This is the interior of the Pool’s Mill Bridge that I recent photographed. Completed after the first contractor drilled the holes in the wrong places. Bud Gentry completed the bridge after drilling the holes in the correct positions. You can still see the original “mistakes” in the wood used for the treads, although it’s only a foot bridge now to the rapids on the other side.

The local kids get the courage every once in a while to add some graffiti to the supports. I wonder how many are caught after-the-fact from the cameras that are installed? While I was there you would see groups of kids go into the bridge and act crazy, then shush themselves for a few seconds when they saw me!

Taken at the height of summer with mosquitos hamming it up to get in the image. With my Think Tank backpack style bag, I keep forgetting I have a few Off! wipes in there and end up a food source for those blood sucking little buggers!

Nikon D200, Nikon 12-24 DX, 24mm at f/11, ISO 100, HDR, 5 Exposures, Post Processed

Overall I hit the park later in the day then I wanted, so the dynamic range was compressed. I used a slight Orton effect to soften the foliage, then used the base HDR image to paint back in the detail of the bridge.

Looking out from an Indian Seat

Originally living in Las Vegas, Nevada and Northern New Mexico, I grew up hiking and camping in some great outdoor environments. Out east, especially in the South, there isn’t as much “grand” scenery, but like most places, you can find a hiking trail with vistas. Just north of where I live is Sawnee mountain. Although the main hill is covered in cell towers and a smattering of high-end hillside houses, the northern mountain has a nice vista only 20 minutes from the parking lot on the Indian Seats trail.

The Indian Seats, the main overlook at the Sawnee Mountain Preserve looks north to Blood Mountain, which is the highest peak in the southern most portion of the Appalachian Trail. Viewing Blood Mountain or the Blue Ridge Mountains from the Indian Seats is only 40 minutes from the house to the overlook instead of the three hours driving to them.

The seats themselves are exposed granite outcroppings that were meant to be sat upon (or in). The view is great, especially at sunset.

This photo is a cropped HDR panorama taken near sunset on a cloudy day. Most days the haze (like you can see in the image above) makes it hard to see the horizon and mountains in the distance. I’m hoping I can get up here early for a sunrise photo once the leaves start to change and fog banks form. Parkign lot hours are 8:00am until dark, so here’s hoping the park rangers won’t worry about a lone hiker is the wilds of Cumming, Georgia.

What awaits through the passage, the ghost of horses-past, the rapture, or maybe a sunset shaded by a large Bradford Pear tree? I always enjoy looking at old buildings and how the wear over time for different reasons. In this case, I’m guessing it’s simply use and age.

When they get older and are not topped and thinned, like the ones in the image below, all hell can break loose–literally.

My old house had three of these trees along the side of the house. It also had over 30 large pines trees, some topping 30 to 40 feet (9-12 meters). When a bad storm came through and a tornado set down not too far away, a couple pines broken off and caused minor damage. All three of the Bradford Pears split and deposited large branches on my house.

Lesson learned. Love the tree, take photos of them far, far, away from the house. Our next door neighbor has one between our two houses. I keep measuring to make sure if it falls our way that it won’t hit our home!

This was taken near our church. It a private property where they grow sunflowers for photo opportunities and general sale during the summer months. I took this right near sunset. A breeze was blowing hard, so I only cleaned up some of the image blur.

The surrounding headstones are all pretty much modern with the exception of this one for the Cobb family (c. 1860′s). A lower angle kept the rest of the cemetery out of via while keeping the greeenscape with the just-changing leaves and cloudy sky in the picture.

Nine image HDR with post processing with Topaz to pop the color (Adjust) and to add detail to the statue (Details).