Close to home has it by a long shot. This morning, the mist was thick at our house. “Could be something interesting up on the parkway,” I thought – to myself. By 6AM I was leaving a note for Carol – still asleep, I was sure.

Conditions seem to be everything when making images that speak. The last time I was inspired to head out it was two hours by the time I got there. And while all was not lost, 6:28 AM is sure better light.

I enter the parkway at the Balsam entrance to the Blue Ridge Parkway just outside Waynesville, NC and head toward Asheville as there’s a few openings looking east along that route.

The first one had the sun just peaking over the horizon – I could have been here an hour sooner, still. But when I noticed the mist between the ridges I knew I was at the right place.

I used a 95mm focal length to frame the image, in this case the sun playing second fiddle to the misty foreground. Aperture was f5.3 Speed 1/320 Sec. on tripod with cable release.

I’ve yet to work all my morning subjects which included some HDR’s. I’ll post soon…

But I do have one that was sort of interesting…

Just as  I was exiting the Parkway, these fantastic rays of light were cutting through the mist. I yanked the steering wheel to the right and hopped out of the car. As the image was so washed out I thought an HDR (High Density Range) might help. I may have to work on this a bit. But that technique should be in everyone’s tool bag. It’s a good problem solver and not hard to execute. Appreciate comments…

This is what the scene looked liked — lots of mist. This car had just passed by as I was getting ready to make my first image – on of the few this early morning.

In the mean time, if you’re a lens Lugger, drop us something that speaks to you – for the lensluggers.com blog.

Thanks, and keep shooting.