Iceland Bound

The blog has been a little quieter than we would like,  so an update is overdue.   We finished another fantastic year making images and leading photography tours with a week in Iceland being our last tour of the year.  The image above was shot at Oxararfoss in Thingvellir National Park in Iceland.  

December was a bit on the warm side for Iceland and as a result there had been no snow.  The only disappointment was the Ice Caves were flooded due to warm temperatures and rain.  But as a result of the warmer temperatures the glacier lagoon was not frozen and we had lots of ice chunks on the black sand beach.   So Mother Nature took one thing from us but gave us another.

We leave again in a couple of days for another week in Iceland.  What a great way to end one year and start another!

Solitude

When I started thinking about this blog, I was going to title it “How’s Your Friday Night?”.  The only reason for that question is that I see others post pictures on social media asking such questions when they perceive their location is better at that moment in time than yours.

I’m not convinced that everyone would want to be standing in 3 feet of cold mountain water on a Friday Night.  But this is how I spent last Friday evening and I can’t think of any place that I would rather have been.  Even considering the mild case of poison ivy that was a result of this evening.

This little spot is hidden away on the upper part of the Rapidan River just inside of Shenandoah National Park.   The road getting there is a bit of a rough ride and not something I would want to travel without a 4x4 truck.  The entire evening I had this little portion of the park all to myself.   I love doing tours, workshops and meetups but last Friday evening I really enjoyed the solitude of having this little spot all to myself.

Win a Trip!

Since the inception of Road Runner Photography Tours we have frequently raffled spots on some of our tours. This May however, we are doing something we have never done and frankly have never seen anyone else do either.  We are planning a weekend photo tour in one of our favorite areas of West Virginia and the only way you can attend is to win a spot on the tour.  That’s right, every spot on the tour will be given away to randomly selected winners.

If you want to enter for a chance to win one of the 6 spots on the tour you need to head over to this page;  www.RoadRunnerPhotographyTours.com

If you want to increase your chances of winning a spot on the tour it’s easy.  You just need to share the custom link that will be made available to you after you enter.  You can share this link with friends directly via email or you can use the buttons to post the link on your favorite social media site.   Each time someone enters using your link, you will get an extra entry into the contest as well.

Let’s just imagine for a moment, that you don’t want to win. I know I’m having trouble imagining that you would not want to win.  But you can still help your friends win by registering and sharing the link with your photo friends.  Imagine how grateful they would be if they won a spot because of your help!

Full details are available on the contest page.

12 Inches

If you were one of the folks that followed our Icelandic Adventure on Facebook, you might remember a post by my friend Jeff Johnson titled “12 Inches from the end of Road Runner”.  Jeff took a picture of me leaning over the edge of a canyon and Denise standing behind me.  I suspect had we fallen it would have been the end of more than just Road Runner Photography Tours.   But we were in no real danger and the steam rushing through the canyon was irresistible to me.   We are going back next September and if you would like to join us, check out the Iceland page on the Road Runner Photography Tours site.

Iceland is a landscape photographers paradise!!

Great Falls

This past Saturday myself and about 30 other people from Road Runner PhotographyMeetup Group braved the cold weather for an early morning shoot at Great Falls.   The sunrise was not exactly epic but we made the best of it.  I got to visit with some old friends and meet some new ones and that part is always great!  When I finally got my camera out of the bag I saw this shot in my mind  and made it happen.   Because the clouds were less than ideal I thought it best to use long exposure.  In this case I exposed for 3 minutes.   The RAW file was triple processed using the smart object technique in Camera Raw.  This allowed me to process the RAW file for the rocks, the water, and the sky, blending them together in Photoshop.  

White Oak Canyon After Dark

  

This past weekend Road Runner Photography Tours held a Meetup in the White Oak Canyon section of Shenandoah National Park.  We had great conditions for waterfall photography because Mother Nature was kind enough to provide a mostly cloudy day, and for a photographer this is perfect for waterfalls.  After dark myself and a few others decided to hang out and provide some of our own light.  Considering we had a 2 mile hike out in the dark I only did this one shot of the lower falls, but I’m really happy with how it turned out.