Reconnecting with nature through hiking, camping, and paddling
The fixed, hard stone provides an ideal path for water to rush down the mountain. The stone may seem immobile and rigid but in time it will be defeated by the steady pounding of the water and the quiet, patience of the moss. For now they share this space and offer a beautiful, peaceful spot to sit and rest.
The boulders you can see in the this photograph were most likely deposited by glaciers quite some time ago. Boulders like these are pretty common throughout the glacially carved valleys and meadows in Yellowstone National Park.
The views of the Grand Teton range are spectacular enough on their own. Throw in a few blooming flowers in the foreground and it’s hard to imagine a better landscape opportunity.
This lonely tree grows on a rock outcropping in the Grand Canyon of The Yellowstone. I photographed it one cloudy morning but the result was even, flat lighting, leaving the photo without much of a sense of perspective. The next day I was lucky enough to return at just the right time. The cliff face and tree were bathed in the warm, direct morning sunlight but the opposing canyon wall and the foreground elements were still in shadow. As a result, the subject is literally highlighted.
This cascade along Jones Run in Shenandoah National Park provided an interesting photographic experience. My friend was smart enough to stay at the top. Despite my better judgement I decided to hike down a little farther from the trail. Just as I was thinking I needed to be careful on the leaves and wet rocks, I stepped on a patch of wet moss covering a large, flat downward sloping stone. As the moss gave way I began sliding down the rock face, watching my camera bounce off the stones beneath me and hoping I would be able to stop myself. Fortunately my slide came to an end before I got to the actual waterfall, about 6 feet beyond the point from which I took this picture.
I took this panoramic shot just east of the Appalachian mountains in Albemarle County,Virginia. I happened to be passing by at sunset. Despite the lack of clouds to provide a colorful sky, the valley itself seemed to almost glow in the late evening sun. Like all of the photos on my blog, you can click on the image above to see a larger, more detailed version of it.
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.
I stitched together 6 separate photos to create this panoramic view of the rock wall at Jones Run Falls in Shenandoah National Park. The water seeping over the stone edifice makes it appear very dark, nearly black. As with all of the photos on my blog, you can click on it to see a larger, more detailed image.