Grand Landscape Workshop Weekend

Its been a very busy week. After returning home from a photo shoot in the Monongahela National Forest in West,Virginia, on Tuesday, I began to sort through and process over 1200 images from the trip. The rest of the week was dedicated to putting the finishing touches on the workshop lecture and agenda as well as finishing up with three magazine photo submissions, whew.

The workshop this weekend was hosted by Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia and was a great success with some really stellar students. On Saturday we had a 3 hour lecture going over the fundamentals of Landscape Photography and then spent the next day with a field session a Great Falls National Park and Difficult Run. My students had a real zeal and sincere enthusiasm for landscape photography and are on their way to becoming excellent photographers. Although the sky was devoid of any clouds there was some nice mist rising of the Potomac River which added a nice touch and gave us something to work with. After spending about 2 hours shooting sunrise at the gorge, we headed over to Difficult Run to shoot some reflections and abstract images. Thanks guys for making this weekend great fun and allowing me the pleasure of working with you. Here a few shots I was able to pull off during the session.

A Monongahela Autumn

Just returned home from a week of photography in the Monongahela National Forest, West Virginia. Although the temperatures were unseasonably warm, I still managed to get some really great images from Dolly Sods, Spruce Knob, Blackwater Falls, the Gandy Creek Watershed, Spruce Knob Lake and many other areas in the northern and central section of the forest. Please enjoy. Joe

Sunset, Spruce Knob

Last light, Spruce Knob

Morning fog, Spruce Knob Lake

Waterfall along Shays Run

Blackwater Canyon Autumn Vista

Early Autumn Color, Falls Gap, West Virginia

Autumn is on its way in the mountains of Western Maryland and the Davis area of West Virginia. I will be leading a private workshop later this week around Dolly Sods and Blackwater Falls State Park and then will spend a few days for myself. The water levels are very low this year and the entire Mid-Atlantic region has been in a severe drought. I hope there is still some good color. I guess we will all have to work a little bit harder this fall to make good shots. The image above was made near Greenland Gap Nature Preserve just outside of the Monongahela National Forest in North East West Virginia. Look back for some new work in the coming weeks.