Hey Ya'll! Hope you're having a great week. Me? Well last week I was in West Virginia on a Fall Colors workshop with my Photography Club. We spent 5 days going around taking photo's of the stunning landscapes and cute little towns. We were based in Fayetteville West Virginia in an Air B&B and traveled mostly in the New River Gorge National Park area but did veer away from the park many times. We had good food and fellowship and did editing and helped each other in areas we are weak in. I love these workshops it's like being with my photography family and I'm the crazy uncle. We had some members that had never been to West Virginia before and it was fun showing them around and seeing what photo's they got out of the new environment. They really got some good ones I think from what I saw when we were editing. When we go on workshops they are really workshops not vacations. Although we have fun and kid around we start before the sun comes up and often finish after it sets. We eat a local restaurants to support the communities we visit and the food is usually excellent. We may eat in one night making spaghetti or Pizza. I like to explain it as summer camp for old folds. There is a lot of kidding and joking. We even give nicknames like in summer camp. Fun is guaranteed .  For this trip I tried to keep my equipment simple. Usually I bring lots of lenses and equipment. This time I brought 2 lenses. The 20-70 F4 and a 100-400 , both Sony to go with my Sony A7C body. I was the only Sony of the group. I was very happy with my choices.  I did bring filters and tripod and that was it for digital photography . I did bring my Canon Demi EE17 half frame Film Camera but didn't get through a roll of film. I was too busy with my digital and I was Volunteered to take and make the trip video. You can see it here at this link. 2024 Fall Trip West Virginia It is very hard to shoot photo's and video at the same time. I think they both suffer when you try to do both. It's much easier to pick one or the other and just shoot it.  But I was doing both plus trying to get some film in and of course an iPhone shot or two to post quickly into social media. So I was working 4 Cameras. For photo editing and backups I used an iPad pro with the M1 chip in it. I would back up photo's to an external SSD hard drive then pick a few photo's to edit in Lightroom (mobile) the same with iPhone shots I would bring them into the SSD and choose which ones to edit and post to social media like Instagram and Facebook. I was the only one using a iPad everyone else was using a laptop and to tell you the truth I will probably go back to a laptop when the iPad becomes too slow to work on but now it works fine for mobile editing. The house we were staying in was very nice with a great view of Hawks Nest State Park. I even got my own room this time which was a first and I quite like it . Usually I'm sharing a room or bunk house with the other guys on the workshop. Usually we spend a full week but shortened it this year to 5 days because we had Spring Workshop in the Low Country of Georgia and South Carolina and there were some people that didn't have the vacation or PTO days to go on this trip. We only had 6 attend. But the cost was still low. 350 for 5 days and share gas and house food. You can't beat that for being economical for all the stuff that we did and our accommodations .  Here is a quick rundown of what we did on our trip.

Day 1- Travel day- On the way to Fayetteville WV from North Carolina is about a 6 hour trip. We stopped at  Mabry Mill on the Blue Ridge Parkway. It was very windy and cold when we got out of the warm truck I was riding in.  After that we went and found a local Restaurant and had a great lunch. We then headed to Brush's Falls just off the road on the way. We have never been to this waterfall before and it was fantastic. We left there and headed towards our house and stopped for Mexican food before getting to the house after dark unpacking and going to bed.

Day 2- Grandview and Sandstone Falls in the New River Gorge National Park. First it was to Grandview which looks over the New River and it makes a big "U" turn in front of you. It was cloudy so the sunrise wasn't great then we went to Turkey Spur Overlook which looks over the same spot in the river but much higher (stairs) After that we headed to Sandstone Falls near Hinton WV. After shooting the falls we ate lunch in Hinton at a cool restaurant that we've ate at before. We then headed to Thurmond WV an abandoned town on the way there we stopped at a waterfall Dunlop Creek Falls a very nice waterfall on the road to Thurmond. After shooting the Town we were pretty tired and decided to head to the house and cook some spaghetti . It was delicious. Thanks Caitlin .

