These were taken with a Canon 5d Mk II and Canon 70-200mm f2.8 IS. I think. It is approaching evening near Wilbur Dam in Elizabethton, TN:

1. Looking across the lake, the fog is about 4′ – 10′ deep on the water.

2. Orange sunlight filters through the trees, revealed by the fog.

3. A fisherman is silhouetted against the orange-lit fog. I would have given this guy a buck to close his mouth.

4. Another fisherman prepares to cast.

5. Fog was washing over the dam in huge waves, driven by the breezes that were blowing down the lake.

6. A lone fly fisherman stands below the dam in a foggy valley

7. A sepia version of the scene

8. The TVA fencing took on a ghostly appearance in the limited visibility

9. Some geese swim away from me, seeking the safety of the lake.

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12. An older gent gets a bite on his line and works to reel it in

13. Silhouette at sunset

14. Just more scenery

Did you know: You can get my photos in a Google Gadget, for enjoyment on your iGoogle page, blog, or anywhere else you can put a widget. I cooked this up quite a while ago, but never got around to promoting it.

In any case, follow one of the links below to go to the page for that Gadget. Click “Add it Now”, and it will appear on your iGoogle page.

The photo updates every ten minutes, so it’s always fresh!

	Random Landscape Photography from the Blue Ridge Mountains
	Random Nature Photography from the Blue Ridge Mountains
	Random Floral Photography

1. I submit for your consideration one timber rattler, approximate age 14 years old, who was cooperative enough to let me take these photos of it.

2. A good set of rattles… it acquires a new one each time it sheds. They shed every 1-2 years… 1.4 years on average (thus my age estimate).

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4. I’m glad it was mellow.

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6. The reason I was up there… to see the Pinnacle Mountain Fire Tower

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9. There was a combination of two reasons that stopped me from going to the top. First, the stairs were missing. You can see where the stairs should be there is still a handrail, and brackets for the steps. I was game to climb this, and began doing so. That’s when the second factor kicked in… a nest full of very energetic hornets was being shaken with each step I took, and they began to swarm. I didn’t want to get up there and get attacked while unable to make a quick (and safe) descent, so I decided discretion was the better part of valor.

10. The building at the base of the tower.

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14. In addition to venomous snakes, there was an abundant variety of mushrooms in the area.

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1. Leaves along the trail on Buffalo Mountain

2. Sunshine breaks through the canopy

3. Trail to the overlook on Buffalo Mountain

4. Remains from the fire last year.

5. Tangled remains

1. A steeple stands in for broken wrought iron.

2. children and adults.

3. A well dressed pole.

4. Tagged.

1. Calling down the rain

2. I like roots

3. Turnbuckle Rex

4. Portrait mode, same scene as before

5. Depth of field

6. As close as I got, a silhouette

7. Very zen, placing that rock there

8. Technicolor or greyscale, no in-between

9. My other cooperative bird friend

10. “Dude, quit following me”

11. Futuristic sex robots, always on the scene

12. Different bird. I noticed this guy was watching me.

13. Pretending he wasn’t. But he still is.

14. He flew down and posed for me.

15. I liked these weeds, I don’t know why.

16. Straight down 100 feet

17. woohoo

So I went to the quarry cave again, this time with nonspecific. I hooked up the remote switch and set the camera to the bulb setting, so I could hold the shutter open as long as I wanted. Then came the fun part… using my extra-bright flashlights to “paint” the cave with light, only lighting the areas I wanted. It was nearly dark by the time we left, and definitely dark by the time we made it back to the car. As nightfall approached, a heavy mist settled into the cave, making for a surreal experience. When the lights were off, it was pure black, and when on, it seemed pure white, and you could barely see any better. Also strange, was that just 10 or 15 feet apart, and I couldn’t understand Kara at all, due to all the echoes. In short, I had a blast. :)

Then suddenly, photos:

Near the entrance:

Exposure Time: 30.000 s
Aperture: f/5.0
ISO equiv: 400
Lighting: natural lighting from left, lesser so from right, fill-in by flashlight

Side chamber:

Exposure Time: 77.000 s
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO equiv: 800
Lighting: generous and erratic use of 2 high-power flashlights :)

Side chamber:

Exposure Time: 156.000 s
Aperture: f/7.1
ISO equiv: 800
Lighting: No flashlights close the camera or within line-of-site of the lens. Two flashlights were held fairly still for about 45 seconds, and then waved around for fill lighting for the remainder. This seemed to work well, and cut down on the mist haze, getting a crisp view of the far wall.

I also took more HRDI fodder, we’ll see how that goes.

The batch from the tunnel didn’t work out due to a lack of bright data (I really did need the tripod after all) but I think I’ve got the hang of it now with properly exposed photos and the newer software. The photos show some differences due to variations in the settings… I’m still deciding what I want these things to look like.

HDRI = High Dynamic Range Imagery. Take multiple photos of a wide contrast scene, varying the exposure up and down to capture the full range of data available. Using special software, you combine the images, and use tone-mapping to convert the scene-wide contrast into “micro-contrast”. This compresses the tonal range a bit, and enables details that would have been lost to come through.

Here’s some images I made a couple years back to explain it…
http://www.vaughnsphotoart.com/miscimg/hdr1.jpg (3 exposures)
http://www.vaughnsphotoart.com/miscimg/hdr2.jpg (result)

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I had hoped to have some high dynamic range images for you, but that hasn’t been going so well. For one thing, my tripod was in the car, which was with Melanie in Big Stone Gap. Beyond that though, I just having trouble getting the HDRI’s to come out. I’m not sure if it’s that the source images were too dark, or I just don’t have the knack of the settings. But I’m having trouble making anything that is an improvement over a regular image.

The rest of these images are the surrounding area.

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9. ezerick in the background… A rather large piece of concrete in the foreground

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