Canada Lily – Lilium Canadense

On our recent trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway, I photographed a fantastic wild lily. Bill and I were driving along Rt. 56 between the Blue Ridge Parkway and Montebello, Virginia when I spotted a splash of red along a hillside. We were on our way to Crabtree Falls, so planned to stop back at the flower on our way back to the Blue Ridge Parkway.

On our first pass by the area where I’d seen the flower on our return trip, we didn’t see anything. So we turned around, and finally spotted the flower. Since there was no where to park, Bill dropped me off and proceeded to spend the next 15 minutes driving up and back this section of Rt 56 while I photographed the flower.

Then came the challenge of figuring out what it was that I’d been photographing.  I knew it was a wild lily – but I didn’t think it would be too hard to identify. It was a red lily than hung down from the stem. The petals curved partway back. And the underside was spotted.

It turned out – that there wasn’t anything similar in any of my wildflower books. After some searching, I thought there was a good chance that it was a red variety of a Canada Lily – Lilium Canadense. The problem was – most online descriptions of Lilium Canadense – say that there are multiple stems and flowers (up to 20) on each plant. A little more research – and help from several wonderful friends on Twitter – I decided it really was a lilium canadense.

So here are the photos of a red Canada Lily.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Bears at Elkwallow in the Shenandoah National Park

Over the holiday weekend, Bill and I took some time to head out to the mountains in the Shenandoah National Park and along the Blue Ridge Parkway. We were hoping to photograph some wildflowers, a sunset and sunrise and Crabtree Falls. We managed most of those – the unexpected treat of the trip was the wildlife.

Usually in Shenandoah NP, we always see lots of deer and turkeys. This trip – we saw lots of deer, including one doe with three fawns at Big Meadow, and a pair of female turkeys with 10 chicks between them.

Every now and then, we’ll actually spot a bear. You’ll notice however – that you’ve not seen many (if any) photos of Shenandoah black bears before this weekend.  As we drove into Shenandoah on Friday, a cute little bear raced across the road and up the hill. He was moving so fast, we had not chance of taking his photo. So we figured – hey – at least we’ve seen a bear this trip.

On our way out of the park on Saturday, we stopped at Elkwallow Wayside. As we were getting back into the car – Bill spotted something dark and fuzzy moving climbing down a tree! It was a bear cub! So he grabbed the camera and headed over to see if he could get a few photos.

There at the base of the tree was an adorable bear cub.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Then we spotted a second cub and their mother

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

And then we spotted the third cub! This is the best photo we got of all three cubs – you need to count the ears to see that there really are three cubs

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

As we watched, the cubs started nursing.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Bill got several photos of the mother with her cubs

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

Then two of the cubs started to climb back up the tree.

(c) 2009 William Lawrence

While Bill was photographing the bears, I grabbed the second camera, and headed around to the other side of the area where the bears were, hoping to get some photos from a different angle. As I headed up the road, the mother bear and cubs left the area where they were – and crossed the road in front of me.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Here’s the mother bear with one of her cubs, waiting for the third one to catch up.

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

And then two of the cubs found another tree to climb . . .

(c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Seeing bears in the wild is always wonderful. This was the first time we’d seen a mother with three cubs. They were incredible to watch. The bears were the highlight of the trip!

Remember – if you do see bears in the National Parks – no matter how cute and cuddly they look – they are wild animals. Don’t get too close to them – and don’t feed them. You don’t want to do anything to provoke the mother bear into feeling like she needs to defend herself and her cubs.

We took all these photos with 100-400mm lenses – most were taken at 400mm. In addition, we cropped the photos to emphasize the bears. We made sure to give the bears lots of space – as did all the other people who were enjoying watching them.

Virginia Bluebells at Bull Run Regional Park

This past Sunday, I finally made it to Bull Run Regional Park in Centreville, Virgnia to see and photograph the Virginia Bluebells (Mertensia virginica). I first heard about the bluebells a couple of years ago, and until this year, just hadn’t made it out there. I just wish I’d gone sooner – the bluebells at Bull Run are incredible.

Last year, I photographed some bluebells at Great Falls National Park. The ones I photographed were isolated flowers. At Bull Run, I saw a forest full of flowers. They literally carpeted the woods.