Day 3- Babcock State park Day. First we to breakfast at Cathedral Cafe a restaurant that was made out of a church with stained glass windows . The meal was good and the people watching was good too. Then we headed to Babcock State park. If you look up West Virginia and look at photo's you will see the Grist Mill at Babcock. It is a photographers eye candy and the colors always seem to be pretty good. This year was no different. Perfect shooting. Cool weather, leaves falling and colors popping. What's not to like. We then headed to New River Gorge and the Bridge there. The place was packed the most people I've ever seen there. We went to the Bridge over look and then took the road to the older bridge going under the Big bridge. The next day would be Bridge day a festival where there are Base Jumpers, Bungee jumpers, People Rapelling off of the bridge. We decided not to attend the festival . One there would be lots of people and you would have to have clear bags to carry your gear. After the Bridge area we went into town and to eat and the little town had doubled in population and eateries were packed. We picked one and waited 45 min to be seated and had lunch. We then walked around town a little then headed to Nuttalburg WV an abandoned coal mine once owned by Henry Ford. It was kind of cool. After that we headed home and stopped at Walmart to get something to eat for Supper. 

Day 4- Hawks Nest State Park. We stayed away from the Bridge because of Bridge Day. They close down the bridge so the traffic is diverted around so all the roads get busy with traffic. Hawks nest was just 3 min away so we did a sunrise there at the overlook. It was a good sunrise. We then went and explored the rest of the park. It was very chilly and pretty. After spending the morning there we headed to Gauley Bridge. A small little town and explored a little then had lunch at a local BBQ place. Everyone was pretty tired so we headed to the house to do some editing and rest a little.

Day 5- Travel day Home. This day we got the house all settled and packed up our vehicles for the trip home. We left and on the way home we stopped at Camp Creek State Park. We stopped at Campbell Creek Falls which was a lovely fall with lots of color all around. The next fall was Mash fork falls. This was not much of a fall. We headed out and stopped on the way home at a local establishment to eat lunch then headed home. This was a great trip and I had a great time. Just wish it was longer. LOL

Until Next week Get out and Shoot!

Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a great week! Me well its fall my most favorite season of the year! I love everything about it. Cooler weather, fall colors, harvest and beautiful landscapes to be had. My photography club takes trips this time of year just to capture the beauty of the season. Now my goal is to capture stunning photographs of the fall colors. But this is not a haphazard endeavor .  It is very much a planned one. In this blog I want to explain my process in how I find and make great photographs and the planning that is involved. And the apps and websites that I used to do this.

The best way to shoot stunning photographs is to put stunning scenes in front of your camera. But not only do you have to go to these places you must be there at the right time of day. We all know as photographers that there are certain times of the day that are best for great photographs. The golden hour that sunrise and sunset come into but don't forget the blue hour and twilight. So not only where you go to get those stunning photographs but when you go is important. So where do you start to your planning? 

First you have to come up with a place you want to go for the stunning photographs. For example a few years ago me and my Photo wingman decided to take a trip to Utah. Neither one of us had been before so we had to start planning our shots. We knew that there were many stunning shots there but there was still a lot of planning to do. Our first stop was Google. We Googled Utah and looked at images. We also used 500px and looked up Utah.  There are many fantastic photographs already taken of the places we wanted to photograph and so we picked out many for each of our stops on our 10 day trip.  We then went into detail trying to plan the correct time , direction of the sun, and the view point of the shot we wanted. To do this we used Photo Pills.  Photo Pills is an app you can buy that you can used to track the sun the moon , stars when and where blue hour and golden hour will happen.  Really anything logistical about your shot you can calculate and plan before you even leave home. Now Photo Pills is a big complicated app like Adobe Photoshop is but it is also as Fort Fisher Tree Milky Way powerful too. Here is a link that can help you navigate Photo Pills. Photo Pills Video Help Other apps and websites that can help your on your planning are Google Maps, Google Earth, Flickr, Instagram, 500px, and many more.  One of the few things that you can't plan for is the weather. Usually only a couple of weeks in advance can you plan for the weather. Apps like The Weather Channel, Weather Bug, clear outside or Weather on your iPhone can help with this. When you plan months in advance you just can't plan for the weather. I've got a trip to Cincinnati OH planned for this weekend that we've had planned for months and it looks like we are going to be pretty wet but don't let that deter you. Some of my best shots were shot in inclement weather.  When we went to Utah we did intense planning for shots and just the logistics of our trip from hotels we would stay in the route and order of things we would see make sure you put at least that much planning in your shots that you want to get while you're on your photography trip. That way you bring home those stunning shots that everyone will be envious of.

