Spring showers bring raindrops on leaves

After a rainstorm in early March, I went out with the macro gear to work on close-up pictures of raindrops.

Waterfalls in March 2018

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.

Hearthstone Hikers 02-22-18

Two shoots today:  first the foggy sunrise at West Bank Park, and then our hike at Riverside Park in Roswell.  Good times had in both places.

The Fall of Jones Bridge

The old Jones Bridge across the Chattahoochee River has fallen  down.  The support pylon in the middle of the river rusted through enough that it toppled, and that end of the bridge is in the water.  While I was there, I also took a few more pictures.

 

 

Early spring in 2018

A compilation of from Jan and Feb 2018.  We had relatively a lot of rain and many cloudy days, so good photo ops were limited.  In addition, I’ve been more careful and intentional about my pictures.  Spending a bit more time and thought seems to be paying dividends  in better backgrounds, better compositions and better exposure choices.

The great snow of 2017

A few pictures from the recent snowfall

Hearthstone Hikers on the AT

Our last hike of this calendar year was to go south on the trail from Woody Gap to Rimrock Mtn and back.  It was a dreary day but a fun hike with a  great group.  I took no pictures on the way out.  What follows begins at our turn-around point.

Some of the intrepid hikers at the top, including Michael’s fancy DIY poncho

 

A view of the woodland along most of the trail.
A view of part of the trail
A couple of hikers just movin’ on down the line
Hikers with their heads down
What little color I could find
Turning over a leaf
Ranee and Jeanne at the rock pile on the way to eat, discussing something

An outing with the NGPC

That’s the North Georgia Photography Club y’all.  We thought we’d get to 4 or 5 falls, but we only  saw two,  The rest for another today.

All the pictures are here, but I’ve included a few teasers in this post.

Unicoi Lake at sunrise

 

Horsetrough Falls

 

The Creature in the Creek

 

A better view from the parkway

 

 

The fall fling with the Sonny Day Hikers

A number of us spent a couple nights at Vogel State Park in far north Georgia hiking, eating and generally having a great time.  Our long hike was the Jarrad Gap trail, part of the Appalachian trail to the top of Blood Mountain, and the down the Slaughter Creek trail, a distance of something over 8.5 miles.  We also did a number of turns around Lake Trahlyta, but that’s only a mile or so.

I shot the sunrises, but only the first was really any good.  The first time around the lake on the first afternoon showed good color, but the last time around just before leaving was spectacular.  Buck and I stopped frequently to admire the view and decide a composition.  My thanks to Buck for some pictures I would not have see otherwise.

The first few pictures are from Dick’s Creek near Turner’s Crossroads.  Its on my way, so I left early and took time to look for reflections in the creek below the falls.  Some success there, but not as much as hoped for.

Herewith the pictures:

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Waterfalls and fall color in western North Carolina, October 2017

Did a workshop by Bill and Linda Lane in Brevard, NC right after the remnants of tropical storm Nate blew through.  The waterfalls were flowing full-faucet, and the creeks were up, so far up many of the best photo ops were just not accessible.  Still a great time, fun people, and I learned something too.  🙂

I was disappointed in most of my waterfall shots because there was so much water most of the details were obscured, or I just couldn’t find a point of view I liked.  So I’ll return again to try again.

My favorite shots are toward the end:  the square picture of fog in the trees, and any of the sunrise shots.