2008 Panorama: Highland Visions

Both these shots were taken in the waning hours of daylight, so it is fitting that these are the last of my Panoramic 2008 review.

This first image was taken after nine pm at the wildlife viewing area at Canaan Valley State Park. We had finished our day of hiking Roaring Plains. In my memory of the year's great photos, this nightscape was eclipsed by The Rewards of Sleeping Late. It's a shame that the flashy image prevented me from seeing the subtle one. Looking back at the two images from that summer day, I imagine that over the long-run this "Nightscape Spruce" will be regarded as the better art.

This panoramic was taken last Fall at Dobbins Slashings—just north of Dolly Sods. It was dreadfully humid as we hiked up to the top of the Cabin Mountain range. The sky was thick summer gray. We dragged ourselves around Dobbins Slashings. The photos were not coming easily. We saw a bear rumble past us on the trail. I missed it. The sunset was barely visible through the haze. Before beginning our dark trek down the mountain, I used a telephoto lens to make this panoramic view of a copse of spruce.

When I returned to my studio and worked the images from that day, I was despondent. None of the shots appealed to me. The light was poor. Images were muddy. This shot was the only one with potential. I worked this image in Photoshop like a lump of clay. To call it processed would be a gross understatement. I finally converted it to black & white, using a bizarre balance of tone mapping, and put the image away until I rediscovered it last week. Dark, bleary, and desolate may be great words to describe this image and possibly even the mood in the Autumn of 2008. I have never been one to attempt to convey zeitgeist in my landscape photography—I'll leave that to the photojournalists—but this image comes pretty close.