Kidston Island Lighthouse, Bras d’Or Lake, Baddeck, Nova Scotia
With so many photos of Nova Scotia, I had to post something from that trip for the August wallpaper. This is one of my favorites so far.
After a short overnight in Truro following our flight to Halifax, we officially began our trip with a drive to Baddeck, a nice little inland town on Bras d’Or Lake. Baddeck is best known for being the home of Alexander Graham Bell during the time when he did most of his work. His home there is still owned by the family and is not open to the public. But Parks Canada has built a wonderful museum that houses exhibits and artifacts from that era. It’s a great place to visit.
The Kidston Island Lighthouse is a landmark in Baddeck and can be easily seen from the downtown area, in particular the marina near the Baddeck Yacht Club. This was an especially clear night, and I loved how the blue color really came out after sunset, with just enough light from the western sky to illuminate the lighthouse. The biggest challenge that evening was battling the mosquitos long enough to get my shot! Tom: 1, Mosquitos: 0. 🙂
Sunset from Morton Overlook, Great Smoky Mountains National Park, TN
I guess it’s human nature that we find comfort in returning to things and places we have been before and know well. Even when we have moved on to so-called “bigger and better things” we never completely get away from our past. Whether that is good or bad is to be determined, and is up to each of us to decide.
While it’s where I started my “serious” photographic endeavors, I find myself doing very little classic “Nature Photography” these days. Not that there is anything wrong with it, as there are few things I enjoy more than standing at an overlook in the pre-dawn cold or the late evening dusk waiting for that Magic Moment. But there’s just so much more to do than that. As much as I love it, in many ways, as a photographer I’ve moved on.
I need to be a little cautious here, because I have a lot of good friends for whom nature photography is exactly what they want to do, and they spend all of their spare time, effort and money doing it. So I’m not trying to make myself out as better than anyone, or suggest that I am more of an artiste than someone else, just because I like taking photographs of peeling paint and shadows. It’s just that after a few hundred sunrises and sunsets, eventually they all sort of started looking the same to me. While I still do my share of sunrises and sunsets, flowers and bugs, there’s only so much time, and I want to see what else there is!
So with all that said, this month’s calendar is one of those cliché photographs from an iconic location. Morton Overlook in Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of just a handful of places you can shoot sunset standing next to your car. Plus, it often has just the right combination of good light and interesting sky that it often produces interesting results. The downside, however, is that there is really only one view. You seldom need anything but a 24-70 lens, which is what I used for this photo. You can go wide or long within those limits, but for the most part that’s about what you have to work with. The rest is up to the fate of the weather conditions. Makes it a little hard to be contemplative or creative, it’s mostly a matter of luck.
This was taken with my long-obsolete Canon 20D and the now-ancient 24-70 lens. Re-processed in Lightroom 4 to take advantage of some new technology. Still not a bad photograph, I’d say. And I’ll have that lens with me for a while!
This photo is one of my all-time favorites, and one of my best-selling prints. I don’t think I’ve used it before as a wallpaper, and if I have used it before I will cheerfully refund your money!
Whether you call it living in the past or sticking to a theme, this is another one from the archives. I shot this back in 2006. I have no idea where this tree came from, but it was laying on the beach for the whole week we were there. I photographed it a few times, but on this morning the combination of timing and conditions came together for the scene I had been looking for. Unlike some of the over-cliched “tree in the water” photos we see, this was a fleeting moment in the passage of time by the sea. A slice of time to be captured and enjoyed while we were able to see it.
Kathy & I got moved over the last week and are just about settled in our new place. I’ve got some pent-up words that I may need to throw on the blog over the next few days and weeks as we get things sorted out and get back to a life without moving preparations and boxes!
Sunset from Waterrock Knob, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC
This month’s photo was my second choice for last month’s wallpaper, and I liked it so much I decided to run it for May. Plus there is an added bonus of getting to tease my friend Kevin W. who made the mistake of telling me that he was homesick for the NC mountains and that my photos made him more so. Come on back, Kevin!
Amazingly, this photo was taken just 4 1/2 minutes after the photo I used for last month’s calendar. Looking west from Waterrock Knob, out over Cherokee and the Oconoluftee River toward the crest of the Smokies, this is one of my favorite views. Not as famous (or as crowded) as some other sunset spots, I like it because I can practically shoot out of my car, and there are facilities nearby!
In the months and years after I took this photo, the view started to get overgrown with trees and brush. Until the Park Service recently cleared some of the overgrowth, it had gotten to the point that there were very few vantage points for a good sunset view. I’ve been back a few times recently, but the conditions haven’t been cooperative. But it’s a place I return to often, and one day I’ll get my next Waterrock Knob sunset. Maybe soon!
I know I’ve been a little quiet lately, but I’ve got some non-photographic backlog to get through and I’ll be back. That’s a promise!
