and most of the photo to the right of them were in dark shadow. So I bracketed like crazy and combined two of the resulting photos to produce this HDR image of the scene.
Early Saturday morning I walked through Deep Run Park in Henrico County, Virginia. I wanted to be there while that magical, early morning light blanketed the trees and whatever I might find beneath them. I nearly passed this scene but fortunately stopped long enough to notice it.