Bluebells in the Woods (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

I loved seeing the bluebells against the dark wood of a fallen log.

Bluebells by a Log (c) 2009 Patty Hankins

Here, the bright sun helped a bluebell cast a shadow against a tree stump.

And finally, a couple of close up photos of some bluebells.

When I was at Bull Run Regional Park on Sunday, there were signs pointing to parking for the bluebells and to the Bluebell trail. In case the signs aren’t still up, I parked in the parking lot by shelter 12, and photographed along the Bluebell and Bull Run-Occoquan Trail, which follow along Bull Run and Cub Run. There is a map of the park, with the parking lot and trails online.

If you get a chance, be sure to head out to Bull Run Regional Park and see the bluebells.

Japanese Maple Trees at Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens

After setting up my booth at a recent show in Richmond, Virginia, I spent a couple of hours photographing at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. On previous trips to Richmond, I’d seen signs for the gardens but had never had a chance to stop by. I had a great time – this may have been my first visit – it definately won’t be my last.

As I started walking the paths in the gardens, I spotted a beautiful Japanese Maple tree along the shore of one of the ponds. Even with the wind and gray skies, there was a peaceful reflection of the tree in the water. I really liked the contrast of the red leaves of the Japanese Maple against the yellow and green trees in the background.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

As I looked around, I noticed several other Japanese Maple trees in the area. The leaves on each were a different shape and color. Here are some of the leaves I photographed that afternoon.

Acerpalmatum Dissectum Cv

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Acerpalmatum dissectum Atropurpureum

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Acerpalmatum Watnong

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Acerpalmatum Iijima Sunago

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

This is just a few of the Japanese Maple trees at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens. Not sure when I’m going to get back to Richmond – but I’m sure I’ll spend some time there next spring (to say nothing of summer and fall )

A Fall Day at Great Falls – Part II

Here’s the second part of Bill’s post about his recent trips to Great Falls National Park.

As the morning fog burned off, I was able to photograph the falls at Great Falls with some of the remaining mist. Here’s another view of the Falls in the mist.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

As I was pakcing up, the kayakers came out, so I got a couple of shots of the lunatics, ahem, I mean highly experience kayakers, going over the large set of falls near the Virginia side of the river. Some of the kayakers climbed up the rocks with their kayaks for at least a second run over the falls.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

I only had my 28-135 zoom with me for the DSLR, so I don’t have any close-up photos of the kayakers. I like these photos as they show the rouch waters they were navigating.

And one final photo for the day – as I was walking out of the park – I saw person using what looked like a surfboard designed for river use. The person was standing on the board, paddling with the long paddle.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

So my lessons for the weekend were:

1. Keep going back to places you like to photograph – you might just find something new.
2. Just because the weather doesn’t cooperate doesn’t mean you can’t take interesting photographs.
3. A little fog is a great way of adding to the sense of perspective in your photos, as distant things rapidly fade in the mist.
4. Photographing thick fog is a great way to find that your DSLR sensor is desperately in need of cleaning.
5. I’m never, ever, ever, going over Great Falls in a kayak (although I’ll admit I kind of knew this before this trip – not I’m really sure!)

A Fall Day at Great Falls – Part I

This is the first part of a two-part post Bill wrote about his recent trips to Great Falls. For those who haven’t heard about my adventures in Tennessee last week – my trip got cut short when I slipped down a hill and ended up in an ER getting three stitches in my head. I also came home with a pretty spectacular black eye – Patty

While Patty was off photographing fall color in the Smoky Mountains and touring Tennessee’s fine emergency health care system, I got to say home and mind the ranch. With the approach of the weekend, I decided to check out Great Falls National Park (a favorite haunt of ours) to see if there were any good fall color photo opportunities. I did a little exploring on Saturday between rain drops and found a trail I hadn’t found before, leading to some rocks with a nice view of the falls (hiking boots are reccommended to make the rock hopping a little more comfortable). Since Sunday promised to be clear, I headed backfirst thing in the morning to set up for some nice fall color along the falls.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

The place was completely socked in with fog. This photos shows my view camera set up with fog completely obscuring the falls (my dark cloth is over the camera to keep it dry!). So what to do while waiting for the fog to burn off? I got to practice some types of photography that aren’t usually my “style”.

