24 hours in the mountains

Steph and I spent Saturday in the NC mountains, and I took advantage of the chance to take a few shots. The images above are from the Blue Ridge Parkway south of Asheville, Whitewater Falls near the South Carolina border, and the Blue Ridge Parkway near below Grandfather Mountain. A larger version of the first image is now up on my FLICKR page. I think it's best viewed large.

Irises at Raulston Arboretum

On Sunday morning, Stephanie and I went to a plant sale at J.C. Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. I couldn't skip the chance to take a few pictures of the brilliant irises in bloom. I expect to get larger versions of these up on my FLICKR site later this week.

Barn on Old US Highway 1

Yesterday, my Saturday bike ride took me south into Wake and Chatham Counties, just beyond the reach of the inevitable march of development spreading out from Cary, NC. Between old farms and views of Jordan Lake, it's a pretty wonderful area (at least for now). I'd noticed this barn on a ride perhaps two weeks ago, and when I saw it again yesterday, I decided that I needed to get back to take a picture.

The main virtue of this shot is that it reflects exactly what you see as you come down Old US Highway 1 towards Bonsal. With the winter wheat in the foreground and this nicely maintained barn in the distance, it's a nice view. Today, we had overcast skies, but when low rays of morning light are illuminating the barn, it can be really pretty.

Steph and I stopped along the road to take this shot, before heading to a plant sale at J.C. Raulston Arboretum. I'll post a few shots from there later this week.

Nice primer on shooting waterfalls

Came across a decent article earlier today. It's got several basic but important points to consider when shooting waterfalls.

Caterpillar Reprocessed

I reworked the processing on my favorite shot from yesterday. With a little extra "light", I think it's a much better image now.

Caterpillar on a lily

Today, I had fun spending about 45 minutes taking some shots of this caterpillar on an Easter lily in our backyard. The first two of these may eventually make their way to FLICKR, depending on whether I still like them a day or two from now. The second one is probably better at this size, but blown up a bit more, the first one really shines. The third shot was taken without a tripod, and isn't sharp enough to be much bigger than this.

Spring Flowers

Today, I took a few hours on a day off to take pictures of flowers on the Chapel Hill campus of the University of North Carolina. These were the best shots of the morning. I'll probably put them onto my FLICKR page soon.

Kudzu shed

A shed about 3 miles from our house.

Easter Lilies

As always, you can find larger versions of these files on my FLICKR site.