The new photographs this month are from several recent trips to the southern mountains of North Carolina. Looking Glass Falls is one of the most well known waterfalls in North Carolina. To win a waterfall popularity contest you need to not only be beautiful but also easily accessible. Looking Glass Falls can be easily seen from Hwy 276, and there is a short set of paved stairs to the pool at the base of the falls. Since it is so easy to get to, I try to swing by when ever I am in the area.

I visited Looking Glass Falls three times this year while working on other things but was not able to photograph the falls because of the light. Waterfalls, especially waterfalls in the forest, tend to be very high contrast scenes. This high contrast is partly because the churning water is bright white as it flows over dark, wet rocks and into deep, dark pools. It is also because there is usually a gap in the forest canopy over the falls which puts more light on the brightest part of the scene. On a sunny day, this contrast will exceed a camera's dynamic range, but on a cloudy day, it becomes possible to capture details in the highlights as well as the shadows. On my last visit to the area, I had some wonderfully dreary weather so I made some time to visit the falls. The soft light provided the perfect range of contrast, and the fall foliage added color to the scene. The newly fallen birch, tulip-poplar, and maple leaves also added interest and color to the rocks in the creek below the falls. I used a polarizing filter to remove the sky reflection from the surface of the calm water and to allow the reflection of the waterfall to show more clearly. The polarizer also helped with the color saturation of the fall foliage.


Looking Glass Falls

I had a fun time photographing elk while I was working in Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I was scouting some forests in the eastern end of the park. I ended up with some extra time at the end of a day so I decided to go look at the elk which frequent a nearby field. The elk in the Smokies are easy to photograph, but they all have radio collars and ear tags, which I find to be a visual distraction and a reminder that these animals are somewhat less than wild. I worked to try to find a composition that would conceal this manmade elk bling but was not able to come up with anything I liked. As the sun was setting, it occurred to me that there could be fog in the morning. If so I could photograph the elk backlit in the fog, which would render them as silhouettes and conceal their collars and ear tags. It was wishful thinking, but I decided to return at dawn to see if the idea would work. There was not a wisp of fog when I first arrived the next morning. I made a few more images of elk but was not any happier with them than the photographs I had made the evening before. Then, out of nowhere, a mist began to lift out of the ground. Just then the elk nearest me started bugling.


Elk Bugling

I moved to put the elk in backlight just as they were enveloped by the mists. This fog lasted only about 10 minutes. In that time the elk were moving across the field and constantly changing their poses and their positions relative to each other. I was able to make several images, but this is the one I like best.


Elk at Dawn

I made one more photograph of the fog as it lifted out of the valley. This is a subtle image but what I liked about the scene was how the sun lit the trees on the left in warm light while the trees on the lower right were in the shadow of the hillside in a cold blue light.


Nellie Ridge