An exploratory hike by the Sonny Day Hikers turned out to be a very nice hike. The original intent was to turn around at the top of Deadennen Mtn, but most of the group chose not to go that far. The climb of Wilscot Mtn was enough. The distance from there to Deadennen Mtn is not that great, but it is a steep down/up and then reverse on the return. The trail itself is quite smooth and easy to walk.
More late wildflowers and mushrooms found again. And I played more with ICM photography.
A brief visit to the falls with visiting family. We hiked as far as the bottom of the steps, then drove to the West Ridge Trail to see the upper part of the falls, then had lunch at the lodge.
Not the best day or time of day for photography. Broken clouds and building thunderstorms, but very, very harsh light when the sun was not behind a cloud, and even then still very bright.
The falls are barely visible from the bottom of the trail because the trees have grown considerably in the past 25 years, and because everything is fully leafed-out. So limited photo ops.
A mixed bag of images from the last two weeks of August 2019. I was not shooting much, both because of the heat/humidity, the harsh light of mid-summer days and a lot of other things to do. So this is what I got.
As noted in my previous post, I’m playing with Intentional Camera Movement (ICM) for landscapes as a means to a little different sort of compositions when I can’t find something that grabs my attention.
In mid-August 2019 the Sonny Day Hikers did an exploratory hike on a bit of trail none of us had ever hiked before, and now we wonder why not. The trail is a relatively flat section of the AT, at least the 2.3 miles or so we traveled before turning back. A very pleasant, not overly difficult hike.
Surprisingly, we found a variety of wild flowers blooming. Most notable was three separate clumps of Turk’s Cap Lilys (Lilium superbum if you wan the Latin name.) According to our resident expert, these are rare in Georgia but more common further north.
Travelled by car, train and foot to the Meadows at Piedmont Park in Atlanta for this first ever ballooning event in the city. Not the best-organized event I’ve attended, but no problems either. Due to some soggy ground, the dozen balloons were more tightly-bunched than I would have preferred for photography, but ya work with what ya got.
The event was announced at 5-9 pm, and we arrived shortly after 5 pm. But there were no balloons until well after 6 pm, so we had a chance to walk around the venue and scout places to shoot from.
Once the ballooning began, things got very busy The balloons were limited to 50 feet in elevation, and each balloon was tethered by four lines. That meant it was difficult to move in among the balloons, so I stayed on the perimeter.
I had hoped for broken clouds and some color as the sun set, but that was not to be. I got only a single shot with any sort of sunset, and there we no backlighting of the balloons as the sun got low in the sky.
However, the glow went well. I had a very difficult time focusing since there was little to no pattern in which balloons would glow at any time, or if some of them would ever glow.
Still a good time overall, although I think I’ll go back to Helen next year rather than this event.
A variety of pictures. The weather has been very hot and humid, and I have not been out a lot. When I have been out, there has been very little color around, although I have not searched out any color either.
What I decided to do was to experiment with multiple exposures and ICM, aka Intentional Camera Movement. I walked a park near the house in search of tree trunks that would look nice when blurred against a green background. Those I found, but finding the right exposure and method for holding/moving the camera took many trials and errors.
Lastly, for sunrise, I chose to shoot a triple exposure rather than a single longer exposure. I had hoped to get a better texture in the water that way. You decide.
Got up for sunrise, but that was a dud. So I went to see what might be blooming in the garden. Not a lot, but the dew provided some opportunities.
Spent ten days with the extended family on the north shore of Oahu visiting Cathy and her family. Got what I could while wandering around with the family to various attractions, and I got up several morning for the early light. The sun rose on the other side of the mountains, so all I had was what was reflected on the clouds. That worked really well as it turned out.
A few of us from the photography group went to the launch of the Friday morning local balloon event. The main event, the Helen to the Atlantic race was launched the previous morning, this was just as much fun.
This being my first ever event of this kind, I had no idea what to expect or what sort of picture opportunities might be available. A few hundred people were waiting as the balloon teams arrived, took their assigned spots on the field and began getting ready to launch. The spectators were allowed to wander freely among the balloons, talk to the crews and poke their noses wherever they wished. So I did.
One fellow calmly walked over to a partially inflated balloon, lifted up a flap, stuck his head in and began taking pictures. So that’s how I got the first couple of shots. Then is was just a wander ’round to watch as the crews inflated and launched.
After about 90 minutes the field was empty but for one balloon which never launched, but stayed so people could have their pictures taken in the basket.
Photographing was tricky since the sun had risen about 30 min before the event began, but the hills still blocked the harsh light. As the time went on, the light got more and more difficult. The balloons headed east after launch (as if they had any choice), so some shots had to be done with the sun behind the balloon to be possible at all.
I chose to walk around, so I did not use a tripod or monopod. A tripod would have been possible only if you stayed off the field and just shot with a longer lens. A monopod would be feasible although no one I saw used one.
I did use all my lenses, 11-16 mm, 18-105 mm and 55-300 mm, as the situation changed.
I used no filters. At the start none was necessary. Later on a CPL might have been useful, but there was no time to adjust one since the compositions were constantly changing.
Did both the scouting hike and lead the actual hike for the Hearthstone Hikers. On the scouting trip, I hauled my light tripod since I anticipated shooting the waterfalls. On the later hike I left that home so as not to delay the group.
The hikes were good although the weather is heating up some. Got good shots below the covered bridge and along the trail. At the dam, we were on the side of the dam not usually photographed. Most shots I’ve seen are from spots along the creek below the old mill building.
And we did encounter one of the larger blacksnakes I have seen. No problems, with the snake. In attempting the photo, I did not get the head in focus, so I won’t post that shot elsewhere.