Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Sunday, February 22, 2015
Mountains to Sea Photography Workshop
This weekend, I participated in a winter photography workshop with a handful of other photographers. We were up early, out late, and working our butts off to get some unique shots that we could work with. It snowed for the majority of the time which made the whole experience that much more fun.
We visited a lot of different locations and hiked to almost all of them. The first place we went to was Price Lake in Blowing Rock, NC on Friday. Arriving at the parking area at around 5:30 pm, we hiked for about 15 minutes (very short hike) and shot the sunset across the frozen lake at roughly 6:15 pm. It was a gorgeous scene and one that I wasn't very prepared for - I had forgotten my tripod at the house. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good shots from that day but I had loads of fun.
Saturday, we woke up at 3:45 am to leave the hotel at 4:15 am in order to get to Roan Mountain by sunrise. The roads were so frozen that we couldn't go to Roan Mountain, however we did go to the Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway. That hike was intense. Since the Parkway was closed, the group had to hike down the road (which was covered in a foot of snow the whole way up) and got to where we needed to be in 45 minutes. Let me remind you, it was PITCH black and colder than I've felt in a while. We got some good, but mostly colorless photos up there and hiked back down to get some breakfast at around 11:00 am. After breakfast, we went to a place which didn't have a specific name but had huge rolling hills with an enormous oak tree in the middle - it was also covered in more than a foot of snow, 2.5 feet in some places!
Today (Sunday) I woke up at 4:30 am to go catch the sunrise atop Beacon Heights. It was an unimaginably breathtaking scene (covered in snow again) and was a short quarter-mile, straight uphill hike.
I learned a lot from that trip - lots of technical things - but most importantly for me, I realized that it's okay to take photographs that aren't portfolio-quality and to take my time. I have a new-found motivation to do photography as much as I can and I can thank Tommy White and Alistair Nicol for that.
I'll be posting more from Friday night (I'll share a couple, even if they aren't GREAT) and from Saturday morning tomorrow!
We visited a lot of different locations and hiked to almost all of them. The first place we went to was Price Lake in Blowing Rock, NC on Friday. Arriving at the parking area at around 5:30 pm, we hiked for about 15 minutes (very short hike) and shot the sunset across the frozen lake at roughly 6:15 pm. It was a gorgeous scene and one that I wasn't very prepared for - I had forgotten my tripod at the house. Unfortunately, I didn't get any good shots from that day but I had loads of fun.
Saturday, we woke up at 3:45 am to leave the hotel at 4:15 am in order to get to Roan Mountain by sunrise. The roads were so frozen that we couldn't go to Roan Mountain, however we did go to the Viaduct on the Blue Ridge Parkway. That hike was intense. Since the Parkway was closed, the group had to hike down the road (which was covered in a foot of snow the whole way up) and got to where we needed to be in 45 minutes. Let me remind you, it was PITCH black and colder than I've felt in a while. We got some good, but mostly colorless photos up there and hiked back down to get some breakfast at around 11:00 am. After breakfast, we went to a place which didn't have a specific name but had huge rolling hills with an enormous oak tree in the middle - it was also covered in more than a foot of snow, 2.5 feet in some places!
Today (Sunday) I woke up at 4:30 am to go catch the sunrise atop Beacon Heights. It was an unimaginably breathtaking scene (covered in snow again) and was a short quarter-mile, straight uphill hike.
I learned a lot from that trip - lots of technical things - but most importantly for me, I realized that it's okay to take photographs that aren't portfolio-quality and to take my time. I have a new-found motivation to do photography as much as I can and I can thank Tommy White and Alistair Nicol for that.
I'll be posting more from Friday night (I'll share a couple, even if they aren't GREAT) and from Saturday morning tomorrow!
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