Sunset from Waterrock Knob, Blue Ridge Parkway, NC
Well, that was sure fast! Last I remember I was posting the March wallpaper.
For this month’s calendar I’ve gone way back into the archives. This photograph was taken in May, 2005 at Waterrock Knob on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Waynesville, NC. This is one of the first photos I made with my then-new Canon 20D. In fact, this was frame number 194 on that camera. Considering that I turned that camera over at least twice, shooting well over 20,000 files, this was truly in the very early stages of my digital era. The file was in pretty good shape, but had not been updated to the latest process version in Lightroom. I made the conversion, which improved noise reduction and sharpening primarily, tweaked the contrast and color just a bit, and here it is.
Things are cranking here at the House of Dills. We’ve got some interesting projects going on, some of them photographic, some not. But April promised to be exciting, so stay tuned as things develop!
Spring is a great time of year here in the Carolinas. While we have seen the occasional snow storm, March is usually when spring comes roaring in, splashing with both feet to put an end to winter.
This photo, taken last March just down the road in Salisbury, NC exemplifies spring for me. Crystal clear blue sky, te beautiful dogwood blooms and the joy that spring has not forgotten us.
I’ve been laying a little low lately. Kathy & I have a few irons in the fire, so to speak, that have kept me away from the computer more than usual. It’s all good though, not to worry. But stay tuned, I haven’t gone far.
Sunset over the Bahamas aboard Celebrity Equinox sailing toward Fort Lauderdale
I’m a few hours early, but here is my wallpaper for February. I generally shy away from sunrises and sunsets for my wallpaper, but this one looked pretty nice and I thought it was a photo someone wouldn’t mind looking at for a month, so here it is.
This photo was taken on the last night of our recent cruise. The land is one (or more – it’s hard to tell) of the Bahamas islands. I don’t often get to include land in the foreground when we’re on a ship, and while it doesn’t add a lot it is an extra element of interest. Great sunbeams and color make this a special sunset.
Here in the south we’ve survived our 72 hours of “winter” and will be soon looking forward to spring flowers and buds on the trees. For those of you in the colder climes – sorry! 🙂 I hope everyone has a wonderful February, wherever you might be!
Just about the time I figure I’ll stop doing this monthly wallpaper thing, I hear from someone else who really likes it. So here you go, a start to another year!
This image is from a style of photograph I don’t post very often on the blog, and I’m not sure I’ve ever used one for wallpaper. But I really like these impressionistic photos, as they often reflect a peace and calm that a “normal” photograph can’t capture. I recently sold a group of prints that included this photograph, and I liked the print so much I decided I’d like to look at it for a month or so, and hoped that my blog followers would like it too.
For those interested in the technical details, this was shot in 2009 on the beach in Corolla, North Carolina. And even though I’ve been calling it “Morning Light, Corolla” for a number of years, in looking at the metadata for this blog post I discovered that it was actually taken in the evening. Oops…I guess I’ll have to start calling it “Evening Light, Corolla!” It was taken with my lowly Canon 40D with the 24-105 lens at f22 for 1/4 second, panning with the wave movement to give it the blurred effect.
I know I’m looking forward to the new year and can’t wait to make new photographs to share. Thanks for reading and for all the great comments. Hopefully I’ll get to meet some of you in person soon! Happy travels!
Joy of Christmas light show at Firestone Park, Columbiana, OH
Our Thanksgiving visit to Ohio and Pennsylvania, despite not being a “photography trip” per se, resulted in a number of decent photographs, one of which I liked well enough to use for this month’s calendar. I like to keep with the holiday theme for December whenever possible, and I’m usually able to come up with something.
Firestone Park, named for Harvey Firestone (the tire guy), is located in Columbiana, OH. Kathy & I lived here before migrating south to North Carolina. And a late November visit reminded us why we moved!
Firestone Park has an annual “Joy of Christmas” light festival, and we had a chance to pay a visit one evening while we were there. I didn’t take a tripod with me, figuring I wouldn’t do a lot of photography, but who can resist Christmas lights? And with ISO 6400 or higher, who needs a tripod, even at night? 🙂
I hope everyone has an exceptional December and a warm and joyous Christmas holiday season!
Sunset from Currituck Heritage Park near Corolla, North Carolina
Here in North Carolina, we typically still have a lot of fall left in November. Especially in the lower elevations, there is often a decent amount of color around until Thanksgiving. Time will tell what the impact of the late-October storm will have on the fall for this year.
This month’s photo returns to the scene of the September calendar – Currituck Heritage Park in Corolla, North Carolina. In fact, this photo was taken about 35 minutes before the photo of the Whalehead Club that I used for the calendar just a few months ago. While it was still very warm when I took this photo, the colors are more fall-like. Winter is on the way though!
