Photo By: Jeff Hammond, Landscapes of the Blue Ridge

Location: Apple Orchard Mountain

Ferns and a lone Woodland Sunflower in the forest of Apple Orchard Mountain.

Camera: Sony A580

Lens: Zeiss 16-35

ISO: 800

Aperture: f/13

Shutter: 1/8 and 1/15

Exposure: Manual & Multiple

Focal Length: 24mm

Filters: none

How I Got This Shot

I woke up late Saturday morning to a rainy day, so I got on the parkway and headed up to Apple Orchard Mountain knowing it would have fog and the Woodland Sunflowers of the forest in bloom. This is an every year event for me, photographing these showy summer flowers with the unusual look of the forest on this mountain. The Appalachian Trail crosses the parkway here, and I had walked down it just a little to find this scene.

The single bright yellow flower jumped out at me, and the ferns were exceptionally lush and tall, probably between 3 and 4 ft! This was a difficult capture during the rain, and the wind was almost constant, making a flower such as this bob and weave all over. Using the lens cap would create a fog, and water droplets were a frequent problem. I had to take up the ISO a great deal in order to secure a faster shutter speed in the dimly lit forest, there was so much movement I actually had to come back after my first session and numerous brackets yielded only one with proper sharpness. This was 2 images of 1 stop difference blended using luminosity masking in Photoshop, then levels adjusted, nothing more. I even forgot to sharpen. Be sure to watch my Facebook page for info on improving your photography using simple and advanced exposure blending with layer and luminosity masking.

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