A collection of pictures from various places taken after Memorial Day. Some of flowers blooming in the yard, some from West Bank Park at Lake Lanier, some on the Wagontrain Trail at Brasstown Bald and a bunch at the end from the native plant gardens in Forsyth county.
I visited one of the two native plant gardens in Forsyth county, just to see what might be blooming. It was a cloudy morning, just right for flower closeups, with no sun to cast shadows that might present problems. I used my macro lens, and clearly I need to work on getting things in focus. I suspect I need to shoot from a bit farther away to get better depth of field.
The Hearthstone Hikers trekked the Raven Cliffs Falls trail on a nice warm day. The vegitation has grown up over the years, and some of the better views of waterfalls are now to obscured to make good photographs. Still a very nice hike, not too long but long enough to be some good exercise.
The Sonny Day Hikers tackled this trail hoping to find the ladyslipper blooms we had found other years. While the trail was wetter than any of us had ever seen it, we did find the flowers.
The next day I joined the Hearthstone Hikers for the walk along Codd Creek to Raven Cliffs Falls. It was another good hike with some good photo ops.
I attended a workshop in Cass, WV focused on flower macro photography and scenics. Unfortunately, the trees had not yet leafed out, so the scenics did not materialize the extent we wanted. So the whole thing changed to a workshop on “buds and barns” since that’s what we did have. We also shot the Greenbank National Radio Observatory (which requires a “radio quiet” zone, which means no cellphone service is allowed) one morning with spectacular light. In addition, the Cass Scenic Railroad was beginning their annual operation, and so we had the chance to shoot the trains coming and going.
Overall, a very good educational experience for me. I learned a good deal about how to meter a scene and get a good (if not quite optimal) exposure the first time, and I learned a lot about how to choose a composition to photograph out of a large area.
Visited the Twin Cities to watch Gabby skate and to visit family, at least those who did not go to Australia for the weddings. A few inches of snow still on everything when we arrived, but it had largely melted away a week later when we left, but most lakes/ponds still had some ice. Had hoped for wild flower pictures , but shot other stuff instead. The first pictures are from various places, the second is from the Skate Bloomington competition.
Went to visit Beth and family in Raleigh, NC. Got a couple opportunities to shoot flora and fauna, with good results. We also attended a dinner at the West Raleigh Presbyterian Church, but pictures from that event are elsewhere.
I hauled myself down to Jones Bridge and walked a bit of the trails there. The river is full and could flood some spots if we continue to have rain at the rate we’ve been having recently. So there were few fisherfolk and no aquatic birds to speak of. So I hunted for dogwoods in bloom (none found) or wildflowers that might be up or any birds or animals I might find. As I was driving out, I did spot one young deer, but that was if for animals.
After a rainstorm in early March, I went out with the macro gear to work on close-up pictures of raindrops.
Went to find and visit a number of waterfalls: Haven Falls, which I had never seen, Minnehaha Falls, the falls on Crow Creek, which I had only seen driving by, Bad Branch Falls and the falls on Joe Creek, the biggest being Panther Falls. With the recent rains, the trails were muddy and sometimes quite slick. But I had a great time.
Photographically, the day was very bright, with not a cloud to be found. So some of the shots had to be done using High Dynamic Range (HDR) processing. That combines several images to produce a final result.