FROM THE FIELD October in Western North Carolina 2016 Mark VanDyke, Photographer 1 December 2016 It's always difficult to sum up an entire season in one post, especially when time has passed (is it really December?). That is, however, what I'm going to attempt here,...
Hermine. That was the monster that lingered on the forecast for Labor Day weekend. Being an outdoor photographer, of course I was heading towards the storm instead of away. Only this time it wasn’t necessarily by plan. My mother and I booked a weekend of...
Day seven. Our last full day at Glacier National Park. We wanted to get absolutely everything out of it, so, we were up by one in the morning and at the trailhead by two-thirty in the morning. I've always been very comfortable outside in the wee hours of...
The morning of day six opened with great promise. The night before we had all sat around the table at the rental home and discussed various plans in terms of where to go and what to see. Our destination was concrete. We were going to split into a couple smaller...
Day five opened with the drumming of rain against the outside of the rental home. Several half-awake and questioning faces emerged from various rooms into the main living space where I was sleeping on the sofa. An efficient but effective, “go back to sleep” from our...
Day four. Time to get back up on the horse. I logged some quality shut-eye on a surface that wasn’t rolling at seventy-miles an hour (pretty sure I didn’t move from the time I laid it down to the moment my alarm woke me!). I was excited to get myself back in the...
Day three began with a twist. Lots of them actually. As we pulled out of Yellowstone National Park following sunset the road became narrow and mountainous, ascending and descending what must have been some pretty dramatic terrain (we couldn’t see much on account of...
The heavy lifting of east-to-west travel behind us, day two departed South Dakota during the dark hours of evening. It was clear, however, that we were not the only group descending upon the roads: motor homes, pickup trucks and motorcycles were commonplace along...
I recently returned from a photography adventure with the guys over at Timescapes (Bernard Chen & David Nguyen). The ultimate destination for this meet-up was Glacier National Park in Montana (a personal dream destination for me). The particulars read something...
Morning. The best part of my day. In those early hours, anything is possible as the world awakens to a fresh start, a new chance to finish a lingering task, resolve a problem, reach out to an old friend, or to rest a tired body and mind. ...
In the hustle and bustle of year-end business activities there is always one that I look forward to: the year-end image review. Neither good nor bad, the year-end review gives me the opportunity to be reflective on an entire year's efforts in the field. I recently...
Deflated. That's how I feel about my autumn season if I'm being totally honest. Worn out. Tired. It was a massive effort this go-round. More miles--both automobile and on foot--than ever before. Perhaps the hardest part is the knowledge that I put forth so much...
By the time August rolled around I was pretty down. It's not unusual for the summer months to be a bit of a downer for me from a photography standpoint as I try to hunker down and save money and energy for the coming autumn blitz. However, this was year two as a...
Stand Up That Mountain: The Battle to Save One Small Community in the Wilderness along the Appalachian Trail Jay Erskine Leutze | Simon & Schuster, 2012 Stand Up That Mountain, written by Jay Leutze, is about the legal battle to stop a gravel mine, known...
“I wish I had the courage to live a life true to myself, not the life others expected of me.” That was the number one cited regret from folks who were at the end of their life looking back reflectively at what had and hadn’t been according to a blog post I stumbled...
Destination: Western North Carolina Mountains Dates: October 11-13 & 15-17 My annual autumn trek to North Carolina was two-part this season, with the first part being a three day weekend with my mother (also an avid photographer), and the second part being a more...
I received my November copy of Outdoor Photographer Magazine today and read a very good article by author and photographer, Guy Tal (The Concept: How to Have a Purpose and Make a Plan), on the difference between taking a photograph OF something versus taking a...
Destination: Ricketts Glen State Park, Pennsylvania Dates: October 2-4, 2014 The autumn color season began for me in Pennsylvania, as it has for the past couple of years. Why Pennsylvania? My mother has roots there and thus, I have roots there: memories of visiting my...
Destination: Dolly Sods Wilderness Area / Bear Rocks Preserve, West Virginia Dates: October 6-7, 2014 It’s raining. That’s been the going fashion for my travels thus far this autumn season. I didn’t mind so much on my most recent trip to Ricketts Glen State Park in...