Date Taken: 02/17/2016
Location: Blue Ridge Parkway, Linn Cove Viaduct Milepost 304

Camera: Nikon D810
Lens: Nikor 17-35mm
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO: 250
Shutter: 1/10 second
Aperture: f20
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Standing at the best position to even out the bridge curve from both angles. I shot this 5 shot, sweeping panorama from the left curve(heading north) to the right curve(heading south). I used an f stop at f20 to ensure I picked up a little sun star from the breaking sunrise. The images were then exposure and color corrected in Lightroom CC and then blending together using Photoshop CC.

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Date Taken: 02/22/2015
Location: Beacon Heights, Milepost 305
A winter image taken from Beacon Heights during the last storm. We arrived to virgin powder on the rock. We watched as the clouds and snow swirled around. The thick fog rolling over Grandfather Mountain dissipated as it continued on down the valley, leaving an opening for the sun’s golden light show.

Camera: D810
Lens: Nikkor 17-35mm, f2.8
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO: 125
Shutter: 1/200 second
Aperture: f16
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: The flare happened so fast that I was only able to secure 2 shots of the golden light before it was gone. When It happened, I was standing pretty far back as to not track up the snow, keeping the horizon line as close to the lower third line in the composition. This was later cropped to include the rock and the sun itself on third lines also.
1/200 shutter speed was used to stop as much of the cloud movement as possible. I did not want to go up on the ISO, if possible. I would normally capture a shot like this with the aperture around f8 or f11 and focus stack, but since it happened so fast, the first shot I took was f16 to make sure I had something usable. I’m glad I did. My focus point was the tree under the sun giving me the correct hyper-focal distance to ensure the entire shot was in good focus.

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Camera: D810
Lens: 17-35mm
Focal Length: 24mm
ISO: 125
Shutter: 1/80 seconds
Aperture: f/16
Filters: none
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Shot on a snowy morning in manual mode. Exposing histogram right as far as possible without blowing out the highlights. I used f/16 to ensure the foreground snow, fence line and the trees were all in good focus. I extended the tripod as high as I could possibly get it to provide separation between the fence and the trees. Since I couldn’t get any higher, I positioned the trees between the fence posts to help frame the main subject. I stayed with auto white balance, as I liked the selenium type tone I was getting, which helped to convey the cold in the scene. Post work was done to bring out the detail in the trees and bring back the limited detail in the sky.

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Date Taken: 10/07/2013
Location: Yadkin Valley Overlook, Milepost 289.7
How great it is to kick back on the Parkway, gaze out over the mountain range and take an epic sunset.

Camera: D800
Lens: 17-35mm
Focal Length: 22mm
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/5 sec.
Aperture: f10
Filters: none
Exposure: Aperture Priority
How I Got This Shot: I scrambled to set up for this shot… originally, just there on the Parkway to enjoy a nice evening. Well after the sun had gone down, the light flare lit up the sky. Knowing it would only last but for seconds, I leaped in the truck for the camera and tripod. The wind was howling and darkness was settling in… I knew this was going to be a challenge. I didn’t want to increase my ISO beyond 400 if possible. Since the wind was gusting, so I decided to rip off several sets to try and catch a still moment for the trees in the foreground. After three sets of 5 images(one set was bracketed) it was gone. This was the best I could pull from it and I hope you enjoy it. It was a beautiful and memorable sunset.

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Date Taken: 09/05/2013
Location: Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway
Lights of distance towns provide the perfect backdrop behind Grandfather Mountain as a band of stars from the Milky Way reach high into the midnight sky.

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Date Taken: 08/27/2014
Location: Rough Ridge
“Star Light”
If you’ve ever been to Rough Ridge, you have no doubt passed by, touched, hugged and gazed in amazement at this rock formation. It rests at the boardwalk, half way to the top. In fact, the boardwalk is built around it. I’ve often pondered a shot including this rock without the man made structure that surrounds it. After some trial and error, this is what emerged including this iconic rock.

Camera: D800
Lens: 17-35mm
Focal Length: 19mm
ISO: 3200
Shutter: 20 seconds
Aperture: f2.8
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: This shot was taken around 10pm. The camera was mounted on a tripod and a cable release was used to trigger the shutter. A high ISO was used with the lens wide open to allow for as much light to hit the sensor as possible. A maximum of a 20 second exposure time was used to keep the stars from trailing. Multiple exposures were used for this shot. One for the Milky Way and one for the town lights. Additional exposures were needed to light paint the rock at a lower ISO. The images were then blended in Photoshop. The camera angle was never changed, nor was the camera removed from the tripod at any time. The image was taken from the Boardwalk on Rough Ridge.

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Date Taken: 08/23/2014
Location: United States
A “Picture Window” view of the Milky Way taken at Price Lake, Blue Ridge Parkway, Milepost 296.7

Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 14mm
Focal Length: 14mm
ISO: 3200
Shutter: 20 seconds
Aperture: f2.8
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Standing on walk in front of the Lake, I mounted my camera on my tripod shooting a vertical orientation. I wanted to use the trees as a silhouetted foreground feature. I manually focused my lens to it’s known infinity ensuring everything in the frame would be in focus. Using a cable release, I exposed the night sky for 20 seconds. The wind was not blowing, so an additional exposure for the foreground was not needed.

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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.

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Location: United States
“Grandfather’s Luminance”
The night sky glows with the band of the Milky Way as it begins it’s pass over the peaks of Grandfather Mountain. The Moutains reflection can be seen on Price Lake, Milepost 296.

Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: Nikkor 17-35 mm
Focal Length: Infinity
ISO: 3200
Shutter: 20 sec.
Aperture: f2.8
Filters: none
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: This image was shot across the lake from Grandfather Mountain using a tripod and a cable release. Exposed wide open at f2.8 for 20 sec to burn in the stars.
I wanted Grandfather mountain to provide the anchor in the shot with the Milky Way leading the viewer thoughout the image. I knew that the lights from Banner Elk would provide a small halo effect over Grandfather and give just enough separation to give me a visible reflection in the water.

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