New River Gorge

Here's a couple from Thursday morning.

Thurmond, WV

I'd like to have a dollar for every time somebody made a photo just like this one.  ;-)

New River gorge Bridge

Here's the color version of my last post.

New River Gorge Bridge

I posted the color version of this photo on my Instagram account but I think I like this one better.  This is one 30 minute exposure at ISO 160 on a Canon 6D with the long exposure noise reduction switched on.  The lens was a Canon 17-40 zoom @ f/4.  I've tried stacking 30 second exposures to make star trails before (the most I've done is 180) but really wasn't crazy about how they tuned out.  I like this technique better.

Evening On The New river

Here's a couple of photos from week before last.  I had also put these up on my Instagram page.  The top one is obviously Fayette Station Bridge and the other one is from on the bridge.  I love it down there in the evenings.

New River Gorge

We spent the afternoon of a very warm December 23rd in the New River Gorge. 

Gauley Bridge, WV

This is the little town where I grew up.  I actually didn't live in town but on up the Gauley River about 3 miles in a wide spot in the road called Alta, WV.  We did everything in Gauley though, school, church, friends, groceries, doctor, pharmacy, clothes, haircuts, tv repair and on and on.  It was a pretty neat town when I was a kid and probably even more so when my mom and grandmother were growing up there.

The New River and the Gauley River both end right where the bright lights are and they form the Kanawha River.

Molly and I had gone rock climbing this afternoon and we were on our way home and we stopped at the end of the "boulevard" to see if the Milky Way was visible over Gauley.  It was visible, but it was almost directly overhead and not over the town.  I went ahead and made a few photos anyway, just for s & g's.  This was also the first time I had used my Fuji xe-2 for any night sky photography.  I think it did ok.

Zag

A couple of our cousins from Brunswick, GA came in for Thanksgiving and we were able to take them rock climbing Tuesday. In this photo Bonnie is almost to the top of Zag, a cool 5.8 climb at the Bridge Buttress.  It was a perfect day.  Not too hot, not too cold and some of the clearest blue sky ever.

Summer Climbers

I was looking through some photos from this summer and came across this one that Molly's friend Kaliegh took.  Molly and I were taking Kaliegh rock climbing for her first time.

Angel's Arete

Kim, Molly and I had another great afternoon at the New River Gorge Monday. Molly made it to the top of Angel's Arete, a 5.10a climb.

Monday At The New River Gorge

Monday was a great day.  Molly and I got some rock climbing in after she got out of school.  When we finished climbing we headed over to Beauty Mountain for the sunset then to Water Stone Outdoors to get some stickers for Molly's new ('91 Dodge Dakota) truck.

Beauty Mountain Color

One of our favorite spots.

Star Trails As Seen From Beauty Mountain

This photo was made from 82, 30 second exposures at ISO 2000 and f/4.5.

The Milky Way As Seen From Beauty Mountain

Kim and Molly asked me the other day what I wanted for my birthday.  I said I wanted to go rock climbing, go out to eat and go somewhere and get some star trail photos.  So Friday we headed up to the New River and climbed around the Junkyard Wall area for about four hours, then went to eat.  Nothing fancy, just the DQ in Fayetteville, but it was gooood.  Then we headed out to Beauty Mountain to watch the sunset and wait for the stars to come out.

Before I set my camera to start making the photos that would make up my star trail photo (I'll post it tomorrow) I made some photos showing the Milky Way.  This is my favorite.  I wish there was less light pollution in the area, but I like how it turned out anyway.

Ever since I was a little boy I've loved looking up at the night sky.  Even today, as soon as I walk outside at night my head automatically turns up to the heavens.

I did some research on the size of our Milky Way and here are some of the basics about it.  The Milky way is 100,000 light years across (light travels 5.88 trillion miles in a year).  In comparison to the Milky Way, our solar system with it's eight planets and sun would be the size of a quarter laid somewhere on the North American continent.  Amazing!

The closest star that we can see with the naked eye in the Northern Hemisphere is Sirius.  It's just one of the 100's of billions of stars that make up the Milky Way.  Sirius is almost twice the size of the Sun and it’s the brightest star in the sky.  It's 8.6 light-years away! 

Click here and here to watch a couple of videos of Louie Giglio describing the awesomeness of our universe.

Endless Wall

We went back to the New River yesterday for another evening hike.  This one kinda had a dual purpose.  We hiked the same trail we hiked a couple of weeks ago because Kim lost something while we were there and she was hoping she could find it, but she didn't.  Oh well, it was still a great evening for a walk in the woods.  It's pretty cool how just a little change in the weather and a different time of day make things look.  Click here to see the pictures from the last time we were there.

I named the picture of Molly, "Strong Sad".  She had gotten ahead of Kim and I and when I caught up to her I asked what she was doing, and she said, "Oh, just hangin' around talking to trees..."  Check out the video and you'll get it.  He's one of our favorite characters on Homestar Runner.

Laurel Creek II

Laurel Creek

Fun with a 10 stop neutral density filter.  120 second exposure at f/8 and ISO 320.

Diamond Point Snag

Another photo from our Monday evening hike at the New River Gorge. 

Endless Wall

We had a nice evening hike at the New River Gorge yesterday.  We walked in on the Endless Wall trail to the Fern Creek climbers access and down the ladders to the bottom of Endless Wall.  From there we hiked upstream along the bottom of the cliffs to the Diamond Point climbers access and up the ladders to Diamond Point and back out Endless Wall trail to the van.  It was a super nice evening to spend 3 hours or so hiking and exploring.

When I made the picture of Molly on the rocks Kim had split off from us and had gone out a side trail looking for a bear or a bobcat.  Much to her sadness she didn't see either one.  :-(

Friday Evening At Beauty Mountain

We decided to run up to the gorge Friday evening to see if there would be a nice sunset.  When we got to the Beauty Mountain "parking area" there were 4 other cars there.  That's the most I've ever seen there at once and we've been going there for about 32 years.  All the cars were other photographers that had the same idea as we did.  We were still able to find us a nice rock right on the edge of the gorge.  The same rock where Molly and I left a snowman a couple of years ago to watch over the gorge.