The great shots that you see online are not cute accidents. They are calculated and planned for well in advance and they are no accident at all.  Using all of the tools mentioned above will help you become a better photographer with more winners to print and put on your wall.

Hey Ya'll! Hope you've had a great week! Me? Pretty good. Fall is here and what better time to talk about photographing waterfalls! One of my most favorite things to shoot when I go somewhere. First of all there are lots of ways to shoot a waterfall I'm going to go over the basics on how I shoot them and what you'll need to do this. You can shoot a waterfall many different ways. If it's a big powerful waterfall maybe you want to stop the motion of the water to show the roughness of the waterfall and the sheer power. If it's a gentle waterfall maybe you want to drag the shutter(long exposure) and smooth out the water to make it flow. Either way they always seem to look great and I just love shooting waterfalls. So what tools will you need?

If your shooting smooth silky waterfalls the first thing you'll need is a Tripod. You need one that is sturdy enough to keep your camera still during those longer exposures. One you don't mind getting a little wet on the bottom but one you trust will keep your camera still and safe.  When shooting water that you don't want to move and stop the motion you might not need the tripod. A Polarizing filter of some sort . A circular or a linear one .  Water can be very shiny and you can really get hot spots in the water the polarizer cuts the glare just like a good pair of polarizing sunglasses do.  I just love the shots looking through the water at some round stones at the foot of a waterfall. If your shooting a longer shutter depending on the time of day you will also need a Neutral Density filter to slow down the shutter if its too bright outside. Usually a 3 stop in conjunction with a Polarizer does the trick but may need more depending on the brightness of the scene. A remote release of some kind can come in handy. This will eliminate the camera shake of a hand pressing the shutter button causing not as sharp photo's. It can be wired or not wired doesn't matter. Or you can do like I've been doing the last couple of years and shooting with a two or five second delay which gives your camera time enough to quit shaking before you press the shutter. And of course a camera that you can shoot in Manual. The lenses that you use will be determined by the size and the closeness as which you are to your subject. The further away the longer the lens.  Usually I'm at a wide or midrange zoom seems to work for me but I have used a telephoto on further away waterfalls and for detail shots of the waterfall. Now for the how too.

The composition of the waterfall is like composing anything else. You want a foreground , middle and background. Leading lines like a log in water comes in handy also.  Make sure you shoot Horizontal and Vertical shots . Some waterfalls seem better vertical and some better in Landscape mode. When shooting in the fall (my favorite time to shoot) I like to have some colorful leaves at the foreground if I can and trees surrounding the waterfall if you're lucky enough to have some good color. If your shooting flowing silky shot the first thing you have to do is look at your scene and with your minds eye (photographers eye) see the shot you want. Set up your tripod and attach your camera securely. Remember your around water be careful. Frame your shot, Put on a polarizer and adjust so you don't have the glare on the water. ISO at the lowest you can, put your f-stop between f/8-f/16 . I try for the sharpest and what will cut out the most light so I'm usually between 8-11. Now slow your shutter down. Look at your meter! I find that usually 1.5 to 2 stops under exposed works well. But it all depends on the flow of the water.  The slower the water the slower the shutter will have to be. Take a shot. Remember to expose for the brightest spot in the frame you can always bring back the shadows in post. If you need a ND filter install it on top of the Polarizer and try again. This is where the fun kicks in. Make sure you don't slow the water too much or it will just disappear but too fast it just looks blurry. Adjust it so it shows motion. To me these are some of the most satisfying shots I take all year . 

In Post production edit like you always do. For me I usually change the profile to Adobe Landscape that puts some saturation and punch into the colors and at the end put a little vignette to draw the eye to the center of the photo but just a hint on one not too strong.

Well that's all my secrets to shooting waterfalls. I truly love chasing waterfalls. I advise to get there early and shoot before all the people get there and it's usually darker so you might not even need that ND filter. You can also get lots of different angles without getting in someone's .way or they be in your way.  These last two shots were taken just this week in West Virginia on our fall workshop. Having a blast shooting waterfalls this week. So until next week enjoy fall and get out and shoot!