Mountain Laurel

For years I have noticed the Mountain Laurel in Shenandoah National Park but before this year I have never seen it in bloom. It seemed like I was always early or late. This past June as I was driving through the Southern section of the park the Mountain Laurel was in peak. I had originally driven up to the park to photograph the fawns and pretty much struck out in that regard. But the Mountain Laurel was a nice surprise and helped make the trip worthwhile.

Ricketts Glen

The shot above was taken in late May at Ricketts Glen in Pennsylvania. This was my first trip to Ricketts Glen and I was not disappointed. The best time to go seems to be in the spring when the water is flowing. I had planned to go last fall but called the park to find out that the water flow was barely a trickle. The park has a large number of waterfalls, but a little hiking is required to reach them.



The shot above is a double layer panorama. I used an old Nikon manual focus 28mm perspective correction lens to shoot the double layer. The nice thing about such a large shot will be evident if I ever print the picture. The native size of this shot is 25 by 45 inches.

Incredible Iceland

As I write this post I just finished tweeting with my friend Tony Sweet who is back in Iceland for what I expect will be another great workshop. Last year I “got lost” in Iceland with Tony and Einar. It was the trip of a lifetime! As I mentioned in my blog last year, Iceland is a wonderful country and the people are warm and welcoming. I love America but Iceland in some respects felt like home.


When I look at the few thousand pictures from last year I remember all of them except for this one. I just don’t remember taking this picture. It’s mine, no doubt about it. I considered entering this picture in Nature Visions last year, but something told me it might not do that well. Regardless, it is one of my favorites from the trip.

I know one thing for sure… I can’t wait to see the images Tony brings back this year.

So much for being timely

          

  

When doing a photography blog it seems that two things are necessary, regular posts and perhaps timely posts.  After all in this day of instant communication, it’s about what you’re doing “now”.  I try and post about once a week, give or take a few days.   I also try and keep the work recent, but it seems like I’m failing at the second part of the deal.  I’m working through a considerable backlog of images and see no indication that I’ll be caught up anytime soon.  So I’m going to ask for some forgiveness from my followers in regards to the “timely” part.   If you want to follow my latest adventures,  I would recommend that you follow me on Facebook and Twitter. 

Above is an image that I took of the Bluebells back in April.  I used a light green fabric for the background and a reflector to put just a light splash of sunlight on the flowers.