I Want Summer - Thirty Word Thursday

I long for the days where the 

grass is green and trees have leaves.  

Days where we can find new trails, 

with cool running streams and other 

gifts from God.

Blue Ridge Parkway - Day 2

Day two of our trip to the Blue Ridge Parkway was primarily around the Boone, NC area.  We took a couple of random trails and one that took us under the Linn Viaduct.  We also spent a little time at Blowing Rock which had an amazing view but was somewhat misleading in their advertising.  As a town, Blowing Rock has a neat little main street with candy, ice cream, and souvenir shops.  As for the Blowing Rock attraction (the rock); supposedly you can throw items over the edge of the rock and they'll come right back to you.  The sign at the entrance to Blowing Rock even has a lady holding on to a small child who appears to be floating off of the edge of the rock.  My daughter threw a leaf over the edge and it fell gracefully to its death as did everything else we tried.  Good thing there was a view!  

We finished our day on another random trail that paralleled a stream and the road.  All together day two included about 6 miles of beautiful trails with plenty of photo opportunities.  Enjoy!

All shots taken with a Canon Rebel T4i and a Tamron 18-270 lens with minor editing in Picasa.

 

1/100, f/5, ISO 100, 35mm

1/250, f/8, ISO 100, 39mm

1/60, f/4, ISO 500, 32mm

I liked the texture when this was cropped down a bit.

1/40, f/3.5, ISO 250, 29mm

1/30, f/3.5, ISO 200, 29mm

1/160, f/8, ISO 100, 21mm

1/160, f/5, ISO 125, 91mm

1/200, f/8, ISO 100, 18mm  Blowing Rock - The View 

1/100, f/5.6, ISO 100, 18mm
Blowing Rock (The Attraction That Isn't)

1/30, f/3.5, ISO 125, 18mm

1/13, f/5, ISO 100, 35mm
Same location as above photo with a different focal point.

1/40, f/3.5, ISO 640, 21mm

1/60, f/4.5, ISO 100, 18mm

Although I have a similar picture the optical
illusion my wife captured was far more
pronounced so I chose to share hers.  

Canon Rebel XT and Sigma 18-200 lens
 1/40, f/4.5, ISO 200, 42mm

Blue Ridge Parkway - Linville Falls & Grandfather Mountain

This year our family vacation took us to the Blue Ridge Parkway which has to be a favorite for anyone wanting to shoot landscape photography.  There are miles of trails that lead to some beautiful photo opportunities.  My pictures from the trip will be spread out over time since there are so many to choose from.  These are from day one of the trip, near the Linville Falls, NC and Grandfather Mountain area.

All photos were taken with my Canon Rebel T4i and my Tamron 18-270 lens.  Cropping and minor lighting edits were done using Google's Picasa (free!!!).

1/25, f/4, ISO 800, 30mm

1/125, f/5, ISO 6400, 70mm

1/40, f/4, ISO 640, 30mm

1/6, f/22, ISO 100, 27mm

1/200, f/9, ISO 100, 18mm

1/125, f/5.6, ISO 100, 77mm

1/160, f/8, ISO 100, 30mm

1/125, f/7.1, ISO 100, 23mm

1/250, f/10, ISO 100, 25mm

1/500, f/14, ISO 100, 18mm

1/50, f/4, ISO 100, 20mm