"Early will I seek thee..."
DIGITAL CAPTURE Workshop Student @ Sunset Rocks Highlands, NC., Oct. 2006 Fuji Fine Pix Z-1 Camera (no artificial/software enhancement).
This year represents the 7th year I have been holding Photo Workshops (first with film, and now only digital) on the Highlands Plateau of Western North Carolina. I consider this area to be among the most visually engaging in the entire Southeast in all seasons, but Autumn reigns here! And in my photographic journey it is all about the light, regardless of location. But when you add the stunning Blue Ridge Mountain backdrops, the abundance of waterfalls, rivers, and lakes, and two of the greatest National Forests in America, The Pisgah and The Nantahala, and the quality of light here @ elevations of 4,000 feet and higher, it is easy to see why so many travel here, only to return again and again. And why I refer to this place as my sanctuary.
As with any special or sacred place, a fine line must be walked between preservation and practicality. The land truly belongs to us all. As a photographer of course I have selfish motives. There is nothing more heartbreaking than coming across a scene that only a year earlier was free of man-made structures, only to find homes or other structures taking the view away. The beauty that was at once there is gone. With the camera we may have the evidence of what once was there recorded in seconds, or split seconds, and the capture allows for producing prints to testify to what was once there.
Here on the Highlands Plateau, I have been capturing these special places for 26 years, some now long gone, some still thriving and reflecting the light and the unforced rhythms of the natural environment, ever changing, always adapting, seen each day anew in the light. Creation sings here, but you have to listen, you have to see how it shines in the earliest hour of the day, and last remnants of dusk. And the camera allows me to capryure what one day I shall fondly remember...
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