Whitetail Deer Fawn in Black and White...

It has been raining pretty solidly in our corner of Appalachia for 5 days now. There was a brief break in the clouds today that allowed me to get out and clean up some debris from the weekend storms. Now we're back indoors waiting out the rain again. I did manage to get out and make more photographs of our resident deer fawn. Rain or shine, the animals of the woods need to eat. I was able to sneak around to the backside of my house on several occasions during the last few days to watch the fawn and its mother feed on jewel weed in less intense downpours. Using a 400mm lens and keeping still allowed me to get several shots before being noticed. I chose black and white to help simplify the scene. The tangle of colorful weeds and vines can sometimes create interesting textures. Other times the foliage can be distracting. I found black and white perfect for this particular situation. 

(c) 2015 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.

Small Waterfall near Glen Burney Falls

Ferns Growing Between Stone and Wood

Small Waterfall near Glen Burney Falls, Black and White

Upper Falls on the Glen Burney Trail

Glen Burney Falls

 All images (c) 2015 Jon Reaves. All rights reserved.

Trillium

Spring is in full swing here in the southern Appalachians, despite the frigid nighttime lows that is. (I had to build a fire this morning in the wood stove because it was 50 degrees inside and 25 out.) My favorite flower, trillium, is everywhere in my woods, more than I have ever seen before. I can only remember seeing a couple wimpy ones last year, but this year they are everywhere and growing up to two feet high! I had much to do today, but I took a few minutes to make some images of trillium near a stream on my property. These were shot on a point and shoot on a tripod, I'm awaiting the arrival of some medium format film scans from the lab and will post those images asap. Thanks for viewing!