Fall Waterfalls

Linville Falls on October 23, 2012.

I've been suffering from a bit of nature deficit disorder as of late, so over the past few weeks I set out to remedy the situation with some hiking around the North Carolina mountains.

I re-connected with an old hobby of mine, namely photographing waterfalls and chasing fall foliage color. All the places I went to were favorite spots of mine, but it's been a while since I've payed them a visit. It was like meeting an old friend I hadn't seen in years. 

Incidentally, I also did in fact meet an old friend I hadn't seen in years. One of my roommates from Brevard College was out fly fishing below Tripple Falls and we met up afterwards in Brevard to catch up.  

Despite going to school in the area for four years, there are still a lot of trails I haven't ridden, falls I havent photographed and rocks I haven't climbed. 

My next trip will probably be with a bike rather than a camera, but I have some plans in the works to explore some of the more remote areas that aren't as over-loved as the falls pictured here. The next waterfall photos I post may be of Windy Falls on the Horsepasture. Stay tuned.

Hooker falls in DuPont State Forest on Monday October 29, 2012. 

Lower part of High Shoals Falls in South Mountains State Park on Thursday October 25, 2012. 

The middle drop of Triple Falls in DuPont State Forest, above and below, on Monday October 29, 2012. 

The ruins of Alba Mill

I recently explored the ruins of Alba Mill in rural Gaston County north of Stanley, thanks to the tip of my colleague Leo Hohmann who makes it a hobby to find old abandoned historical treasure like this.

As best as I've been able to find out, this is an old paper mill, but the internet didn't offer much information.

In any event, it's been long abandoned and barely any of it is still standing. I thought it was a pretty cool place to explore and I'll probably return to take more pictures in the future.

Things in my Apartment

Guest Room

New Lights

I got a few new lights. A funky lamp for my living room and an ABR 800 ring flash. This is what happens when both arrive on the same day.

Polaroid Porch

More Funky Lights

I took some more Palaroids recently for my Polaroid Lights project. As with the previous photos, these Polaroids were made with multiple exposures of a point source of light in a dark room, some of them long exposures with camera movement, and others stationary. Focus and distance to the light source were also varied.

These photos are not of a Christmas tree, as before, however, but of 'On' lights on electronic devices. The red is from a surge protector, and the green light featured prominently here is on a computer speaker.

I liked funky effect so much after the first time so much that I just had to find some other lights to use the technique on. I love how the different lights create and entirely different look with the same technique. The Christmas tree pictures have a decidedly festive feel, while these have more of a cool techno feel.

The second picture from the bottom even has lines reminiscent of sound waves -- appropriate since the green light is on a speaker!

Now I'm addicted, and looking for my next fix. If I see some interesting lights in a dark room I'm going to pull out my Polaroid and fire away!

Check out all the photos.

Polaroid New Years

With no ill New Years Eve party to go to, I decided to make my own--with my Polaroid!

...and my Christmas tree.

I recently acquired a Polaroid Countdown M80 land camera, and it's popped the cork on all sorts of vintage instant print fun. A precission instrument it is not, but with a little imagination, serendipity and Polaroid magic cool things can happen.

Exposure control is limited to a little 'lighter / darker' dial on the lens, but in low light (a room with only a Cristmas tree on qualifies) the shutter speeds get pretty long.

And because this is a pack film camera where you pull out the film manually -- as opposed to the 600 type of Polaroid that growls and spits the thing out automatically -- you can easily do multiple exposures.

You can keep cocking the shutter and firing frames off to your heart's content before yanking the tab--how cool is that! You just keep cocking the shutter and firing away until you see fit to yank the tab and see what you got.

In all the excitement I kind of lost track of excttly how many exposures I made on each frame. I'd say some of these pics might have as many as 10-20 exposures. I turned out the lights and made exposures of my Christmas tree with a variety of techniques.

For some exposures I held the camera steady, for others I swirled it, twirled it, and swung it to make light trails. For some I held the camera right in front of a bulb and pulled it away quickly with the shutter open.

Some shots were in sharp focus while others were thrown completely out to get some nice big colorful blobs (bokeh if you're one of those people that uses the term).

I did some pictures with my 'real' camera too, but you can't get pictures like this with a digital camera. Sure, you can use Photoshop to make a composite from multiple exposures, but without the serendipitous magic of the instant print it just wouldn't be the same.

So long story short; I stayed up way past my bedtime playing around with this fun stuff on new years. Hope you like it!

If you like this, you might also enjoy this post and this post.

See more cool stuff on my Flickr.