Nature Shots

This was an experiment so, no, not a very interesting landscape, just funny to see stars in the "daytime" sky. :huh:

Hehehe.... this was taken at 3.30am (at night) and no I'm not in Antarctica during summer time.

Here are some pics I took this past week while on vacation with the wife in the Shenendoah region of Virginia. They are of two underground caverns we went to, Skyline Caverns and Luray Caverns. For both of them I lugged my tripod, shutter release, and a few lenses to photograph these right. A few years ago I photographed Howe Caverns in NY with so so results. For both of these my wife left me alone and let me do my thing. I am so lucky!!


The first batch is from the Skyline Caverns and were very good to check out. Besides having white lighting to see, they also used red, blue, and green lighting which made the rocks look even stranger. It was about a mile hike underground which took about an hour to do.

The second batch is from Luray Caverns. My wife was there as a child and thought it would make for a good place to check out and plan a small vacation around. I have never seen anything like it in my life. I would linger behind the tour group to get wide angle and fisheye shots with no one on them. Being in some of those chambers alone and photographing, even for a minute or so was as good as its gets for me as a photographer. Like being in another world. They only used white light to illuminate to cavern. This tour was about a mile and a half and I think about an hour and 20 minutes.







The bottom half of the pic is a reflection in a pool of water

















Luray Caverns



This one is actually a small lake and the bottom half is a reflection. If you look around half way up tha pic you can find the waterline. Even looking directly at it from a few feet away it was almost impossible to tell it was a reflection,








a 12mm fisheye pic makes it look like that huge formation may fall down on the people

RB astro said:

This was an experiment so, no, not a very interesting landscape, just funny to see stars in the "daytime" sky. :huh:

Hehehe.... this was taken at 3.30am (at night) and no I'm not in Antarctica during summer time.

Click to expand...

Nice I see what you did there.
I demand meta data
ISO and exposure time :crackup:

Another unusual photo, Andrew. That is different. Thanks for sharing. Bruce, nice vacation photos. I have also gone caving on many a vacation. Din't drag along all the stuff you did, though. Just a Minolta SLR.

brucemir said:

Here are some pics I took this past week while on vacation with the wife in the Shenendoah region of Virginia. They are of two underground caverns we went to, Skyline Caverns and Luray Caverns.

Click to expand...

I'm so glad you shared these Bruce, like I said in my PM these are wonderful Nature shots and I especially love the reflection pics.
So hard to find the water line.
Awesome my friend.

lazerman121 said:

Nice I see what you did there.
I demand meta data
ISO and exposure time :crackup:

Click to expand...

hehehe lazerman.... I took that shot about 8 years ago, I don't have the meta data of the original but I remember it was a full moon and I bumped up the ISO something crazy and it was a long exposure on a tripod.
It was fun to experiment but it's not my "cup of tea" so to speak.
Cheers mate.

paul1598419 said:

Another unusual photo, Andrew. That is different. Thanks for sharing. Bruce, nice vacation photos. I have also gone caving on many a vacation. Din't drag along all the stuff you did, though. Just a Minolta SLR.

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Hey Paul, thank you.
BTW I've got a Minolta Film SLR packed away somewhere.
It was my first SLR and it was given to me for my 18th birthday by my then girlfriend (now my wife).
Very special camera to me.

:beer:

Bought my Minolta SLR in 1982 for around $300.00 and got a zoom lenses assy. for it. That's how I learned photography. On that old (now) Minolta and took many, many photos, then my daughter was born not long after that and had a whole new subject to photograph. I bought her a camera similar to that one in 2002, as I felt film was better than digital at the time.

Hey Paul,
I still have my still fully functional Minolta XG-7 SLR camera with a Rokkor 50mm f1.4 lens plus a few other lenses. I purchased it in 1979. I have the separate motor drive that screws in to make it seem to weigh about a ton when used with a telephoto lens. I originally had a Minolta SRT 102 SLR which I got for high school graduation and got me into photography. I have not used the XG-7 in quite a while and probably won't.

Yeah, Bruce. I wish I still had that camera and lenses. I always seemed to lose in a divorce. I had to do it three times before I finally figured that out. :crackup:

lazerman121 said:

Thanks I have lots more panoramas I need to upload.
Did you see my other panoramas on there.

Click to expand...

I did! Fantastic shots Lazerman, I especially liked the 'Natural bridge' and the 'Old rag mountain' photos!
I saw a similar natural phenomenon in Tasmania called the Tasman Arch. Unfortunately this is not my own photograph.



Keep 'em coming Lazerman :beer:

RB astro said:

This was an experiment so, no, not a very interesting landscape, just funny to see stars in the "daytime" sky. :huh:

Hehehe.... this was taken at 3.30am (at night) and no I'm not in Antarctica during summer time.

Click to expand...

Simply astounding RB! You're really making me consider splurging all my student loans on DSLR's It's hard for me to imagine that photograph's like this are even technically possible!

brucemir said:

Here are some pics I took this past week while on vacation with the wife in the Shenendoah region of Virginia. They are of two underground caverns we went to, Skyline Caverns and Luray Caverns. For both of them I lugged my tripod, shutter release, and a few lenses to photograph these right. A few years ago I photographed Howe Caverns in NY with so so results. For both of these my wife left me alone and let me do my thing. I am so lucky!!

This one is actually a small lake and the bottom half is a reflection. If you look around half way up tha pic you can find the waterline. Even looking directly at it from a few feet away it was almost impossible to tell it was a reflection,

Click to expand...

Very lucky indeed Brucemir! Just as you pointed out some of those images look simply out of this world! My favorite would have to be the one above depicting the small
lake reflection :beer: I'm sure it would have been an absolutely incredible experience to explore those caverns and photographing them to your hearts content!

