Shenandoah National Park

So I posted too soon on the Old Rag hike from last week. I found this gem as I was trolling back through my pics. I stitched this image together and really liked the result. An interesting note about the technique I used for this shot: I guess I would have to call this panoramic a "graduated exposure panoramic." Generally you want to lock your exposure when you make a panorama. This ensures that you don't have any ugly mismatch in brightness, particularly in the sky. In this case, the panorama is stitched vertically and the bottom image is a much slower shutter speed than the top exposure that is set to make the sky pretty. I think the result is pretty slick.

Autumn in the mid Atlantic region seems to be yellow. Perhaps it is caused by the very hot summer, but it seems that leaves are turning yellow or brown and then almost immediately, dropping from the tree. In the Shenandoah National Park area there were entire stands of trees that were completely barren followed by bright yellow displays—both at the same elevation. The yellows and browns combined to make a rusty-golden orange carpet across the hills.

These photos were taken on our hike up Old Rag Mountain. When we arrived at 8:30 in the morning, the parking lot already had twenty cars in it, though by the time we returned at 2:30 the parking lot was overflowing. We set a brisk pace up the Ridge Trail until we reached the rocky scrambles that are the hallmark of Old Rag. I suppose that I should be excoriated for not posting any photos from the narrow stairways and rocky tunnels that make this trail so much fun. My excuse: as is generally the case with Old Rag, there were people in front and behind us, so I didn't feel like holding up other people by setting up a tripod in the middle of the trail.

These expansive photos of the golden hillsides were difficult to resist. At every turn you can look down and see the undulating topography of the mountain as its leaves move from green to gold. The sky was partly cloudy—well actually mostly cloudy. That made for some interesting shadows that can be seen in these photos, further enhancing the texture of the rolling landscape.

This last photo was taken near the end of the return trail along the Weakly Hollow Fire Road. Brokenback Run follows you for the last fifteen or twenty minutes down the mountain. On a destination hike like Old Rag, I like to show a photo from somewhere remote from the "highlight." The beauty and pleasure of being in nature doesn't begin when you arrive and end when you leave the summit. Sometimes the highlight of your hike can be getting there and back.

The weather forecast for last Saturday was frightful—Rain, downpours, overcast, sleet, hail, possible snow squalls. So we decided to go for a photo hike. We figured that the wet and slippery rocks would make for more challenging photography.

This first waterfall was poached from Martin's photo hike a few weeks earlier. He had come back to remake his photo of this location. It is interesting to compare how our photographic styles captured this scene. They say that photographers paint with light, but sometimes I think Martin paints with water. His vision creates a stunningly understated scene that soothes the soul.

This panoramic was bracketed and composed of two rows of five images for a total of 33 images (I know the math doesn't work, live with it). This isn't an HDR image. This panoramic was stitched in three separate layers, one for each exposure and then the highlights and lowlights were hand blended to handle the wide dynamic range.

Apparently folks ride this slide in the summertime. It looks to me like it would hurt my rear end. This panoramic stitch has a field of view that is just over 180 degrees, so it looks like the slide is curved. It isn't. In the deep pools, the blue green water made me yearn for summer swims in mountain streams.

In just a few weeks, these views will be obscured by leaves. I think I might go back and remake some of these shots—a little bit more color might liven up these scenery. April is a great time for photographing waterfalls and creeks.