Date Taken: 01/29/2014
Location: Beacon Heights
The golden glow of morning light washes over the famous “Beacon” at Beacon Heights. Sub-Zero temperatures of recent weeks kept the snow a drift on top of the rocky outcropping. High winds did their part as well in keeping visitors footprints hidden and creating an interesting texture in the foreground. The winter sun position gave way to an interesting composition and not one usually seen from this location.
Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 17-35mm
Focal Length: 20mm
ISO: 160
Shutter: 160 sec.
Aperture: f11
Filters: 2 stop soft ND reverse grad filter. Singh Ray
Exposure: Aperture Priority
How I Got This Shot: Beacon Heights is well known rock outcropping near Grandfather Mountain on the Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost #305. A short hike will junction with the Mountains to Sea Trail for a short ways and then veer off to the left to the rock outcroppings.
This shot was taken at sunrise on a sub-zero morning. Winds about 20mph sustained. You can’t really tell from this shot, but blowing snow and “snownados” were abundant this morning.
I set my tripod about a foot off the ground because I wanted to show the detail in the snowy foreground and create lead in lines to my main subject. The main image was taken at F11. I did take an extra exposure at f20 to make sure I had it all in good focus and for a little starring in the sun. A very small amount of color correction and retouching was done in Lightroom 5 and Photoshop.
For More Information
- Additional photographs by Tommy White Photography
- Categories where this photo is found: Snow, Sunrises & Sunsets