Jon Reaves Photography: Shooting Waterfalls and a Rant About Littering...

This morning I took a little hike on the Glen Burney Trail near Blowing Rock. It's one of my favorite short hikes in the Appalachians because it provides lots of opportunities for image making year 'round and there are several good waterfalls along the trail (and typically few people). I revisit this spot often because every time I do I see something different or find new perspectives from which to photograph subjects that I've shot before. I think it's important for every photographer to revisit subjects/places over and over again in order to see them differently and under various conditions. Today I shot digital (I know, I know. I'm supposed to be this hardcore film shooter and all) for the sake of convenience and to conserve film...if I shot all the film that I wanted to, I would have to take out a second mortgage to pay for the film and the processing. That said, I save film for special projects and when I really want the best quality and that good old film look that I prefer for my personal fine art work. I shoot digital for the day to day stuff.

And now for something completely different ...I am getting sick and tired of having to edit out garbage from my photos. It seemed that for every shot I set up today there was a plastic bottle, food wrapper, beach towel, or dirty sock hiding somewhere in the margins of the scene. This makes me irate. Please clean up after yourselves. Be respectful to nature and to others and make sure you leave no trace of your presence other than light footprints. A few weeks ago, my wife and I were hiking at Elk Knob State Park. We were very much annoyed to see that folks were picking up their dog's poops in plastic bags and then leaving the bags on the trail...what's the point of even using the bags!?!? It would be better to just let your dog poop in the trail rather than leaving non degradable plastic! I counted around one dozen steaming hot poop pouches littering the trail that day...come on people! LEAVE NO TRACE.