Spring is a glorious time at the bog lands of White Oak Creek

As above, just on the other bank.

As above.

These little trees are in the flood zone and are paying the price

I thought that the end of the road had two meanings in this image.

I went with friends to an old decommissioned bridge not far from where I live and did some shooting. I thought this images stood out.

This image, a tree with a haircut due to power lines, was juried into a show called Field Work: Trees and Water at the Black Box Gallery, Portland, OR. The show is from May 1-May 20, 2024. The link to the gallery in the show is: https://blackboxgallery.com/Field%20Work-Trees%20and%20Water%202024%20Gallery%20Web/index.html

This image was taken on the Blue Ridge Parkway on a dark, cloudy, and misty day...great photography weather.

Broad River taken from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Up higher on the Blue Ridge Parkway where the clouds come down to the mountains

This image from Jordan Lake was awarded Best in Show at Cary Photographic Artists' 16th Annual Fall Juried Show, October 27, 2023. Judging is done on printed, mounted, and framed images rather than simply digital images, so the judges see the actual final product. The link to the CPA website where this image is found is as follows: https://www.caryphotographicartists.org/cpa-annual-open-print-exhibit-2023

After weeks of rain the lake was very full and this morning very still. It was like a mirror. This is the near shore, unlike the far shore above. This image was a Nominee in the International Color Awards competition for 2022.

In its monochrome version, it was a winner in the Amateur Nature Category of the Black and White Spider Awards for 2023 and was published in the 2023 Amateur Winner's Book at the following link:

https://www.thespiderawards.com/winnersbook/2023/Amateur/index.html#page=70

It was a crystal clear night, which for this summer and early fall was amazing. Unfortunately, Jordan Lake and the boat ramp are not dark enough to be ideal. This is my best capture for the evening. In addition to the Milky Way, note the meteorite in the upper left quadrant. There is night fishing at the end of the boat ramp, hence the figures and lights there.

This image is of Farrington Point Boat Ramp. It is one of several studies that I did of the ramp with neutral density filters. This one was juried into the Second Annual Online Digital Show of Cary Photographic Artists. The link is: https://www.caryphotographicartists.org/cpa-2nd-annual-digital-2022?itemId=extwzz339eqwct8sx5wdl3wrum7x0k

I went to the Haw River at sunrise to catch the early morning light on the new greening of the trees this spring. I like this image because of all the Blue Herons lined up for breakfast on the lower left.

This is one of a number of images I took on a foggy morning at Jordan Lake, but this one is in color. This image was a Nominee in the International Color Awards competition for 2022.

This is a stylized vision of the boat ramp. I won't go into the details of how the image was captured and processed here but I like the results.

This image, taken from Route 751, was juried into The Magic of Light competition at PhotoPlace Gallery in Middlebury, VT. It will be shown on their online gallery. The link to the online gallery image is https://photoplacegallery.com/online-juried-shows/the-magic-of-light-2/gallery/online-gallery#lg=online-gallery&slide=22. White Oak Creek is on of the many creeks that feed into Jordan Lake but it is one of the largest and most prominent and extends well into the communities around it with its marshlands.

This is the earthen dam that blocked the flow of the Haw River and flooded the valleys that gave rise to Jordan Lake. There are old villages buried beneath the waters, such as Pea Ridge. While this is the major reservoir in the area, my understanding is that it is pretty polluted from agricultural and subdivision runoff. Sad. So, on the left is the lake; on the right is the outflow which reconstitutes the Haw River on its way to the sea. The blocky structure on the left is some kind of outflow control. There is a road on top the dam but it only goes to the other end of the dam. It is not a thoroughfare.

I usually photograph from the other side of the bridge (see images below) because of the S-curve in the creek. But variety is the spice of life and this is the other side.

This is early one cloudy morning with the sun reddening the clouds and the clouds reflected in the creek.

