On Saturday, June 18th, I was pleased to attend the dedication of a plaque honoring the late Arnout “Sonny” Hyde, Jr., West Virginia’s most renowned photographer and long-time editor of Wonderful West Virginia. The plaque is located at the Pendleton Point Overlook in Blackwater Falls State Park, one of Sonny’s favorite places. Mr. Hyde was an inspiration and mentor to many photographers including myself and my good friends; Steve Shaluta, Roger Spencer, Bryan Lemasters, and Clayton Spangler.
Below are some shots I took during mid-May. The red flowers are fire pinks and Iusually find them on banks along country roads. The pink lady slippers were growing in a clean woods with little undergrowth. The photographs of the fire pinks were taken with a telephoto lens and a wide aperture which allowed me to render the backgrounds out of focus in order to draw attention to the flowers.
I received my June 2011 issue of Wonderful West Virginia Friday and was pleased to find one of my photographs on the cover and three more featured in the magazine’s gallery section.
Although I haven’t been able to get away so far this spring on a photo trip, I have taken a couple of walks in the woods in the local area. Two of the images below show a jack-in-the-pulpit that was among many that I found on a nearby hillside. The three large leaves in the horizontal image are part of the jack-in-the-pulpit. The other photo is of an as-of-now unbeknownst-to-me wildflower. If anyone knows what it is, let me know. I was actually photographing it when I turned away and noticed the hillside was covered with jacks.
I haven’t had a chance to shoot any new scenics for a few weeks, so I spent a while last night looking through some shots I took at Canyonlands NP in Utah in June 2008. Barbara and I were staying in Moab and I got up shortly after 4AM (the sun comes up early on June 16th and I had a drive of just less than an hour to make) and went in search of Mesa Arch in the hope of photographing it at sunrise. The arch is famous for the reddish glow on its underside at sunrise which is caused by sunlight reflecting off the cliff wall below the arch. If one were to walk under the arch, he or she would not be heard from again as it’s a very long way down! It was fairly cloudy when I arrived at arch after a short hike from the road and I was concerned the anticipated glow would be a no-show. I was joined shortly after my arrival by a photographer from Indiana. We had a pleasant conversation as we waited for the glow, but it didn’t occur when we expected it. After a while, the other fellow gave up and left. Fortunately, I stuck around for a few more minutes and good things began to happen. Included below is a shot of the arch as one approaches on the trail. There is also a panoramic picture of the glowing arch which is a composite of four images I took with the equivalent of a 19mm lens. I used Panorama Maker software that Barbara got me for Christmas to stitch the images and it did a great job. Images shot with an ultra-wide angle lens can be difficult to stitch into a panorama. I used a telephoto lens to photograph the rock formation known as Washer Woman (see if you can pick her out). Using a telephoto lens compresses a scene. In this instance it makes the La Sal Mountains and other features in the background appear closer to Washer Woman.
Driving from Fort Ashby, WV to Morgantown to shoot the WVU-USF basketball game I was hoping to capture a few good photographs, but the weather was not cooperating. As I drove I-68 the skies were overcast with occasional snow squalls. Fortunately, as I entered West Virginia the overcast gave way to bright sunshine, blue skies and puffy white clouds. I took the Bruceton Mills exit and hurriedly searched for a subject. My time was limited, but I managed to take several shots in 45 minutes. When photographing a scene in which snow is prevalent it is usually necessary to set your camera to overexpose the scene by approximately one stop to avoid the snow appearing gray rather than white. The panorama photo below is a composite of six vertical images.
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After shooting the WVU-Syracuse game last Saturday afternoon I decided to drive up to Coopers Rock State Forest east of Morgantown to check out the foliage (and forget the game). This has been one of the poorest autumns for color in many years in West Virginia, so any I could find would be welcomed. The color in the forest wasn’t great, but was as good or better than other places I had been this fall. I spent a couple of hours at the lookout and walking trails in the forest. Despite the some wind I was able to shoot several images that I like of which some are shown below.
