Vacation Part III: Nature

This post will highlight some of the nature (or people in nature) images from the trip. Western North Carolina has some great mountains, forests and waterfalls. These shots are from the Bat Cave area near Chimney Rock.

The boys hanging out and exploring. Since the sun was behind us (see our shadows) we were silhouettes in the image. An added flash from the left (you can see the bright spot on the rock) helped balance our exposure to the background.

Just down the mountain from the house was the Rocky Broad River. The river goes along the road through Bat Cave and Chimney Rock until it empties into Lake Lure. The cool water was very refreshing, altough a little low thanks to an ongoing drought. Karen grabbed the camera while I was playing around and she got one of the best shots of the trip!

Anne and Matt hang out along the river. I was real glad to find a vantage point that showed them and the river with that large rock face in the background. This might be my favorite image from the trip.

The front yard of our rental house had a great garden with lots of flowers. Matt and I went out one afternoon and played around getting some macro stuff.

An abstract look at one of the flower beds.
This is the front of the house shot at dusk. A flash on the left and one on the right supplement the porch lights to illuminate the house. I made sure to go and turn on every light in the house for these.

This is from down by the deck looking up at the back of the house. Same thing: one flash on each side aimed at the house. You can see the flashes on the grass in each corner of the image.

I am started to collect pictures of my car in cool places. This certainly fits that description. This is on the Blue Ridgeway Parkway just northeast of Asheville.

Yes, it's a picture of me taking a picture. This was an exercise in lighting and I just happened to be the only subject around. One flash camera left is aimed at me and one flash camera right is aimed at the big boulder. The ambient exposure is slightly underexposed to allow the areas lit by flash to pop out.

Here is the set-up shot for the above image. You can see the camera on the tripod, one flash on the ground and one flash on a stand across the pool.

I was walking around the river at sunrise and a single beam of light made it through the trees to hit this stone. Everything was in shadow except for this one rock bathed in light. It was pretty cool.

That's it for the vacation. Thanks to the SC crew for accomodating us while we were there. We are looking forward to y'all making it down once Baby Vichich arrives.