|
Much of the lower half of the Flatrock Run trail follows a beautiful little creek that babbles and cascades down the steep and very dark mountainside. On this day, the creek roared down the north face of the mountainside. The recent rains were swelling the streams and shading the woodland mountainside with a dense green canopy. Our Saturday hike was dark and damp with an abundance of Woodland Nettles whose mildly annoying sting even pierced the legs of our pants. Do not hike this trail in shorts.
I fear that I may be making this trail sound foreboding and inhospitable. It is, so stay away! The trio of foxes we caught fighting over a meal will be happy if you don't hike here. This trail is noisy because of that roaring creek I mentioned. The Stinging Woodland Nettles will make your legs swell-up like balloons. The rocks are dangerous and slippery. You could break a leg. Stay away. You have been warned.
On this day, we didn't go all the way to the top, but we were content to spend over an hour clambering over rocks making photographs of Flatrock Run. The mosaic above is composed of two rows of seven images, shot on a specialized tripod, each of them was a 13 second exposure at f/8. Of course, the ten-stop ND filter I was using extended the exposure to get blurred patterns in the water. This mosaic was my first attempt to use my new filter-gadget. All my subsequent attempts failed. I don't know what this says about spontaneity and woodland photography, but I was content to get more than one gratifying shot from my day, so I won't complain.
When people ask me what sort of photographer I am, I generally tell them I am a landscape photographer or nature photographer. Occasionally I tell people that I am hiker photographer, but on this day, I decided that I am a woodland photographer. Photography in the deep woodland mountains of West Virginia takes a different approach. There aren't many wide vistas to be had. In the deep woodlands, the landscape starts at the tips of your toes and extends dozens of feet in front of you. This second panoramic of Flatrock Run was composed of five images creating a vista that easily exceeds four feet across. Can I really call that a panoramic? Meh...
| 