My next set of photos from the lovely Hilton Head Island in South Carolina.
For the best viewing experience, click to see a high resolution version. Please stay safe.
Cheers!
C. S.
Monochrome Monday, Hilton Head Island, pt 4
black and white
Monochrome Monday: Hilton Head Island
Last week my wife and I joined some friends for several days on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina. This was my first visit to the island. I expected a commercially overdeveloped landscape, like many other popular beach destinations in North & South Carolina. To my surprise, local ordinances have subdued commercialization and preserved much of the island’s natural beauty.
When visiting a new location, I always take an interest in understanding the local history, culture and biodiversity. As my youngest son attends the University of South Carolina, I knew the SC was known as the Palmetto State. Before my trip, I would have identified the two trees below as two separate species. They are actually both Palmettos (Sabal Palm) trees. Palmettos loose their weaved “boot” barking once they mature.
The numerous stately live oaks, imbued with Spanish moss and reconstruction ferns, contribute to the island’s natural charm. The weather was overcast most of the week, but I’ve found such weather quite an opportunity for photography.
Thank you for visiting and please stay safe! For the best viewing experience, click on an image to view a high resolution version.
Cheers,
C. S.
Monochrome Monday: Mountain Farm Museum
The Mountain Farm Museum, adjacent to the Oconaluftee Visitor Center near Cherokee, NC, is a unique collection of farm buildings assembled from locations throughout the area. Most of the structures were built in the late 19th century and were moved here in the 1950s. This was one of the stops on my October Appalachian fall foliage expedition.
Visitors can explore a log farmhouse, barn, apple house, springhouse, and a working blacksmith shop to get a sense of how families may have lived 100 years ago. The Davis House offers a rare chance to view a log house built from chestnut wood before the chestnut blight decimated the American Chestnut in our forests during the 1930s and early 1940s. I found the site to be a monochrome photography goldmine!
Thank you for stopping by! For the best viewing experience, click on an image to view a high resolution version. Please stay safe!
Cheers,
C. S.
Craggy Gardens Tree, Root, and Rock Compositions
From my Blue Ridge Parkway expedition this past October, this wonderful spot along the Craggy Pinnacle Trail offered many intriguing tree, root, and rock compositions. A quick point on inquiry, has anyone noticed WP adds about +5 red tint to color photos?
For the best viewing experience, click on an image to see a high resolution version from my portfolio site.
Cheers,
C. S.
Cherokee Countryside
With the Thanksgiving Holiday, I hope to catch up on posts from my October trips to the North Carolina mountains. I also look forward to catching up on posts from the bloggers I follow. This post features several landscapes and vignettes from areas near the Oconaluftee River, just north of Cherokee.
I’m thankful for my followers and those who take time to visit my photo blog. And especially for this community of photo bloggers, I enjoy your work, insights and friendship.
Happy Thanksgiving!
C. S.
Monochrome Monday: Mingus Mill
Located near the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Cherokee, North Carolina, Mingus Mill is an operational grist mill built in 1886. It uses a water-powered turbine instead of a water wheel to power all of the milling machinery.
Thank you for stopping by. For the best viewing experience, click on an image to see a high resolution version.
Cheers,
C. S.
Monochrome Monday: Oconaluftee River Trout Fisherman 1
This photo was taken back in mid-October at the southern terminus of the Blue Ridge Parkway, over the Oconaluftee River just outside Cherokee, North Carolina.
For the best viewing experience, click on the image to view a high resolution version. Please be safe, and wear a mask!
Cheers,
C. S.
Monochrome Monday: Mingo Falls
At 120 ft (37 m), Mingo Falls is one of the tallest in the southern Appalachian Mountains. As such, it was part of my October fall foliage expedition itinerary. It located near the entrance to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the town of Cherokee. It is part of the Qualla Boundary, a land trust of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians. My Tamron 15mm – 30mm wide-angle view doesn’t accurately represent the height of this spectacular water fall.
A long wooden stairway makes the falls fairly assessable, and a wooden bridge near it’s base offers an excellent view. Shooting long exposures (15 – 20 sec) with a tripod and neutral density filter, it was quite challenging to a get sharp exposure with other spectators bouncing along the bridge. While this composition was captured from the bridge, I also got some good shots setting up down in the creek. For the best viewing experience, click on the image to view a high-resolution version. Stay safe!
Cheers,
C. S.
Craggy Pinnacle Trail, pt 1
The Great Craggy Mountains are a subrange of the Blue Ridge Mountains between Asheville and Mount Mitchell in North Carolina. Craggy Gardens is an area of 16 km where the Blue Ridge Parkway follows the crest featuring a visitor center, picnic area, and several excellent hiking trails. Craggy Gardens best known for its spectacular display of pink/purple blooms of the Catawba rhododendron creating a tunnel of foliage along much of it’s hiking trails.
My afternoon hike along the Craggy Pinnacle Trail, in mid-October, featured equally impressive fall foliage color, gnarled mountain ash, rhododendron and beech, and small grassy rock balds. The diverse opportunities for photo compositions were quite numerous. I crossed not one, but two separate wedding photo sessions.
This was one of my favorite locations during my two, Wednesday night through Saturday afternoon fall foliage expeditions into the Blue Ridge Mountains. I returned the following morning Craggy Knob, more on that in a future post.
This unique tree is a popular photo stop on the Craggy Pinnacle Trail.
The view below is from Craggy Pinnacle looking towards Craggy Knob and the Craggy Gardens Visitor Center. The small grey square near the center of the image, is the large trail shelter near the Craggy Knob grassy bald.
For the best viewing experience, click on a photo to view a high resolution version. Or, view more scenes in my Blue Ridge Parkway gallery. Stay safe!
Cheers!
C. S.
Oh, here’s one of the wedding portrait sessions I came across:
