Today is a day of rest for me after two weeks of putting the mountains of North Carolina in front of the camera… it’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. I’m trying to maintain my health, although my fast approach to the tender age of 61 makes me wonder how much longer I’ll be able to traipse these elevations under 50 lbs. of gear without the aid of Sherpas… any takers out there? I shot alongside Sharon www.flickr.com/photos/52399662@N05/ on Rough Ridge at sunrise last week… she’s around my age and weighs likely 98 lbs. soaking wet, carrying similar gear… and she’s a true motivation for me. That being said, she’s probably thinking about Sherpas too.

I was pretty excited when I checked long-range weather after Hurricane Joaquin blew its way out of the state… every source I checked showed either mostly cloudy or partly sunny days for the regions I was headed to… in other words, perfect days for the nature photographer. When I arrived, however, the forecasts changed to absolutely brilliant sunny, totally cloudless days most every day. That wasn’t the only thing going wrong for my photographic foray… there were more people taking advantage of those clear days than I’ve ever seen before, especially along the Blue Ridge Parkway.

As do most photographers who have to contend with that kind of light, I know early or late are the best times to shoot. I had a friend along earlier the day before this who wanted to see a waterfall, and there are none better in the area than Linville Falls near milepost 316 on the Blue Ridge Parkway. She had left Durham about 4am Saturday to be there early… after breakfast and a short rest for her, we headed straight for the falls… where I got a good illustration why early and late applies to people as well as light. Once we got there, it quickly became clear that alternatives were necessary. I was amazed that both the upper and lower parking lots were mad houses, with many folks parked roadside (both sides) more than ¾ of a mile away… with more coming! I wondered just where in the world all those folks came from... turns out that was the answer, as I talked to people from all over creation! It was beyond capacity even if we decided to strike out for the falls regardless. Boone Fork and Elk Falls became better options.

Don’t misunderstand me here… a good dose of the outdoors does a body good, and I appreciate that folks find a good reason here to get out of the house. Thankfully, the “nature” they most respond to is their stomachs, so when supper calls, they vacate the highlands in droves… which left me to my own devices here Sunday night. I set about every composition that came to mind here. The dark hike back up the trail left me plenty of time with this composition in mind... to show the autumn grandeur of the basin as the Linville River begins to work its way through the gorge. It turned out better than I thought it would. This is 9 vertical images combined in Photoshop CSS 2015 ACR, rendering a detailed panorama of 8 feet by 2 feet, though it can go larger. Who needs an image bigger than that? A better question might be who needs to cover some big wall space?