Discovering Appalachia

Last Saturday my friend Jeff and I visited the Red River Gorge in the Daniel Boone National Forest for the first time. We had each heard a lot of good things about it from the people at our ad agency in Louisville, so we figured why not experience it during the peak of fall season? To be honest, I've never been that impressed by photos of the Appalachians and Smoky Mountains National Park that I've seen from photographers so I wasn't expecting much. Man was I wrong. I'm regretting that it took me 27 years to discover Appalachia.

Not knowing anything about the area, we stopped at the Skylift area of Natural Bridge State Resort Park just because it was the first location we passed on the Mountain Parkway. We figured that we'd take a quick tram ride up to the top of the mountain then be done within the hour. We ended up staying half the day and hiking up and down the mountain before taking the tram back down in late afternoon.



The views from on top of the Natural Bridge were incredible. There was a sea of colors from our feet out to the horizon many miles away. After I shot through a memory card and a half, we took a side trail down to Hemlock Lodge, and on the way found a dark cave that we were told opened up to the other side of the mountain. We went in with Jeff using his point and shoot digital camera flash as our flashlights, until I sort of got stuck in some water, so we turned around as it was starting to get scary dark in there. Right before he turned back, Jeff thought he flashed a hibernating bear in the face. I didn't buy it, but who knows.



When we made it back up to the top of the ridge, I only had a few shots left despite the fact I was carrying three memory cards. I ended up deleting some duplicate images just so I could get a few more from the views we hadn't seen yet. My portable 40 gig compact flash hard drive was in my car...



After hiking up, down and around the mountain, it was exhausting but we still had two hours of sunlight left so we headed over to the Gray's Arch trail in the Red River Gorge. The foliage there was amazing. The entire forest seemingly consisted of red and yellow leaves. The late afternoon light made for some nice images as it backlit the leaves, and inside the canyon it was all in deep shadow so I didn't have to worry much about proper exposure. I wasn't willing to climb Gray's Arch while carrying a tripod and camera, so I stayed below to photograph and hike back out the way we came, while Jeff and the other hikers climbed up and left the canyon through the upper trail because it would have been suicidal to climb back down the Arch in those steep, wet conditions. A backpack shrine located nearby dedicated to the hiker who fell to his death in 1986 was a constant reminder of the hazzards of such an activity. I had no idea that the backpack was a shrine until after I made it back to the car. I would have taken photos of it had I known the story behind it.



After an hour of photographing, and hiking in the company of a grandfather who kept boasting to his grandkids that he was friends with Daniel Boone back in the day and helped dupe all the "Indians" out of their land, I met Jeff back at the car as the sun was setting. Desperate to salvage something of the remaining light, I found a vista of the Gorge not far from the car, but not visible from it either. Since it was a cloudless day, the sky was too bright even for my five stops of stacked Galen Rowell / Singh-Ray Graduated Neutral-Density filters. Knowing my limitations for landscapes, I focused on capturing forest details.



Now as I'm preparing to leave Kentucky for good, I think the only thing that would bring me back to this region would be to experience more of the Appalachian Mountains. There were tons of tourists, hikers and photographers roaming around but it never felt crowded. The scenery was so incredible that I rarely noticed the people around me, except for the grandfather of course. People come from all over the world and for good reason to see Appalachia. At this time of year, there is no where else I would rather have been.

Photography Tips:

1. If you have decent camera gear just act like you don't know much and keep your answers to simple one or two word replies otherwise people will keep asking questions about what camera you use, and etc... you know the drill. I'm not a jerk for taking this approach. It's just that I prefer to talk about the scenic experience, not cameras.

2. Use a circular polarizer. Deepen those blue skies and bring out the colors of the foliage.

3. Bring a tripod if you expect a high percentage of sharp photos. I left mine in the car for the Skylift, but learned my lesson and brought it to Gray's Arch.

New Panoramic Photos

With the continuing advancement of digital photography over the past several years, many new techniques are at the disposal of photographers, as well as the opportunity to improve upon one's vision. With an awesome panoramic stitching program called AutoPano, I was able to stitch together this image with seven images. Initially I shot 11 images for this because it's better to have too much to work from than not enough, but seven ended up being sufficient for what I wanted.



To make this panoramic all I did was make sure I had enough overlapping parts of each frame in order for the software to stitch them together. A tripod is absolutely necessary, though I wouldn't be surprised if the software miraculously were able to stitch together handheld images as well on occasion.

I took this photo on Monday at Clifty Falls State Park, in Madison, Indiana, in order to take advantage of the overcast conditions, which the leaves often look their most vibrant in pictures with the use of a circular polarizer. The reason why this is, is because during sunny days there are harsh shadows and blown highlights, which only serves to detract from the wonderful color displays of fall foliage.

10/23/06 - 37 Degrees, Overcast, Windy, Leaves Falling Fast.

To visit my new gallery of panoramic pictures, click this link.

For the AutoPano Stitching Software, click this link.

Triptychs

Taken in sequential order, the first image in this series of photos represents my initial photo of this pre-visualized scene of the Falls of the Ohio and the Downtown Louisville skyline. The middle photo represents my 3rd attempt at shooting the scene in more flattering light but missing the train, and the bottom photo is my 4th attempt last night at sunset though with the train heading towards Kentucky as opposed to leaving the state for Indiana. In both photos with the train, see how the colors happen to match the landscape. That is a detail that I hadn't noticed until now as I'm typing this. I'm considering re-processing the RAW file on the third image in an attempt to get more detail out of the Falls of the Ohio.

Thanks for looking.

Fall is Alive and Well in Kentucky

I took this shot today (10/20/06) at the Bernheim Forest in Clermont, Kentucky. According to the Kentucky Department of Tourism website, this is about 30% of peak fall colors. I can't wait to see what 100% looks like in that case!

My 27th birthday is this coming Thursday, October 26th so maybe I'll be lucky.