Thursday, November 29, 2018

Shadows and Light

Last weekend, I took a little trip to Point Marion, PA, and beyond.  Just over the Mon river, I saw a sign for Friendship Hill park, which is run by the National Park Service.

It was mid-afternoon by that time, with partial clouds and sunshine -- the first in weeks it seems.

Here's a shot that I took on the drive into the park.  I liked the view of a country lane lined with mature trees.


You can see from the long shadows that the sun is already low on the horizon.

In the following shot, the sun was just off the screen to the middle left.  Shooting into this direction really shows off the long shadows.  This is the Albert Gallatin house, viewed from the front.  The house sits on a bluff overlooking the Monongahela river, which is behind the house.


This is the view of the back of the house.  I've read of and mentioned the "golden hour" before, but this shot exemplifies it.


Normally, the house is open to visitors, but I think it was closed because of reduced hours this late in the season.

Here's a shot of the road as I was leaving the park.  Shadows are pointing to the left from this direction.  The canopy of trees reminds me a bit of an arched cathedral from the inside.


I'm definitely going to come here again as the seasons change.  The road alone should be quite scenic as the seasons progress.

Monday, November 5, 2018

Falling Behind

It was time to set out clocks back on Saturday night.  That's all that I have to say about that.

The weekend was the first respite from rainy weather that I've had since -- well -- forever.  After running my usual Saturday errands, I packed up some camera gear and headed up to Cooper's Rock state forest.  About a thousand other people had the same idea.

Here's the view from the overlook:


It was cold and blustery there, but I got off a few nice shots of the Cheat River canyon. There's a nice play of light and shadow in this picture.   As you can see, the fall foliage was less than spectacular.  I heard something about this being a trend now, a symptom of climate change.

I tried the road to the Henry Clay iron furnace.   There were a few moments where I stopped the car long enough to take advantage of the sun playing peek-a-boo with the forest.


I broke with the rule of thirds on that shot, using instead the curve of the golden mean to place the end of the road as it disappeared into the woods.

From there, I crossed the interstate and checked out the trout pond, which is still technically part of Cooper's Rock.  The clouds were breaking in that direction.  Curse the wind for disturbing the water at the inlet, marring what would otherwise have been a nice reflective photo.