As the autumn in the Southern Appalachians began to shed its foliage and the temperature ranges between day and night began to stretch themselves toward extremes, the valleys of Pisgah National Forest in Transylvania County found themselves regularly filled with tidal fog, a moving sea of air sloshing between the low places and the surrounding uplifts and high country. Pounding Mill Overlook on the Blue Ridge Parkway became, on these occasions, a seaside vantage where light and cloud joined as morning light washed in another new day.
A focal length of 135mm, still short-telephotoland, gave me the angle-of-view I wanted, to include the spur ridge below the overlook and a considerable swatch of the fog-filled valley floor. An aperture of f/18 provided depth-of-field from a camera-to-subject distance between two hundred yards and several miles; and with an ISO of 500 allowed for a shutter speed of 1/50th second so that I could freeze the movement of the ocean moving below me.
Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are part of the common wealth of Western North Carolina, part of the wonderful public lands heritage that is our solemn obligation to protect and preserve.
This is really beautiful. Thank you
Hi Linda. Thank you for joining our conversation. I hope all is well in Ashfield and that you are safe and well. I very much appreciate your kind words. The Cradle of Forestry in America as seen from the Blue Ridge Parkway, or from anywhere else for that matter, is a beautiful place. Have a beautiful winter!
So beautiful
Hey Lynne. It’s always great to have you join us. It would be lovely to spend a day with you and John exploring this area. Looking forward to seeing y’all soon. Walk in Beauty.
An absolutely stunning shot. Thank you for sharing your vision.
Hey Chris. It’s wonderful to hear from you! I really appreciate your kind words and the opportunity to share with you what nature shares with me. I hope you and Sue are safe and well as we begin this new year. Bonnie and I are looking forward to our Zoom call with you on Sunday and our adventure in the fall. Take very good care.
Nice peace of work Don. You nailed it!
Hi Ron. Happy New Year! I hope your Pioneer Valley winter is filled with beautiful opportunities for your creativity. I am honored by your thoughtful comment. Take care and be safe.
Thank you for sharing these beautiful pictures each week.
Love this image! Superbly done. Thanks for sharing. Happy New Year to you and Bonnie. Look forward to traveling again once we get the shot.
Hey Sandy. Thanks very much for your kind comments. Yes, we are looking forward to a post-vaccine world with the chance to enjoy the Beauty of the Nature, at least more or less freely and with minimum constraint. Be safe and be well.
Hi Sharon. You are more than welcome; thank you for taking the time to be with us each week and to allow me to share the Beauty of my world with yours. Have a great winter filled with creative opportunities and the wonders of Nature.
Great shot, I can feel the motion, thanks for sharing.
Hey Steve. Thanks for being with us and for your very kind words. One of the true joys of Pounding Mill Overlook on a fog-filled morning is standing high above the valley watching the mists move back and forth between the ridges and forming the amazing patterns that can come from their oceanic motion. It is mesmerizing!
Don, I really like how this image defines the valley with the fog. And the light on the close ridge is gentle and warm, while we can also pick out some superstar tree specimens rising above the canopy AND the fog (!) to show themselves. As a conservationist and a grandson of a Louisiana lumberman who in the 1920s would have been happy to cut anything he saw, I view forests through a few lenses. It’s hard to believe that these grand National Forests today were “the lands nobody wanted” after having been denuded a century ago. Wonderful image.
Hi Ray. It’s always a pleasure to have you with us, and knowing your background, I could anticipate some very thoughtful responses for an image like this one. Interestingly, the forest we are viewing was part of the Vanderbilt estate which was managed by Carl Schenck, Vanderbilt’s forester extraordinaire. As you know, Schenck started the first forestry school in America (the Biltmore Forest School) among Vanderbilt’s vast holdings in Western North Carolina. Schenck’s book, The Biltmore Story, is a great read. So this part of Pisgah NF has a bit of a different origin story. I appreciate your thoughtful observations on the image. I tried to manage the light and the movement of the mists as mindfully as I could, not being entirely certain when the sun might disappear for good into the overcast above me, or the fog would decide to become stationary in an inconvenient location. Walk in Beauty, my Friend, and be safe.
Howdy Don, I see drifts of snow, I see foamy surf, I see the reality of fog lastly, you have created and image for all seasons and all environments. Thank you for sharing.
Howdy Michael. Your wonderful metaphorical vision can see many things in this scene, and you would use all of them to craft great Beauty here, I am certain. I hope you are well and safe. I hear concerning reports coming from the Ocean State, that tell me how important it is for you to take good care and be very conscious of social distancing and other measures for safety. I’m hoping you will have access to the vaccine sooner than later, and will avoid the perils other Rhode Islanders have succumbed to. Walk in Beauty, my Friend.
What more can I say, but THANKS!!
I’m going to combine your separate comments into a single thread and respond to them together. So first, you are very welcome;and thank you, as always, for joining us for these discussions. I hope the shoulder continues to heal well. We, likewise, wish you and Mark and happy and safe New Year filled with joy and Beauty. May all of our institutional leaders step up to the plate and do whatever is necessary to ensure the safety and well-being of all of our citizens. I’ve chosen to call 2021 “The Year We See Each Other’s Faces Again!) And since you live relatively close to this location, I hope you have the chance to photograph its Beauty often in the New Year. Be well.
My first thought is “You’ve really outdone yourself this time, Don.” But I’m not sure that’s even possible — you do that so often! In any event, this is one of my very favorites!
Howdy Dr. Southworth. It’s great to have you join us. We’ve missed having you with us for our book group gatherings; I hope all is well with you and that you have remained safe. Thank you very much for your kind words. I am truly honored that you would offer these thoughts about my work and am grateful that you would enjoy it in this way, and this one in particular. I am very hopeful that 2021 will allow us to enjoy each other’s company once again. Be well and stay safe, my Friend.
A really spiritual image Don
Hi Bill. Thank you very much for being with us and for your very kind comment. I feel that there is no greater kudos that you can offer to one of my creations than to say that it is “spiritual.” Photography for me is truly a journey of the spirit, and for it to be said of one of my images that it rises to that level, is all that I might wish for its existence. Have a great New Year. Be well and Walk in Beauty.
Reminds me I need to take a trip up there!
Indeed, my Dear, this is a place I would love to share with you and the Boss. Stay safe, take good care, and be very well in this New Year.
Wishing you and Bonnie a VERY Happy and Healthy New Year. May the vaccine be with you!
The tidal fog is so awesome! I wish I could float just above the treetops as I did as a child. I wish I had known about this phenomenal fog then; that would really have been an awesome dream. This looks like a dream; that’s what took me back so many, many years ago. Thanks for sharing.
Hey Nancy T. I really enjoyed being able to talk with you this past week. I’m glad to learn that you are staying safe and being well. Isn’t is wonderful to allow an image to take you to some magical, historical somewhere and somewhen that you recall so clearly. Your journeys above the clouds gave you such an appreciation for what we can see when we allow our eyes to look unobstructed. Thank you for sharing that bit of magic with us. Walk in Beauty.
Thank you, Everyone, for a wonderful assortment of thoughts and observations. We are so very fortunate to live in a world that allows for such views as this from high above or deep within, and that affords us the opportunity to share with others the visions that we are given. I look forward to all of the opportunities that 2021 will bring and I wish for all of us a year of great Beauty and good health. May we work to preserve the great gift our public lands have bestowed upon us for ourselves and all who follow. Walk in Beauty,
Don