SOLITARY TRAVELER PHOTOGRAPHY

So the first part of my spring found me trying hard to avoid repeating myself (See my prior blog "Looking For New"), tossing a spanner into the works to keep things fresh for myself, mainly because I get bored so easily. The trip to Breaks Interstate Park did the trick. I had returned a bit to the old routine soon after (old habits die hard), visiting Linville Gorge for some scouting to prepare for something that never happened. Here's why...... After chatting off and on for

"When I last left off" seems to be a recurring theme in my travel blogs lately. I'd sit down and begin writing a new blog, only to be distracted by one thing or another (and there have been a LOT of distractions), then I'd go wafting off without even typing another word, and another travel blog gets abandoned. That being said.... When I last left off....... .......we were somewhere in August, and I had endured a stormy summer, literally and figuratively speaking. I'd about ha

When I last left off, your faithful reporter was firmly "in my element," living life "to the max," and "going epic." (How's that for seamlessly weaving my last three blog titles into the intro of this latest one?) It seemed like every adventure yielded a new discovery, a new inspiration, a new revelation - with a bumper crop of great images to boot. And boy, did all that "epicity" pay off - I've had numerous print sales of images taken from that period, as well as downloads f

I wish I could sit here and tell you that the majority of my work is the product of well-thought-out planning, superior knowledge and cunning skill. But oh no. It's more akin to what musician Bill Bruford once said about his forays into electronic percussion: "I'm here to tell you it's one constant amateurish shambles from start to finish." To be sure, I know all "the spots," the locations near home with all the elements that make great landscape images possible. I take menta

For the better part of the latter months of 2015 and even into the new year, it seemed as though the expected cold weather in the Smokies and High Country - heck, the entire southeastern United States in general - joined the bears in hibernation. There I was on Christmas Day, sporting a t-shirt and shorts, walking along Dauphin Island, Alabama for a sunset shoot - the outside temperature a toasty 78 degrees. I was half-seriously debating whether or not to bring the sunscreen.

I live in an area with three really great seasons and one really not-so-great season - that is, of course, unless driving on icy roads and freezing your keister off on winter hikes is your thing. As the years have passed, these old bones can barely tolerate the winter chill. As I get older, I've held out this completely unrealistic hope that winter would last for about.....oh, three days; as long as one of those days is a snow day, then I'm good. I can capture a few wintry fr

Last Wednesday was, to put it mildly, a very slow day at work. And since I'm the highest paid driver in the P&Z Carolina franchise, I was the one who got off four hours early to save labor cost (I volunteered, but I knew I'd have to make up for the lost wages somehow - money, shall I say, is rather tight). I was free, mostly broke, but it was only 3 PM and I didn't want to languish at home, so I decided to explore on the tightest of budgets. I had plenty of gas in the tank, p

I've likely said this in one form or another in my previous travel blogs on Facebook, and maybe even in one of my two self-published books, I'm sure (I do tend to repeat myself sometimes as I get older), but it bears repeating: I'm no fan of winter. Perhaps when I was younger and more sprightly the thought of cold and snow was more appealing to me (because that meant staying home from school, another thing I was no big fan of), but today I'll gladly take green grass, blooming