First – a little theatre of the absurd – “Bored photographer”

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

I took a photo of a photographer photographing another photographer (who, for all I know, may have been photographing another photographer off in the mist). Someone was photographing me with the the view camera, but not while I was taking this shot.

Since the weather still wasn’t cooperating for grand scenics, I decided to try a few close up photos.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

This web was covered with the morning dew, and sparkles against the subdued background in the fog. The soft light can also bring out saturated colors, as in the this small strand of Virginia Creeper on a rock.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

Please note – if you see a similar plant with three leaves instead of five – it’s probably poison ivy.

The fog finally started burning off – although the sun was a little bit higher in the sky than I would have liked, there was still some golden light, and I could catch the falls with some of the remaining mist. Here’s one of my ranging shots that I took around using my 4X5 camera to give you a taste of the scene. I still have to send the transparencies off to the lab for processing . . .

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

Part II of Bill’s post on his trip to Great Falls will be posted later in the week.

Issai Beautyberry – Callicarpa Dichotoma Issai

On a recent trip to Green Spring Gardens in Alexandria, Viringia, I photographed some of the berries on an Issai Beautyberry bush (callicarpa dichotoma issai). I really liked the look of the bright purple berries and the little white flowers against the green leaves.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Issai Beautyberry bushes grow to about 2-4 feet tall and is best known for it’s early fall bright purple fruit.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Not only is the Issai Beautyberry great to photograph close up, the wider angle view showing the cascades of berries offered more photographic possibilities.

(c) 2008 Patty Hankins

Shutter Speed and Waterfall Photography

Scott’s Run Falls (c) 2006 William Lawrence

After we posted our blog post on 10 Tips for Photographing Waterfalls, we got a couple of requests for more information about tip 1 – Shutter Speed. Since we’re photographers – the easiest way for us to explain the concept is with photos!

These are some photos Bill and I took in Virginia where Scott’s Run meets the Potomac River a couple miles down stream from Great Falls. We placed the camera on a tripod and set the ISO to 100 for all the photos. We used shutter priority mode on the camera to control the shutter speed.

As you’ll see, in the photos with the faster shutter speeds you can see some of the individual water drops. The slower the shutter speed – the more creamy and flowing the water looks.

Shutter speed 1/50 of a second.

(c) 2005 Patty Hankins

Shutter speed 1/10 of a second

(c) 2005 Patty Hankins

Shutter speed 1/2 of a second

(c) 2005 Patty Hankins

Shutter speed one second

(c) 2005 Patty Hankins

Shutter speed 6 seconds. Bill used a polarizer filter to slow the water even further for this photo.

(c) 2005 William Lawrence

I hope these photos help explain how you can affect the way your waterfalls photographs will look by choosing your shutter speed.

10 Tips for Photographing Waterfalls

Great Falls II (c) 2005 William Lawrence

One of Bill’s and my favorite types of landscapes to photograph are waterfalls. If you’ve had a chance to check out our website, or have seen our booth at one of our shows, you have probably already figured out that we love waterfalls and that Great Falls on the Potomac River is one of our favorite sets of falls.

Bill took the photo at the top of this post from the second overlook at Great Falls National Park in Virginia. I love the way the light makes the rocks glow in this photo. To capture the light, Bill went out to Great Falls early on a Saturday morning to figure out how long after sunrise the light hits the rocks. The next morning, he was there, all set up and ready with his large format camera to take the photo just as the sun rose about the ridge line.

As we’ve built our collection of waterfall photographs, we’ve made a few (ok, more than a few) mistakes and learned a few things. Here are a few tips that we hope will help you take great waterfall photos of your own.

1. Shutter speed is important in waterfall photography! Tastes vary in how people like to see the water flowing over waterfalls presented in a photograph, but we prefer using a slower shutter speed for a motion effect to the water. A fast shutter speed will show individual waves and droplets in the water, but a slower shutter speed actually shows the path that the water travels – the slope of the water off the fall, the arcs of the water as it splashes off a rock on the way down the falls. For us, this makes a more interesting picture. Typically, we’ll try for a shutter speed of ½ to 1 second if we can, but will try to at least keep the shutter slower than 1/15 of a second.

