Cairns

I guess a bunch of cairns got built near Fayette Station rapid on Bridge Day a couple of weekends ago.  There are five in this picture and one in front of the big one that's out of the frame.  You can see three of them pretty clear in the background and if you look hard you can spot the fourth one.  It'll be interesting to see how they fare the next couple of days.  If I had to guess, I'd say they won't do very well.

New River Train

This weekend was the last weekend for the 2012 Collis P. Huntington New River Train.  A couple of young photographers had gotten in touch with the fire chief and asked permission to use our ladder truck to get some photos of the train as it was pulling into Saint Albans.  We were glad to help.

From left to right in the top photo is, Saint Albans firefighter Eric Tucker, photographers Ryan Lewis and Chase Gunnoe.  Chase is an accomplished photographer and photo screener for railpictures.net .  Click the link and search for Chase Gunnoe, he's got some great shots on there.

Since I was there on the ladder with them I had to get some shots of my own.

Beauty Mountain

I went to New River on Friday hoping that the storm coming in would bring a colorful sunrise with it.  It didn't.  When I got to Beauty Mountain it was still dark and there were some good looking clouds hangin' around, but by the time I got my tripod and camera set up the wind started blowing and blew them all out.  Then, after the sun came up these clouds came in.  Doh!  The color in the gorge was almost gone, mostly just brown now, so I made this shot black and white.

Fayette Station Rapid

Kim's favorite, because it's the last one before you take out. :-)

Taken with the Canon 17-40mm wide angle lens, a 10 stop neutral density filter and a circular polarizing filter.  The exposure was 41 seconds at f/8 and ISO 160.

Maple Leaves

Yashica D

I forgot to post this one from our trip to Snowshoe and Cass a couple weeks ago.  Molly is using a Yashica D, a medium format, twin lens reflex camera.  They were produced between 1957 and 1973.  A friend of ours gave it to her a while back and she wanted to try it out and see how it did.  I took my Yashica Mat-124 G that weekend and shot a couple of rolls too.  I'm anxious to see how the pictures turn out.

I took this picture with one of the most advanced digital slr's on the market today.  It took me about 2 seconds to see how that picture turned out.  ;-)

A Pair of Chutes

Bridge Day 2012.

Cotton Hill

New River Gorge

Yesterday we went to the New River Gorge to do some rock climbing.  I had learned how to rappel there when I was a teenager and Kim and I rappelled there a lot after we got married.  I also did some rock climbing there with my friends Alan Taylor and Steve Erskine.  Molly has done a bunch of climbing on artificial walls and has been wanting to go to the gorge and climb.  I got in touch with New River Mountain Guides because I wanted a refresher on my climbing "skills" so we could be as safe as possible when we go out by ourselves.  They were awesome!  Two of the nicest people you'd wanna meet and super knowledgeable about climbing.  Jeff Hearn was our lead guide/instructor and he taught me a lot.  The young lady that helped Jeff (her name was Spencer) had just moved here from Hilton Head, SC and she's in love with WV and our mountains.  We had a great day, even in the downpour and thunder and lightning.  I didn't get a whole bunch of pictures because were too busy climbing and learning.

Kanawha Boulevard East

A couple more from the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk Saturday.

Marilyn?

Another photo I liked from the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk.  It's an art studio across from the Quarrier Diner.

Scott Kelby Photowalk, Charleston, WV

I went to Charleston yesterday evening to the 5th annual Scott Kelby Worldwide Photowalk.  The walk was led by Clayton Spangler, a great local photographer.  The walks aren't anything that you couldn't do on your own, but it's fun to go with a group and have a leader that might point out some things you didn't know or haven't seen before.

This is one of my favorites from the walk.  It's in Arlington Court, between Virginia St. and Quarrier St.

Putnam County Fog

Highland Scenic Highway

We stopped along the Highland Scenic Highway on the way home Monday and went for a short hike in the snow and rain.  That's my two gals on the left and our friends Trent, Jaymee and Mike.

Cass Scenic Railroad

Blowin' off steam after work.  We walked up on the coal pile to look at the trains after they were done for the day.

Snowshoe Village Fog

All the stores were closing Sunday evening until Thanksgiving weekend when they open up for ski season.  We found a bunch of good half price sales on some stuff we "needed".

Saturday Afternoon...

...and evening.  A couple more from last weekend.  The sunset was on the way up the mountain to Snowshoe.

Mountain Color

We went to Snowshoe this weekend.  We had a great time just messin' around and relaxin'.  It snowed a little yesterday and was snowing when we left today.  Here's what it looked like from our balcony this morning. 

Gauley River at Peter's Junction

Two more from last Saturday.

Saturday Evening

A couple more from our trip Saturday.  I didn't have time to hike to the bottom of the waterfall.  It's a lot farther down and steeper than it looks to get there.  The picture I want is from the bottom, on the other side of the creek.  I'll get it another day.  The cloud photo was taken from the overlook at Hawks Nest.