The time went so fast.  Four days isn’t very long to try and cover all the moods and faces of Zion.  It would be presumptuous to even attempt it.  I had a flight out of Las Vegas at 11.30am and a 2+ hour drive to get there, return the car, check in, and make it to the gate (quite a production I might add) so I had time for a brief sortie along Kolob Terrace Road.  I remembered it from a trip in 2004, 10 years ago now, and always wanted to return.  Not many tourists venture down there, mostly hikers and local folks, but what a beautiful place, and quite different from the better known parts of Zion National Park.  Here are some early morning shots I grabbed as I headed out of the area.

The thing about spending four days somewhere on a photographic mission is that one feels obliged to pack the maximum into the time you have.  Plane fares, car rentals, and hotel stays are not cheap so you had better produce as many images as possible in the time you have, and they need to be good.  An hour before sunrise we are in place, watching for the first glow of light to hit the red rock monoliths, and after twilight has faded into dark, we are still busy, trying to record shooting stars streaking across the Milky Way.  Tomorrow morning I start driving back to Las Vegas to fly back east, with one last sunrise shoot planned on the way.  I mustn’t get too distracted – my plane won’t wait for me…

It is late and we have another very early start tomorrow so I am unable to write anything very sensible, but in the meantime, here are a couple of images from one of the most beautiful places on earth.

This is an amazing non-profit organization that does excellent work in the fields of research, education, and rehabilitation of birds of prey.  Our nature photography club schedules an annual visit to the center for a donation, and we get the opportunity to photograph some of these birds.  Here are a few of the images from that trip last weekend.

Fall is such a special time of year, and we don’t get to see much evidence of it in Charleston, so this weekend I took another trip upstate. This time I based myself in Greenville (my son lives there, so cheap hotel!) and struck out mainly in Pickens County and around Lake Jocassee.  Only folks who really want it have the photo of the lake from Jumping-Off Rock, the reason being that it takes over an hour to get there from the SC 215 along Horse Pasture Road, bouncing along a bone-jarring trail, hoping that your tires are going to hold up to the abuse. Actually it took me well over an hour because I stopped so many times to photograph the forest in its fall splendor.  Oh, and another hazard was dodging the hunters who swarm all over the forest at this time of year.  I felt a little vulnerable without my orange ball cap. This time on the way back, I took the SC 321 and 178 South from Columbia.  The cotton is mostly harvested and the soybeans are still hanging in there (pardon the pun). 

The more often I drive the I-26 between Charleston and Asheville the more I am amazed at the dreadful driving practices of many motorists.  Cars bunched together with less than 20 feet between them, traveling at 80+ miles per hour doesn’t give much room for error or momentary lapse of concentration.  Then all it takes is for one impatient motorist to rush up from behind and try and squeeze himself/herself in between an already impossibly small gap to result in carnage and misery for countless people.  Enough already, so on the way home from North Carolina I left the craziness just south of the I-77 interchange and enjoyed the rural South Carolina countryside along the SC 176 for the next couple of hours drive back to Charleston.  Much more scenic, much safer, and much less stressful.  Here are some images from stops I made along the way.

It’s always a crap shoot no matter how diligently you research the progression of fall color.  Colors were expected to be at their peak this weekend in the lower elevations of the Blue Ridge Parkway and around the Brevard area, but a couple of days ago a storm blew all the prettiest leaves away, leaving the overall landscapes very muted.  Nevertheless, there is always something worth photographing – it just makes your mission a little more challenging.  Here are some of today’s images: the sunrises were taken along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and the rest along portions of NC64.

For a few years now I have photographed this event “pro bono” for Jerry Young who heads up the Charleston Leadership Foundation
(CLF), a non-profit organization whose mission is to conduct an annual prayer breakfast to encourage the Christian leaders
of the community to come together in a forum designed to introduce
people to the Gospel and learn about how Christ can change lives.  The
charities supported by The Charleston Leadership Foundation are Be A Mentor and Lowcountry Orphan
Relief.

This year’s speaker was Reverend  Derwin L. Gray, former NFL player and founder of Transformation Church, recognized by Outreach Magazine in 2010 as the 2nd fastest growing church in America.  

Over 1,000 people attended, including all the area mayors, Senator Tim Scott, and a veritable who’s who of  Charleston business leaders.  Music was provided by worship leaders from Seacoast Church

I’m heading for the North Carolina mountains later today (can’t wait!) so look for some fall color scenes here soon 🙂