Location: Looking Glass Falls
This is an autumn image of Looking Glass Falls taken in 2011. I climbed up on the wall at the base of the stairs to include some foreground foliage.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: Nikkor VR 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1.5 seconds
Aperture: F/16
Filters: 3 stop neutral density filter
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I wanted to use a portrait composition with the camera on a tripod to include as much of the foreground foliage and lovely fall colors above the falls as possible.

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Location: Pounding Mill Overlook – Milepost 413.2
I wasn’t very optimistic as I settled into one of my favorite spots on the parkway, the Pounding Mill Overlook last spring. There was no color at all to be seen in the minutes before dawn and sunrise came and went without seeing the sun at all. But though the clouds were thick, they were also moving fast enough to part and let the shine through, if only for a few fleeting moments.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR.
Focal Length: 18mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/20 & 1/60
Aperture: F/11
Filters: none
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: The Pounding Mill overlook is a popular spot on the parkway due to the fact that you can catch both sunsets and sunrises there and also it’s close proximity to Rt. 276. I set the camera up on a tripod and when the sun finally broke through the clouds, I took 2 exposures…one on the bright part of the sky and another on the foreground. I exposure fused them later in Photomatix with no tonemapping.

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Date Taken: 06/19/2014
Location: Rough Ridge, Milepost 302.8
One of the most gorgeous sunsets I’ve ever witnessed down in the North Carolina mountains.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: NIKKOR 10–24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED
Focal Length: 10mm
ISO: 250
Shutter: 3/4 second
Aperture: F/11
Filters: circular polarizer
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I set up the camera on a tripod while leaning against the rail for support in the 30-40 mph winds. I chose this composition because it had less vegetation blowing around in the gusty winds.

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Location: Second Falls from the Blue Ridge Parkway – Milepost 418.5
While driving along the Parkway near Graveyard Fields, I saw the thick fog descending down the mountainside just above Second Falls. I was able to pull off the roadside, set up the tripod and fire off a few shots, before the falls and autumn colors were lost in the clouds.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: Nikon 18-105mm f/3.5-5.6 VR.
Focal Length: 90mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/3 second
Aperture: F/38
Filters: none
Exposure: manual
How I Got This Shot: If you drive north past the Graveyard Fields parking lot just a few hundred feet, there’s a spot where you can pull off the road and get a nice view of Second Falls. I set up my tripod here, far out of the way of traffic, and took as many shots as I could at different exposures before the clouds dropped down over the scene.

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Date Taken: 10/11/2011
Location: Blue Ridge Parkway just north of Asheville.
The fall of 2011 was one of the most beautiful years for color I’ve ever seen. I had to pull off the road and shoot this scene when it unfolded before me.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: Nikkor VR 18-105mm F/3.5-5.6G
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: multiple
Aperture: F/11
Filters: none
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Nothing too out of the ordinary here. I pulled off the parkway, set the tripod up just off the road and began shooting, trying to compose the shot with a nice “S” curve showing in the parkway.

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Location: Just north of the Log Hollow Overlook.
A Different Take…

I was cruising the Blue Ridge Parkway down in North Carolina on an overcast autumn afternoon, when I was struck by this roadside view of Looking Glass Rock. Most shots I see of this giant monolith are taken from one of three overlooks which feature splendid parkway views. This was something a little different , so I turned around and found a safe spot to pull off alongside the road to try and capture a few shots.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: NIKKOR 10–24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED
Focal Length: 10mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/6
Aperture: F/16
Filters: circular polarizer
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I set up on a tripod roadside safely out of the way of traffic and framed Looking Glass Rock with some nice fall foliage to the lower left.

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Date Taken: 10/16/2013
Location: Looking Glass Falls
There’s a rule that some of us waterfall photographers go by called the ten o’clock rule. If you want to avoid the crowds and harsh light when shooting a waterfall, then get there before ten o’clock. With Looking Glass Falls in North Carolina, I would change that to the eight o’clock rule….this place is popular…..Really popular. It’s right by Rt. 276 heading down the mountain towards Brevard and it seems like everyone and their brother stops there. Unfortunately I didn’t get there nearly early enough when I stopped there to try, and I said try, to get a few nice photographs. There were about a half dozen folks set up downstream, so I waited for them to finish and then made my way down to where they had been shooting and set up. I had the place to myself for maybe 5 or 10 minutes when a workshop of about 20 photographers showed up and of course a couple of them had to run right out in front of the waterfall and start shooting. Time to move on to the next waterfall, unless I wanted to wait them out. The great thing about North Carolina, is that there are plenty of waterfalls to shoot, so I moved on.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: NIKKOR 10–24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED
Focal Length: 13mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 3/4 second
Aperture: F/13
Filters: circular polarizer
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I set the camera on a tripod with a portrait composition downstream from the waterfall, so I could get some of the pretty fall color above the falls as well as some foreground interest with the boulder and it’s nice green foliage on the left and the ripples in the stream on the right.