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More pics!

I have to admit I briefly touched on this trip in the random pics thread, however I do have a few more to show!

These photos were taken the end of last year whilst hiking the Three Capes Track in Tasmania.
The five day hike consists of trekking through Cape Hauy, Cape Raoul and Cape Pillar.

The image below depicts Cape Pillar which is situated just south of the Tasman Island.




These are the 'huts' that the guided hiking tours stay in. The guided tour accommodation is primariliy constructed from native renewable
materials and timber such as Australian Blackwood and Tasmanian Sassafras. It looks like the Tassie national parks just blew their entire
budget on these! They were unlike anything we've seen on these types of hikes. Of course we didn't stay in there since it cost over
$2000 for three days per person! We saved heaps by not having a guided tour and using the campsites situated 20kms further.




This was taken along the Cape Hauy track and the sheer drops one is exposed to is hard to quantify in words.
With no railings or warning signs along the edge of 300m+ cliff faces there's a wonder they don't have more casualties.




Cape Hauy is home to the 'famous' Totem Pole; a coastal stack of rock which has been eroded away to the point where the formation
is separate from the cliff face. This 65m (over 210ft high!) sea stack is revered by death wish rock climbers around the world. At only 4m in
diameter experts are amazed that the Totem hasn't collapsed decades ago, when it does collapse hopefully no one is on it
From a hikers perspective the totem is impossible to photograph from this angle, so the image below is not mine.




This one was taken during our hike from Fortescue Bay to Cape Hauy. The cliff that this image was taken on looked
ridiculously high. We were curious to find out exactly how high so we threw a round heavyish rock (to reduce wind resistance)
off the cliff and we timed a 9.4 second flight time to hit the water! That calculates to over 430m high! (over 1400ft!)



I'm certainly looking forward to the next trek :shhh: Stay tuned for our next hiking adventure which will be taking place in New Zealand! :evil:

Bruce and Paul, this talk about the film SLRs is bringing back so many memories.
I'll have to dig out my old Minolta now and check it over, LOL I may still have some film canisters in the fridge. :crackup:

Will I love this thread and am so enjoying your images, I think I remember your photo from Tassie in the Random Pics thread.
Keep posting my friend, I look forward to your NZ trip.

And to everyone else, please join in if you have any photos to share, it's so much fun to look through all these fascinating images from around the world.

How about a shot of these "Three Sisters" just on dusk!
It's a famous Natural Landmark outside Sydney situated at Katoomba along "The Blue Mountains" so named because of their unique "blue" look from all the bush and trees in the area.
I tried to capture the blue look of the mountains that afternoon but there was also a lot of smoke in the area from "back burning operations" by emergency services trying to get ready in time for summer.

There's always bus loads of tourists at this lookout vantage point but I was lucky to get a clear shot in when there was a lull in the crowds.





Edit: oh and another from the Blue Mountains, LOL my attempt at an Ansel Adams Landscape with full moon feature.

RB astro said:

Bruce and Paul, this talk about the film SLRs is bringing back so many memories.
I'll have to dig out my old Minolta now and check it over, LOL I may still have some film canisters in the fridge. :crackup:

Will I love this thread and am so enjoying your images, I think I remember your photo from Tassie in the Random Pics thread.
Keep posting my friend, I look forward to your NZ trip.

And to everyone else, please join in if you have any photos to share, it's so much fun to look through all these fascinating images from around the world.

Click to expand...

Thank you very much for your kind words RB! And likewise we'd all love to see more of your exceptional photography

RB astro said:

How about a shot of these "Three Sisters" just on dusk!
It's a famous Natural Landmark outside Sydney situated at Katoomba along "The Blue Mountains" so named because of their unique "blue" look from all the bush and trees in the area.

Edit: oh and another from the Blue Mountains, LOL my attempt at an Ansel Adams Landscape with full moon feature.

Click to expand...

Fantastic work Andrew! The Three Sister's is quite possibly one of my favorite natural landmarks in the Blue Mountains!
On the contrary I think you captured the moon beautifully in that shot. Although aren't 'Ansel Adams Lanscapes' typically black and white?

Truly an amazing place to spend a getaway weekend!

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I took this one recently just south of Surfer's Paradise in Coolangatta. During summer the bike paths are
covered with roughly ten of these 'dragons' per square meter! You can see three more in this shot alone!

will manners said:

Fantastic work Andrew! The Three Sister's is quite possibly one of my favorite natural landmarks in the Blue Mountains!
On the contrary I think you captured the moon beautifully in that shot. Although aren't 'Ansel Adams Lanscapes' typically black and white?

Click to expand...

hehehe yeah I thought I'd better be careful about copyright.:crackup:
Actually I should convert it to black and white and see how it goes.
Cheers.

will manners said:

I took this one recently just south of Surfer's Paradise in Coolangatta. During summer the bike paths are
covered with roughly ten of these 'dragons' per square meter! You can see three more in this shot alone!

Click to expand...

Wow I can't imagine so many, must be a sight to see.
Amazing creatures though aren't they?
Nice one mate.

:yh:

Here's another supercell from this year. 22 May in Leoti, KS. One brief tornado, but most importantly it had really excellent "stacked pancake" sort of structure.



Trevor

Trevor, are you still actively storm chasing? You are certainly close to the active tornadoes that occur each year. Still, that takes a great deal of time commitment. I lived in Denver for 8 years on and off and have been to Boulder many times. Also lived in Pueblo for over two years. Kansas was always a long highway with nothing to see for many miles to me. I-70.

Trevor said:

Here's another supercell from this year. 22 May in Leoti, KS. One brief tornado, but most importantly it had really excellent "stacked pancake" sort of structure.
Trevor

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Incredible Trevor.
I love it !
Post more.

:wave: