Dark Hollow Falls, 50mm Challenge

When my friend and I reached the bottom of Dark Hollow Falls I decide to challenge myself a little.  I switched to a 50mm prime lense, rather than the two zoom lenses I had been using all morning.  My challenge was to only shoot with the prime lense for the rest of our hike.

When we arrived at this spot I immediately found myself frustrated because I couldn’t frame the entire waterfall with a 50mm lense.  It was simply too big and we couldn’t get very far away from it.  Knowing my wide angle zoom would easily frame the scene only made the whole situation more annoying.  Sticking to my self imposed challenge I started looking for different perspectives and ended up with this.  I am absolutely certain I would not have taken this photo if I was using the lense I normally shoot with.

Sometimes forcing yourself to do things differently can lead to different ways of seeing things.

James River Beach Still Life

Natural objects on the shore the James River, near Richmond, VA.

Melting Icicle

Earlier this month I visited Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.  Nearly all the west facing rocks had large icicle formations on them.  On my way out of the park I decided to stop and get some photos of the icicles.  Since it had been above freezing they were all slowly melting.

Lake Yellowstone Killdeer

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This killdeer was patrolling the shoreline of Lake Yellowstone, spending most of its time on the semi-submerged rocks just beyond the shore.

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Little Black Spider

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I nearly stepped on this small black and red spider before I noticed it hanging out on a lichen covered rock.

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For The Benefit And Enjoyment Of The People

The North Gate to Yellowstone National Park is quite impressive.  Although I would guess most visitors no longer arrive through this gate, it struck me as a nearly perfect entrance to the park.  It’s large, rugged, and beautiful in it’s own right, much like the park itself.  You also have to love the inscription at the top “For The Benefit and Enjoyment Of The People”.  It kind of sums up the whole National Park system.

We spent a week in Yellowstone in mid-June which was a wonderful experience.  The downside was after a few days the park food starts to get a little monotonous.  On our fourth night we left through the North Gate to find pizza for dinner.  After getting our fill of non-park food, we returned through the gate and I was pleased to be able to photograph it with some interesting clouds in the sky.  Luckily the lighting at the time allowed the same exposure for the clouds and the gate so no HDR trickery was needed to make this image.

Stones Along the Shore

This photograph was taken on Hog Island Wildlife Management Area, along the James River, near Surry, VA.  It was a cold February morning, just after dawn.  While the entire scene looks wet, it was actually frozen.  The sand along the shore was a hard as cement and the foam around the river stones had been turned to ice.

Forest Still Life

During a hike I noticed this piece of bark resting on stones by the side of the trail.  I was initially intrigued by the texture and patterns in the bark itself.  My first thought was to get a close up of the texture but when I noticed the bark was sitting between two shadows I thought it made for an interesting forest still life.

Jones Run Falls Panorama

I stitched together 6 separate photos to create this panoramic view of the rock wall at Jones Run Falls in Shenandoah National Park.  The water seeping over the stone edifice makes it appear very dark, nearly black.  As with all of the photos on my blog, you can click on it to see a larger, more detailed image.

Lonely Journey To The Top