2. ISO matters. To keep the shutter speed slow, we use a low ASA film (we often use 50 ASA) or set the ISO on the digital camera as low as it will go (usually 100).

3. Use filters if you have them. If the light is bright enough, we may not be able use the shutter speed we want to. When this happens we use either a neutral density filter or a polarizing filter can be used to drop the shutter speed.

4. Use a tripod. With slow shutter speeds, you will need a tripod to steady the camera. Also, remember that with a shutter speed this low, anything moving in the picture other than the water (e.g. people, foliage blowing in the wind) will also be blurred.

5. Make sure the camera is level. A photograph of water that appears to be flowing uphill is very disturbing. I really try to remember to use my bubble level – and to make sure it is level for my waterfall photos. I’ve deleted more waterfall photos than I care to remember of water running uphill in the picture.

6. Direction matters. Remember to check the direction of the falls, to determine the best time of day for light hitting the falls to give the most dramatic photograph. Great Falls is best photographed in the morning.

7. Seasons matter. Check out the falls in different seasons, e.g. does it look best with new spring foliage? Best in the fall with the leaves turning? Some other time? Since spring and fall tend to be the wettest times of the year, these are usually good times to catch falls at their peak levels.

8. Research before you go. Learn what you can about the falls, and what you’ll need photographically, before you get there. If you know that name of a waterfall you want to photograph, search for it on Google. Chances are someone has posted information about photographing that set of falls somewhere on the web.

9. Be prepared to do some hiking. Most of the waterfalls we have been to involve some hiking in hilly terrain (it is tough to have a waterfall over perfectly flat land). So don’t forget comfortable hiking shoes for the trail, a water bottle (especially in hot weather), sunscreen and bug spray.

10. Takes lots of photos at various exposures. You may be surprised at what you discover what your preferences for waterfall photography are.

If you’ve got any tips for taking photos of waterfalls, please add them below as a comment. We’d love to hear your tips.

Experimenting with Digital Infrared Photography

Recently, Bill has been doing some experimenting with digital infrared photography. Infrared photography can give an “otherworldly” look to your photographs. Foliage tends to reflect infrared, so leaves, grass and such tend to be near white. Still water and clear skies go quite dark, but clouds remain light. Below is a photo of a waterfall at Olmsted Island at the C&O Canal National Park in Maryland (this is on the path to Great Falls at the park – usually there is only a trickle of water here but the waterlevel was quite high when he took this recently). The leaves are the brightest objects in the picture, and the water before the falls is quite dark.

Falls Alongside Olmsted Island (c) 2008 William Lawrence

The sensors on most digital cameras are sensitive to light beyond what the human eye is sensitive to. The result is that the sensors can “see” a broader spectrum of light than the eye can. To keep this from interfering with photographs, camera manufacturers place a filter over the sensors to block out most of the light outside of the visual range.

However, some of the older Digital SLRs are still sensitive to near infrared light, which is not visible to the naked eye. A quick test of this on your camera is to take it into a darkened room with a TV remote control (most work with infrared light). Point the control at the camera and take a picture while activating the remote control. If you see light on the photo, you camera is capturing infrared light and displaying it in the visual spectrum so that you can see it.

Bill tried this with our old Canon D30 (note not a 30D – this is one we got in 2000) and found that it was sensitive to infrared light. He converted it for digital infrared photography by getting an infrared filter for it (a Cokin P007 infrared filter). You can’t see through the filter, so all composing has to be done before you put the filter on the camera. Also, while the camera does capture light in the near infrared spectrum, most of it is blocked. Most of Bill’s exposures were in the range of 3-10 seconds at f11 at ISO 400 in broad daylight.

Infrared can make an interesting addition to your photographic techniques. Bill is getting a DSLR modified specifically for infrared photography – more on this once we get the camera back and have a chance to use it.

In the meantime – here’s one more infrared photograph taken at Great Falls. This time from the Virginia side of the Potomac River in the Great Falls National Park.

(c) 2008 William Lawrence

If you’d like to see some of Bill’s digital infrared photography in person – please stop by our booth at one of our shows.