Date Taken: 10/13/2016
Location: Rough Ridge Trail, Milepost 302.8 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in the High Country of North Carolina.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: Tamron 17-35 f/2.8-4
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO: 800
Shutter: 1/50
Aperture: f/11
Filters: HiTech 4 stop graduated ND filter
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: This image was a tough one to capture. I arrived at Rough Ridge Parking Area (milepost 302.8) to catch a sunrise with some fall foliage sprinkled in. I made the short hike from the parking area, up a staircase and to an opening where I was exposed to some brutal winds – gusts well over 40 MPH, occasionally knocking me and my camera off balance. A tripod (a heavy, durable one) is a must here. I originally set up to shoot some distant images of the fog way off in the distance with a telephoto lens, but the wind oscillated my lens to the point where I couldn’t get a sharp image, even at a higher ISO speed. Then the sun rose; and I switched to my ultrawide Tamron lens, using the staircase as a focal point and a leading line to the rising sun. I boosted my ISO speed to 800 – a sensitivity I rarely, if ever, use. But it was crucial here with the high winds and low light. I had to freeze the blowing branches and foliage in front of me, otherwise they’d be blurry from a slow shutter speed. Also, with a high contrast scene, I had to use a graduated ND filter to hold back the bright sky while projecting the foreground. At 1/50 of a second and at 17mm, with an aperture of f/11, and using the aforementioned graduated ND filter, I was able to control depth of field, capture everything I wanted in the scene, expose the image properly, all the while ensuring there wouldn’t be much, if any, blurring of the colorful leaves or branches in my foreground. In post-processing I was able to remove the modest amount of noise present from the high ISO speed, while doing my usual developments for contrast, color, luminance, clarity, and a quick smart sharpening pass in Photoshop. The end result came mighty close to what I saw with my own eyes, given the limitations of my gear.

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Date Taken: 08/07/2016
Location: The Saddle Overlook, Milepost 168 on the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia

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The Saddle is a ridge connecting two high points on Rocky Knob Mountain. It forms a portion of the Blue Ridge crest line and offers an extensive view of the Blue Ridge. Visit our online guide for more information about Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks.

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Date Taken: 06/11/2016
Location: The peak of a two mile hike on a trail which begins at the Graybeard Overlook, Milepost 363.4 on the southern end of the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina.

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Location: South of Chestnut Cove Overlook, Milepost 398.3
October Morning on the Parkway! Just captured this morning Oct 3 2013. I am happy to announce that the Parkway is open for travel as are the overlooks! Yay! But the visitors centers are closed. The entire 2 hours I was there I only saw 3 cars. This time a year that is not normal. The color is patchy from the bottom to the top and sections have more or less colors then other sections. But I do not see a significant change due to elevation. A little surprised.

Camera: Canon 5D MKII
Lens: 24-104 f4L IS USM
Focal Length: 73mm
ISO: 640
Shutter: 1/200
Aperture: f/22
Filters: none
Exposure: AV
How I Got This Shot: I actually did not plan on going up this morning to capture sunrise, but, as I was returning emails this morning, I happened to look outside and I saw pink puffy clouds. My heart skipped for a second and I thought… well I gotta go get it! Grabbed my camera and as I made it for the door I realized I was in my PJ”s. And for a split second I thought , awww who cares. Luckily I changed, made me way up, and arrived just after the sun rose. Happily, there were beautiful soft layered type clouds around to continue to hold the color. I shot for about almost two hours before I called it a day!

This shot was taken handheld as I felt the light level was bright enough to get my shutter speed over 1/60 of a second. A good rule to follow, don’t try and handhold slower then 1/60 of a second. This image was one exposure processed in LR5.

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Date Taken: 11/08/2013
Location: Wilson Creek Overlook, Milepost 303
The temp on this morning was only 26 at 6:30am with wind chills down in the teens but the sunrise on the Parkway was well worth the cold and wind. This photo was taken just a few minutes after the sun rose over the mountains.

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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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© Deborah Scannell Photography – 2013 Fall
Captured at Mills River Valley Overlook from the Blue Ridge Parkway, on October 30 2013.

Camera: Canon 5D MKII
Lens: EF 16-35 f/2.8 L II USM
Focal Length: 35mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 1/5
Aperture: f/8
Filters: Circular Polarizer
Exposure: Manual

How I Got This Shot: I arrived 50 minutes prior to the sunrise and boy, am I glad I did. This was captured during the Blue Hour. The Blue Hour is right before sunrise about the 30 minutes leading up to it and at sunset as well, about 15-35 minutes after sunset. It is a magical time and if you can arrive early or stay later to capture this magical time, do it. If i hadn’t gotten up early enough and arrived in time I would have left with nothing because this pre-dawn light only lasted for about 3 minutes, on this particular day. After that it became muddy and washed out. When the sun rose, I was still holding out optimism, but nothing happened. The sun was totally diffused by the thick cloud cover and the clouds were just to think. So when you arrive to take sunset arrive early and start shooting all the way through.

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Camera: Nikon D800
Lens: 70-200
Focal Length: 70mm
ISO: 100
Shutter: 3″
Aperture: f/22
Filters: 0.9 Soft Grad
Exposure: Manual

How I Got This Shot: I shot this from the top of my truck parked in the overlook. Getting up early and being prepared for the shot pays dividends.

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Location: Rough Ridge
The pre-sunrise colors lit up beautifully and mirrored that of the early Autumn colors along the slopes of Grandfather Mountain. This image was taken from Rough Ridge on Thursday 10-3-13.

Camera: Canon 5D MKII
Lens: Canon 17-40mm
Focal Length: 17mm
ISO: 200
Shutter: 2.5 seconds
Aperture: f/11
Filters: 2 stop plus 3 stop GND filters
Exposure: Manual
How I Got This Shot: Hiking into locations before sunrise can sometimes make you a little paranoid, especially when you see a bear while on the way to the trail head. When I started seeing the pre-sunrise colors in the sky I knew it was worth the effort. I chose to use a wide-angle lens to show off the early Autumn colors and intense color in the sky. The sky was lit up so brightly I had to stack a 3 stop graduated ND filter with a 2 stop graduated ND filter to help balance the exposure difference in the sky and foreground.

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Location: Milepost 355
“Beyond The Blue Ridge”
Sunrise from the Blue Ridge Parkway near milepost 355. Table Rock Mountain and Hawksbill Mountain are the two prominent peaks on the left in this scene, which are approximately 25 miles away.

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