Date Taken: 07/23/2018
Location: Moses Cone Firetower Trail, Milepost 294 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone and Blowing Rock in the High Country of North Carolina

Camera: Canon Rebel T6
Lens: 18-55mm
Focal Length: 18
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/60
Aperture: F20
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: From the trail overlooking the meadow toward Grandfather Mountain. The fields were as golden with wildflowers. At first I wished the clouds weren’t covering the top of Grandfather but the benefit is it also blocked the infamous Sugar Top.

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Date Taken: 07/23/2018
Location: Moses Cone Firetower Trail, Milepost 294

Camera: Canon Rebel T6
Lens: 18-55mm
Focal Length: 25mm
ISO: 400
Shutter: 1/20
Aperture: 20
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Saw this cluster off one of the cut-throughs before you get to the meadow. Went down the cut through and set up my tripod. Loved how at this angle the tree looks like it is producing the Turk’s Cap blooms.

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Date Taken: 06/29/2017
Location: Moses Cone Carriage Trail at Moses Cone Memorial Park, Milepost 294.1 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Boone and Blowing Rock.

Camera: Sony A7Rii
Lens: sel70300g
Focal Length: 78mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/8 sec
Aperture: f16
Filters: none
Exposure: Aperture Priority
How I Got This Shot: At 8:15 PM, the Sun was just a few minutes from going down. I looked up the trail and decided that it made for a better composition than the sunset. If you look closely, in the shadows, you can see the last few hikers of the coming back to their cars. Tripod used and stopped down to f16 to keep both the fore and background in focus.

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Date Taken: 10/20/2016
Location: Bass Lake, Moses Cone Memorial Park at Milepost 294 on the Blue Ridge Parkway

Camera: Sony A7
Lens: sel70300
Focal Length: 70mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/8″
Aperture: f11
Filters: None
Exposure: Aperture
How I Got This Shot: It was a beautiful day and near peak color all over the Boone area. Got off the Parkway and ran down to Bass Lake to check it out (about 5:00 PM). Water was smooth so there were some nice reflections. Used a tripod.

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Location: Bass Lake Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, Milepost 294 on the Blue Ridge Parkway near Blowing Rock.
A crisp autumn morning at Bass Lake, Moses H. Cone Memorial Park. Captured 10/6/2013

Camera: Nikon D7100
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 16mm
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/20
Aperture: f/16
Filters: Marumi Super DHG Circular Polarizer 77mm
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: I did my best to compose this scene so that it is balanced. Our eye is drawn to whatever is brightest in a scene (or darkest, if your photo is mostly bright!). In this case, the brightest area of the photo is the radiant sunrise. That is made the left side of the scene very heavy. Think of it like a scale. Something needs to be put on the right side to bring the scene into balance. Here, I’ve used the the island to do just that.

I think it is also helpful that the treetops on the island broke up the treeline running along the lake shore. The idea is that the eye will look at the bright, misty sunrise first, then follow the gradual ascent of treetops to the right until it dead stops on the island interrupting the line.

Everything else about this photo are just basics. If you want calm water and a sky like this, be there when the sun rises. No amount of Photoshop or filters will turn a midday shot into this. You have to do the hard work of getting up early and setting up just as the sun crest the treeline.

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Location: Bass Lake, Moses H. Cone Memorial Park, Milepost 294
The sun illuminates the rising mist from the surface of Bass Lake.

Camera: Nikon D7100
Lens: Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8
Focal Length: 16mm
ISO: 200
Shutter: 1/10
Aperture: f/16
Filters: None
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: One “secret” about shooting into the sun is to use your LCD display rather than the viewfinder. This allows you to explore various compositions at your leisure without the nasty side effect or blindness.

The sun was extremely low in the sky. This photo was captured just as it had crest the treeline. To get the sharp spikey bits on the sun, use a relatively small aperture. Here, I used f/16. Experiment to see how aperture affects the spikey bits. By the way, this effect can be recreated with other light sources.

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Location: This photo was taken at Bass Lake on the Moses H. Cone property on October 17, 2013.
I call this orangely beautiful.

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Date Taken: 12/08/2010
Location: Flat Top Manor, Milepost 294
Flat Top Manor at Milepost 294 in snow.

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Date Taken: 12/08/2010
Location: Moses Cone Park, Milepost 294
A Parkway bridge at Moses H. Cone Memorial Park.

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Date Taken: 01/19/2014
Location: Bass Lake Moses H. Cone Memorial Park MP294
Starry night over a mostly frozen Bass Lake near Blowing Rock, NC.

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