Water Falls and Ice at Blackwater Falls State Park (WVa)

Had a great 3+ days with the family staying in a cabin, hiking around, and taking photos of the winter scenery. There was not enough snow to cross-country ski or sled, but the cold temps and the couple of inches on the ground (and on branches) made for some great photo opportunities. I’m posting a few today and will follow up in the next few days. Meanwhile enjoy and feel free to leave comments, especially constructive critiques.

Here’s a basic view of the falls.

After spending some time shooting from straight on (more or less) while experimenting a bit with different focal lengths, I started to see if I could find a different way to see the falls. I liked this side view a lot.

And I also liked this close-up view of the icicles behind the falls.

Elakala Falls is another beautiful water fall in the park. It’s not as imposing as Blackwater, but quite beautiful just the same, perhaps more so.

Elakala Falls

Fun with Lights

I spent last evening with camera club friends doing abstracts at the Christmas light show at the Mormon temple in Kensington, MD. When you are taking long exposures, zooming, etc., you often don’t know what you’re going to get, especially at first. But, as you keep experimenting, you get a better sense of how to create various effects. Here are some of the “good ones.”


Warp Speed


Vortex


I’m calling this one “Not Jackson Pollock,” because it actually (and accidentally) looks a bit like some of his work.


Not sure what to call this one. Some of these don’t actually prefer to have names!


String theory