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Date Taken: 10/16/2013
Location: Graveyard Fields Second Falls Milepost 418
A Different Perspective.

I’ve been to Second Falls at Graveyard Fields in North Carolina many times, but have yet to come away with an image there that I really like. I shot it this past fall with a new wide angle lens which did allow me to get this portrait composition showing the entire falls with those beautiful striated rocks, the splash pool and the pretty foreground boulders. This is one of the most popular spots on the whole Blue Ridge Parkway, so if you visit, be prepared for crowds, especially in summer and blueberry season

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: NIKKOR 10–24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED
Focal Length: 17
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1 second
Aperture: F/13
Filters: circular polarizer and neutral density
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I set the camera on a tripod off to the side of the falls with a portrait composition, so I could get the foreground rocks, splash pool and entire waterfall in the shot. I used a circular polarizer and a neutral density filter on the lens.

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Location: Mt. Pisgah Parking Area.

When the skies are gloomy down in the North Carolina mountains, you’ll more than likely find me standing in a forest stream or at the base of a waterfall. But after a day of waterfalling I like to at least try and catch some kind of a sunset on my way back to the hotel. No matter how thick the clouds are, you can almost always count on something unfolding that will make for a nice shot, whether the sun shows itself or not. On this evening, I stopped off at the parking area for the Mt. Pisgah trailhead on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I like this spot because it’s easy and gives nice westward views of Cold Mountain and Mt. Pisgah in the same shot, if you choose to frame it that way. While standing there behind my camera and tripod, I was joined by a man and wife who had just driven down the parkway from Asheville in hopes of catching a sunset as well. Well as it turned out, we never did see the sun, but I wasn’t that disappointed, since there was constant low hanging cloud cover blowing through the area, creating all kinds of interest for a nice photograph. I even saw some color off in the sky as the thick clouds would part for a minute or two. As the couple started to back out of the parking lot, I overheard the husband say to his wife, ” Well we drove all that way for nothing!” It just goes to show, beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: NIKKOR 10–24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED
Focal Length: 14mm
ISO: 400
Shutter: 2 seconds and 1/2 second
Aperture: F/11
Filters: circular polarizer
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I set the camera on a tripod in manual mode and took two exposures, one on the foreground and one on the sky. I combined them using Photomatix software in exposure fusion mode.

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Location: Pounding Mill Overlook – Milepost 413.2
Two Different Worlds.

When I left my hotel room in Brevard, North Carolina to hopefully catch a sunrise, I looked up to the skies and saw nothing but thick clouds everywhere. Turn around and go back to bed? No way, not when you’re down in the mountains, because what you see down here in town, may not be what you see when you climb up over 5000 feet to the Blue Ridge Parkway. It’s a good half hour drive up the mountain and as I approached the parkway, I suddenly broke through the thick clouds that hung over the valley below and saw a mixture of stars and high cloud cover in the sky. I drove down the parkway a few miles and pulled into the Pounding Mill Overlook, waiting for whatever Mother Nature had in store for me. As I sipped my morning coffee, I watched as the high clouds started to glow pink, knowing that the only thing that I had to worry about was clouds rolling over the mountain and completely enveloping everything around me. A few thick clouds rolled through, but for only a few fleeting moments, leaving me with this stellar view of the predawn skies, with the low hanging cloud cover far below. Things were gloomy down in the valley for sure, but up here, high on the mountain, it was a whole different world.

Camera: Nikon D-90
Lens: NIKKOR 10–24mm f/3.5-4.5G ED
Focal Length: 10mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/3
Aperture: F/11
Filters: circular polarizer
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I set the camera up on a tripod, trying to catch the glow of the rising sun on one side of the frame and the mountains ridges on the other. I took many exposures at different shutter speeds, trying to expose on the foreground as well as the sky, but opted for a single exposure instead as the foreground turned out to be just a bunch of dead weeds.

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