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Photo Essay: Virginia Bluebell Wildflowers
Each year, a small gap in my travel schedule allows a return to my hometown of Northern Virginia to witness and photograph the Virginia Bluebells. Much of the early spring hype is focused on the nearby Japanese Cherry Trees in downtown Washington D.C., where visitors...
Photo Essay: Spring in the Smokies 2016
Each year, as spring rounds out towards mid-April I make a pilgrimage to Great Smoky Mountains National Park. I'm never alone; the who's who of outdoor photography will be in the same place. Friends, mentors and those who I've only followed...
16 Experiences for 2016
YEAR IN REVIEW 16 Memories for the Year 2016 Mark VanDyke, Photographer 7 December 2016 This year more than any before I began to understand that it's not about the image for me personally. I stopped obsessing about getting the image or wondering about how I'm going...
From the Field: October in Western North Carolina
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,...
Labor Day Weekend 2016: Outer Banks, North Carolina
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...
Timescapes Meet-Up August 2016: Day Seven, Farewells, and Thoughts
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...
Timescapes Meet-Up August 2016: Day Six
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...
Timescapes Meet-Up August 2016: Day Five
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...
Timescapes Meet-Up August 2016: Day Four
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...
Timescapes Meet-Up August 2016: Day Three
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...
Timescapes Meet-Up August 2016: Day Two
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...
Timescapes Meet-Up August 2016: Day One
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...
Published: August 2016 Our State Magazine
I'm honored once again to have had the opportunity to contribute in the August 2016 issue of Our State Magazine with a photograph of the Fisherman's Net House along the Manteo Waterfront in the Outer Banks. Each month the magazine choses three photographs, one from...
Published: June 2016 Our State Magazine
I'm very pleased to have another opportunity with Our State Magazine this month, June 2016. This is my third month in a row of working with the magazine and I couldn't be more pleased with all of the stories and their collective geographic reach: April a photograph...
Published: May 2016 Our State Magazine
I'm honored to once again have had the opportunity to contribute to the May 2016 Coastal Issue of Our State Magazine. My photograph of the Bonner Bridge as it crosses Oregon Inlet--a critical link between the Pamlico Sound and the Atlantic Ocean--was paired with the...