Late Spring in the Smokies

I’ve just returned from a week of photography in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Although the Park in early June lacks the brilliant wildflower displays of April of the magnificent fall colors of October, any time of year is a treat to spend in the most popular national park in the country. Because of the heavy rains the region had been receiving, the streams were gushing with wild mountain water and the landscape was verdant and lush.

Sunset from the summit of the Chimney Tops

At the beginning of the week, I made the 1800-foot vertical hike to the summit of the Chimney Tops for a sunset photo opportunity. Shortly after arriving at the top, a monstrous thunderstorm hit and I was trapped high on the capstone alone, completely exposed to the quarter-sized hail and frequent lightning strikes. Forty-five minutes later, the storm cleared and the sun dried out my skin and clothes. The sunset was worth the trouble and I scrambled down the treacherous trail in the dark, making in back to my car by almost 10:30 pm.

Fiery Ridges

Speaking of thunderstorms, there was one almost every evening, providing some dramatic light and colors during both sunrise and sunset.

Misty Morning in Cades Cove

During every visit to Cades Cove and on most of the hikes throughout the week, I encountered my favorite animal in the Park – black bears. I photographed this young black bear chewing on greens in a Cades Cove meadow as I drove to the Abrams Creek trailhead.

Cades Cove Black Bear

The rivers, streams and waterfalls were in perfect condition for photography. In a few short weeks, the water levels will be much lower as summer weather patterns begin to dominate.

Laurel Falls

Now on Twitter

Now it’s possible to follow my recent travels and activities via Twitter. My profile can be found at http://twitter.com/bernabephoto. See ya there!

Jurassic Beach

Over the holiday weekend, I traveled to the shores of the Delaware Bay to witness and photograph the annual horseshoe crab spawn. Every year, during the new and full moons of late May and early June, millions of horseshoe crabs storm the beaches of Delaware Bay in both the states of Delaware and New Jersey.

I chose a place called Big Stone Beach in Delaware, since it is relatively undeveloped with lots of wide open beach to photograph the vast numbers of crabs that would be coming ashore. I had seen images of this ancient event (it is believed that horseshoe crabs have been on this planet for over 400 million years!) but I purposely did not want to create any preconceived ideas or emotions before forming them myself.

The new moon was on Sunday, but  the spawn could happen two or three days before or after that day. I was banking on Saturday night, since bad weather would be coming in Sunday. I guessed right.

The experience was fascinating, yet more than a little creepy. As I sat  in the water, dozens of horseshoe crabs would bump into me, crawling over my feet and legs. The sky became darker and the invasion intensified. I wanted to give the image a feeling of timelessness, considering how many years this ritual had been taking place. I used a 2-second exposure to help achieve that feeling. I also wanted to communicate the event as dark and mysterious.

The Ultimate Guide to Digital Nature Photography

Folks,

You can now pre-order copies of The Ultimate Guide to Digital Nature Photography on Amazon. Here is the link.

The Ultimate Guide is a comprehensive how-to book for nature photographers with either beginner and intermediate skill levels. From choosing the right equipment to compositional skills to digital processing, this book covers it all. Myself and professional nature shooters, Ian Plant, Jerry Greer, Guy Tal, Marc Adamus, Nye Simmons, Bill Lea,  Joe Rossbach, George Stocking, and Jim Clark have all combined our knowledge to create this invaluable guide book. It’s so good, you might even say it’s the ultimate!

Deviant Thoughts and Darker Exposures

Recently, I did an interview with the online art community, Deviant Art. I thought I would share it with you all. The full interview can be found in the following link:

http://news.deviantart.com/article/72107

Things are beginning to settle down a little after a surprisingly busy winter. Like I mentioned in a previous journal entry, I’ve not been able to get out and shoot as much as I would like, but I did get a chance to finally put the Canon 5D Mk2 to the test. I can say that I am extremely impressed with the image quality, especially the darker tones and shadows. No noise here!

This is Mather Gorge of the Potomac River, Great Falls National Park, Virginia. I exposed and interpreted this scene as rather dark. That’s because it WAS dark. The 5D Mark2’s ability to hold shadow detail without any noise was pretty impressive and now will allow me render more scenes like this in the future.

Winter Blues

It’s been a long winter with lots of work that has confined me to my office. Putting together book projects and writing has not enabled me to get out and shoot nearly as much as I would like. I did upgrade from the Canon 5D to the Canon 5DMk2, but I have yet to really put the new camera through the paces.

 

The new 2009 Canon calendar featuring my images was released last month. You can see the product here.

And an image during the few times I have been able to get out and do some photography:

 

Hunting Island Moonrise

I hope everyone’s 2009 has gotten off to a great start. More to come soon!

Whitetail Flight

Canon EOS 5D, 1/20 second @ f11

I used a relatively long shutter speed (1/20 second) while panning the camera and lens to get this painterly, impressionistic interpretation of this whitetail doe in full retreat. This is essentially how the image came out of camera.

The Dynamic Outer Banks

The Outer Banks of North Carolina is a place of constant change. Wind and water are continually moving and shaping the sand and landforms near the sea. Take these two images are examples:

The first image of the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse below was taken in January, 2008. As you can see, I am shooting the lighthouse between the snags that are embedded in the dunes.

January 2008

In the new image below, which was taken this month, November 2008, I am nearly standing in the same spot. The dune, however, has moved a good 12 – 15 feet and has obstructed the old view. The dune with the sea oats and all moved a considerable distance in a relatively short period of time.

November 2008

The perspective and lens choice is a bit different, but you get the point. It’s one of the things I love about photographing the Outer Banks – it’s a little different every time you visit.

Cape Angling

On the very tip of Cape Hatteras is Cape Point, where the converging currents meet and the seas are often rough and violent. It is also, apparently, a great fishing location as evidenced from this image taken Friday evening at Cape Point.

The month of November is traditionally a stellar month for surf anglers at Hatteras, but this has not been a good year, according to these guys. Still, I was the one who came away with the catch that evening as the soft, warm light and the ominous-looking skies provided the perfect conditions for this image.

More Images from the Outer Banks and Cape Hatteras, North Carolina

Click on any of the above images in order to see a larger version.