"From a land far, far away..."

Technically, southwest Virginia is not that far away. Where my show was this past weekend was removed enough that there was no cell phone or internet service, and my room had no TV or even a land-line phone...one of those rare places where everyone knows and trusts each other, and door locks rarely used. It's all too easy to get hooked into those devices, so while strange it was far more 'freeing' to simply relax in a communication vacuum.

Of course, it's no vacuum at all...Nature always communicates loud and clear, and for a few hours Sunday I had the chance to revisit one of my favorite state parks in that region: Grayson Highlands State Park.


I don't think the weather could have been better scripted. There, just above 4,500 feet in elevation, temperatures were warm enough (easily) for my typical t-shirt and shorts, though I did tie a jacket around my waist as the breezes atop the outcrops were a bit cooling for the light sweat I worked up.

Cobalt blue skies abounded, as did other people taking advantage of the hiking trails sprouting out from Massie Gap. And the color...oh, my, these pictures don't even do it justice. At just a frog hair below 'peak', the display was breath-taking. Don't forget: you can click on the pics to enlarge for a better view.

I was moving too slowly to say I was horsing around, there, but Grayson is known for it's wild yet tame ponies that were introduced and allowed to have free 'rein' of the well-grassed slopes
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Once a year the ponies are rounded up and given health checks, innoculations, etc., and if need be a few colts may be auctioned off to keep the herd properly sized. While people are known to approach them and feed them, the park frowns on it...even though they were docile, I like to respectfully let all animals 'do their thing' and take pictures from afar with my telephoto lens. The youngster above was most content in the warming sunshine, and soon followed mom and dad in the prior shot as they headed off to graze another area.

Mount Rogers is the highest peak in VA, and Grayson Highlands was originally named a part of that park; however, in 1965 it was converted into a state park, where the Mount Rogers region is now a National Recreation Area. Regardless, it's a continuum of preserved wildness for all to enjoy - and so I did.

Alas, it's back to the civilized world to try and squeeze 36 hours of intended effort into a 24 hour day, to check emails and answer messages, to get back to my helping clear out a house for renovations, to making flutes for the other October shows...but first things first: sharing these images with you to give you a beautiful start to your week.

"Travelogue: Blue Ridge Parkway, October 21, 2007"

(click on pics to enlarge)

Welcome to a section of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina, roughly between ~MP (milepost) 370 (Craggy Gardens picnic area) to ~MP 345 (Highway 80), both north of Asheville, NC. Sunday, October 21, was a sunny and warm day, with nary a cloud in the sky...

...with 2-legged crowds out the wazoo!, As I always try to do, I kept those humanoids hidden from my photographs!

Most of this stretch is in the Black Mountains of the Blue Ridge, home to Craggy Gardens and Mt. Mitchell, the latter of which is the highest elevation east of the Rocky Mountains. The above pic is from the southeast flank of Mt. Mitchell...

Oh, the color gods are decrying a dull leaf change this year...please don't waste your time telling me that...the highest elevations were past peak (Craggy Garden peak below) , but the 4500-foot levels were stunning (above)...

The Black Mountain range was so named because of the density of spruce and related evergreens, which give the highest peaks a very dark appearance...of course, between acid rain and the Woolly Aphid infestations, many of the evergreen forests are under attack and dying at a rapid rate...

Still, the beauty remains, especially where the dark greens mix in with the other rich fall foliages...

The sun was bright and warm, and the shadows rather pronounced and harsh...with the sun at my back, the photos came easily...

But with the sun at my side, well...it was almost a no-win situation resolving the significant difference in exposure values for the hazed hills versus the colored foreground...

One of my favorite stomping grounds is Linville Gorge, pictured in the horizon below, taken from the south flank of Mt. Mitchell. The two pointed 'peaks' are Hawksbill Mountain (left) and Table Rock (right), both on the east rim of Linville Gorge proper...

Aw, enough jawin', already...just enjoy the pics, and be prepared to answer the following trivia question at the end: Mt. Mitchell was named after Dr. Elisha Mitchell who died one night bushwhacking down the north side of the mountain on June 27, 1857...so what was the name of the peak before it was named after him?



(the above three shots were from the south flanks of Mt. Mitchell and the Black Mountains)

The answer to the trivia question? Black Dome.

Ya learn somethin' new every day, eh? Enjoy the Moment of Now!

"Just A Bend In The Road...Literally..."

A friend in Asheville sent an email Saturday with a couple of snapshots and said "finally, there is some nice color up here - you should see it!" After a Saturday of pulling up 2 rooms of what was arguably some of the nastiest carpet in the civilized world, I had no trouble signing off on Sunday to head west and hit some of my favored back roads to see for myself. Needed the fresh air. Needed the connection to Nature. Needed a break from the "concrete jungle".

With the deep blue sky and strong specular sunlight, the colors were bold and the shadows very deep, which wreaks a little havoc with photography as it is impossible to hold all highlights with all shadow details...the above is from a gravel Forest Service road I like to take from the Big Ivy community up the northwest flank of Craggy Gardens to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Sleepy gravel road that beckons you to stay a while. When I got to my favorite bend, I did just that. I stopped.

Not much water was tumbling down the little creek, and the once crystalline pool was now filled with floating, twirling colors of fall. (Remember, with virtually all of my blog posts, click on any picture to enlarge for a better look) There's something about creeks, rocks, and fall leaves that I find very comforting...and even more so when you take the time to 'be' with it...to just sit and look, turning off the 'thinking' mind and just letting the beauty and peacefulness envelope you.

I could tell from the leaves that had fallen that talk of a 'subdued' fall color change certainly had its exceptions...and wait 'til you see Thursday's Travelogue post this week - wanna see some mountain color? Hold on to your horses as I'll have a difficult time boiling my pictures down to the handful I'll post from the Black Mountain Range between Craggy Gardens and Mount Mitchell.

The deep blue sky and golden maple colors overhead made for enhanced water reflection in between the floating leaves...and as I moved in closer to select a more detailed shot, I was reminded of a simple physics lesson when it comes to photographing such a scene. The above picture appears natural as you would have seen it...but not really. The human eye is the most amazing camera of all, and can instantly refocus and combine visual changes in light and distance to where you often aren't aware it's doing all of that. The following 2 pictures reveal something to you you might not normally be aware of...

I found a nice little section where the orange-red Sugar Maple was reflecting amongst the shaded leaves. Your reaction is that the camera focuses on what's toward the center of the screen, letting the leaves and water be in focus. The big surprise is that the focal distance to the reflected Maple is not the water but the distance from the reflection to the tree itself added in. You can clearly see a focused Maple (such that the slowly rippling water would allow), with the floating leaves far from the zone of focus...

...and now the same shot focused on the floating leaves, the reflected tree now blurred. The second shot looks especially neat enlarged...where the water cohesion curvature glues the leaves to the water, some of those edges reflected the blue sky and made for a pseudo-postarized glow around some of the edges. If I had had a tripod, I could have mounted the camera and shot the scene at and aperture of f/22 or even f/32 to try and get both leaves and reflection in focus together; however, the time of the exposure would have been slow enough to allow for movement of both leaves and water ripples as to have rendered the scene potentially muddy and unfocused. Just a little photo tidbit, FYI.

And what creekside stop would not be complete without the mighty Mercy along, jumping in perfectly into the very place I wanted to photograph! Always good to remember you don't have to go far and you don't have to do much to find Peaceful Medicine. May you find a little corner of it yourself, today...