Waterfalls on the way to Highlands - 4/20/15

A few days before this trip we had an awful lot of rain come through. Several days of heavy rain. However we had no rain the day of heading up to Highlands NC. So the slow twisty turny drive up the mountain turned into several spots to stop and look at the rushing water.

1/160 sec - F7.1 - 70mm - ISO 160

1/160 sec - F7.1 - 70mm - ISO 100

1/60 - F8 - 18mm - ISO 100

1/125 - F6.3 - 18mm - ISO 100

Although none of the shots really came out from down under it, it was truly something to be underneath that much falling water. It was LOUD. But also a bit scary to be honest, the sheer force of it. I have to imagine no matter who it is, if you got mixed up in that you’re getting pulled into it and down you go. Nature is awesome, quite literally I mean. It inspired awe to see this sight.

But we did continue and have a lovely little time in Highlands. Nice little town to visit during the off season. I heard all about what it’s like in the summer and I don’t think I’ll be visiting. I do like this next shot, taken from a moving car of course. But an absolutely beautiful house.

1/125 sec - F7.1 - 55mm - ISO 100

We did also find an overlook on the way back home. Where I managed to take this picture that I believe I still have featured on the landscape part of my site. It was a very pretty view and I liked the way the cloud was casting a shadow. Not often you’re high up enough to see that entirely.

1/125 sec - F11 - 18mm - ISO 100 - This is the unedited version. I tweaked it a bit before putting it online, mostly some dehaze and saturation boost a lot. At the time I didn’t know what I was doing with photoshop. But comparing the two that’s what I notice now. I think I’ll take another crack editing it now that I know what I’m doing.

One last image I do want to share just made me smile. Because I was and still am immature and weed jokes have always been funny to me, even when they aren’t actually funny I can’t see 420 and not make the joke. It did just happen to be 4/20/15 and someone had come earlier in the day to the overlook and marked it so.

Shooting in a winter wonderland - 2/23/15

A mere 5 days later after the first snowfall and we had several inches dropped on us. Enough that me having lived in an area that MAYBE will get snow, and had only had to drive in it once before, I called out of work to my job I had gotten just a few weeks before. Not a great move, but the boss was really cool. And honestly he was impressed that I wasn’t high school age and actually was more than willing to work.

While this wasn’t the most snow I’ve ever seen before, it was still enough that I grabbed the camera and stepped out the basement door for less than a minute and took a couple shots.

1/60 sec - F4.5 - 34mm - ISO 3200

1/125 sec - F3.5 - 18mm - ISO 3200

1/320 sec - F3.5 - 18mm - ISO 500

1/320 - F3.5 - 18mm - ISO 500

Looking at these I would say that’s at least 3-4 inches on top of my old Ford Taurus. I don’t think I went out to play in it, but I should have. I certainly haven’t seen this much snow in the last 5 years.

The first bird pictures - 2/18/15

Almost a full 5 years ago from writing this, about 2 months short. I finally have some of my first tastes of the photography I would later dive full into. Shortly after the Lego Minecraft building of the last post. We had a bit of snow up in the North Carolina mountains. And for whatever reason I do remember thinking to fill up the bird feeder. Which thankfully is right in sight of one of the basement windows.

Which leads to the first example of bird photography I ever took. 172 images that mostly are of bird butts as they turned away from me. I’ve hand picked a few now that I took with the Rebel T3i and the unknown Tamron telephoto lens I was borrowing from my father.

1/1600 sec - F5.6 - 210mm - ISO 800

1/400 sec - F5.6 - 210mm - ISO 3200

1/80 sec - F5.6 - 55mm - ISO100

1/400 sec - F7.1 - 210mm - ISO 320

1/2000 sec - F5.6 - 210mm - ISO 800

So here they are. Actually a fairly decent spread of birds to be honest. Likely due to the fact that the snow had just started to fall and free food. Why would you want to pass that up.

It would be years before I really tried again with birds I think. But these officially are the first wildlife photos I ever took. Have to start somewhere, and shooting jpg, through a window, in a full auto mode was a good place. I would have a lot to learn from here.