This one is my favorite of the two. Same morning but a little later with the sky a little brighter. The greens show up a bit better and the reflection in the creek is a little brighter.

I have taken many images from this spot but never before in the afternoon. The reason the colors stand out so is that I had a polarizer on the camera and the sun was in the right place for it to be effective.

A slightly different view but everything I said for the image above pertains.

One does not usually take "landscape" pictures of industrial plants but I thought this one, with the goldenrod in the foreground and the polarizer working might rate an exception.

This is my favorite. I love the play of light on the grasses of the marsh and the two different grasses--bright and dark.

I found the salt water marshes on the north side of the island quite fascinating. For one thing, there were 2" crabs waving their one big claw around everywhere--especially in this puddle.

I went out early one morning which is indicated by the soft, pastel colors in the clouds. Bald Head Creek is in the background.

I did not see a thunderstorm while I was on the island but this looks like the start of one.

Part of Bald Head Island consists of a little village. This is a view of the village from a distance along Light House Creek.

I was taken with this guy on the beach with his brightly colored beach umbrella and only a large cloud to fill the background.

No neutral density filter here or the geese would be blurred badly.

This image was selected as the Photograph of the Month (POM) for May 2021 by a vote of the members of the Capital City Camera Club. In the annual competition for POM in 2021, this image took second place.

The sun is just beginning to come over the edge of the earth.

This one was taken with a 10 stop neutral gray filter.

Also taken with a 10 stop neutral density filter. It is a little bit further along toward actual sunrise.

As above, a very full lake and a quiet morning allowed for an image like a mirror. This is the far shore. See below for the near shore. This image was juried into the Cary Photographic Artists' 14th Annual Juried Show, November 12-December 17, 2021.

I hiked in to a spot from which I could see the fisherman but still didn't have quite the right lens with me. Next time will be better.

A slightly different view from that image above but still the same concern about the lens. This image was a Nominee in the International Color Awards competition for 2022.

The original fisherman has moved on and has been replaced by a couple of guys.

This was on the same morning as the two preceding images but obviously later in the morning. I am also looking toward the west instead of the east or the north.

I was experimenting with various exposures and color palettes to catch the sunrise at this location.

Again, a slightly different exposure and color palette.

This is a very long exposure very early in the morning, hence the streaks for clouds and the blue color of the sky and clouds.

It was early enough in the morning and the light was dim enough that the geese flyover is a study in motion blur from flapping wings. I decided I liked it.

I had not expected the geese to do that particular fly over but was happy with it. It was getting light enough that the shutter speed could freeze the wing motion.

This image is very similar to the one above but is cropped differently.

I did this one in color and the colors are very muted as is proper on a foggy morning and with the fact that leaves had not greened in yet.

This one is cropped a bit more severely than some of the others.

Oak Creek is a boggy area that empties into Jordan Lake. On this morning, the same morning as the kayakers above, the fog was lifting. There is a nest on the tall, bare post near the middle of the image. It is a raptor nest and there is a raptor in it sitting on eggs but the bird is very hard to make out at this distance.

Given a large body of water that doesn't warm up very quickly but warm air from the North Carolina spring, you have a pretty good recipe for fog. Early one morning, I found two kayakers disappearing into the fog not too far from land.

I have three images of the Kayakers in the fog. They look as though they could get lost.

Another image of the Kayakers even further from land.

This is a little bit later in the morning after sunrise and it shows more of the details of the creek.

I have been working on sunrise images at Jordan Lake which is a large, very large, manmade lake in the Triangle that serves as its reservoir. This particular morning when I went out, there was a full moon and as the sun was coming up, the moon was setting. In the image we are looking West.

If I turned around and looking in the other direction from the setting moon, the rising sun created a colorful sky with shades from near violet to yellow and the reflections of a line of trees.

This is about the same image as 1 above. However, in this one the focus is on the red bud in the right foreground, giving a different feel and splash of color.

Early morning fishing from one of Jordan Lake's many piers.