Watauga County

A thunderstorm over Price Lake with some autumn color was hard to pass up. When I got there, however, the setting Sun seemed to have taken the energy out of the storm. It began to shred apart above this high mountain lake (3,500 feet). Sunlight seemed to poke holes in the cloud, adding a sense of drama to the sky. As I’ve said in a previous post, I don’t as a rule shoot straight into a bright Sun, but this was hard to pass up. The storm receded enough to uncover the Sun, exposing the brilliance of the colorful fall foliage… the lens flare saturates it even more.

This was taken during sequestration by President Obama concerning a budget battle with the legislative branch of government. He had shut down the national parks as a result… you could still get to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but no services or campgrounds were available. I had the tripod set on likely the best vantage facing west. Before long, another photographer came to check it out. Though he spoke English well enough, it was tinged with a Russian accent. The sequester had occurred the previous day… he had been camping in his van and had planned to spend his evening here at the nearby campground, only to find it gated. Joyce and I had rented a cabin with a lot of room, so we invited him to spend the night… he was a bit reluctant at first, though he gave in.

His wife was a tenured professor at the University of West Virginia. When their schedules didn’t quite jive, he would take a driving sabbatical with just he and his camera. He knew some about the parkway, though little about its periphery. I was delighted to have him tag along to some highlights of the Blue Ridge in this area for the next few days. We made fast friends at the cabin’s table at breakfast and dinner… we were the same age… and we had once been determined enemies of the Cold War, he in the Russian Army, me in the U. S. Air Force. We traded many stories, some of his of which I had known the conclusions. While the meaning of Pravda was "truth", it defied the very definition of truth, and there was very little of truth in it as journalism to the people of Russia. Perhaps that's what our media has become, overall. Despite problems in this nation, one of the things that had stood out to him in his time in this country was the graciousness of the American people as a whole. He expressed that to me as he left to continue his excursion of the parkway… I asked him to just pass it along.

I’ve stood in this very spot to shoot stars on the darkest nights… bright images like this make me realize that the reason for light is to expose what lays in the darkness. My once upon a time “enemy” Russian friend reminds me of that. There's a lesson in there somewhere... figure it out.

I’m getting prepared to get out to the mountains soon for some winter photography… some in my circle here in Durham don’t much understand that. This image is from the fall of 2015 at Boone Fork Creek. I was pretty upbeat this day, though there were some who questioned my sanity on getting out to photograph in the clouds that had dropped over the highlands. As you can see, it was a perfect day to translate nature’s beauty through photography. No, it’s not the sunshiny day many would go for… but they’re missing out. My photographer buddies in the mountains know better and can find beauty where you least expect it.

That same understanding comes to the forefront this time of year, though with regard to everything in our lives, not just photography. It seems many choose not to look for beauty in this world for one reason or another, especially with concern to a post-Christian culture. Ecclesiastes 3:11 points out something pretty extraordinary, however, with that as a concern: "He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end." Perhaps it's time to tap into that "eternity" to see this world the way God does... chances are you will find beauty where you least expect it. Go be beautiful!

I made note of this place last week on Facebook with a short video… it’s yet another of those sweet places not far from the Blue Ridge Parkway that so few stop to see. This is around a mile and a half up the Flat Top Mountain trail… it begins at the barn at Moses Cone Manor (at Milepost 294 on the BRP) and winds its way up to the Flat Top Tower, 2.7 miles away. A short jaunt from the barn takes you under a bridge on the parkway, then up along a fenced cow pasture and into the woods. At about a mile, the woods open to this expansive meadow. Summer is the peak time for wildflowers here, as you can see. There are also wildflowers in the woods such as fire pink and Virginia spiderwort… but here in the meadow, the sun-loving daisies, black-eyed Susans, astors, fleabane, coreopsis, yarrow, Queen Anne’s lace, large clover, and many flowering grasses abound. One that is a standout to me is milkweed, seen here as a purple/pink cluster on long stalks… the clusters are made up of many individual flowers that are every bit as complex as orchids when viewed close. The part that’s interesting to me, however, is that the milkweed you see here, just one of some 140 species of milkweed, is so wonderfully fragrant, it makes the trip here worthwhile just to breathe it all in. Their scent is quite cloying if you sniff the flowers directly but diluted in a high-country breeze it’s intoxicating. In the video, I mentioned that it would make a delightful fragrance… but who would buy milkweed perfume?

That's Grandfather Mountain in the distance, where my wife, Joyce, is the hard at work as the state convener of the House of Boyd (long story short, essentially a Scottish clan) during the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games held every July in McRae Meadows... unless you prefer men in kilts, this meadow is prettier. I would be negligent if I didn’t mention that this is also a great place to photograph butterflies… though I believe you could have figured that out.