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Whiteside Mountain Spring
Whiteside Mountain in Western North Carolina's Jackson County has the highest sheer cliffs in Eastern North America at nearly 800ft. The mountain itself stands at just under five-thousand feet in elevation and the sheer faces point generally southward. Anytime I am...
Chattooga Bull Pen Falls
The Chattooga River was designated Wild & Scenic on May 10, 1974. Fifty years later in May 2024, I found myself behind the camera on the banks of this beautiful river. The Wild & Scenic Chattooga River has long been a favorite destination: I was introduced...
Long Creek Falls
I moved to South Carolina for college in 2001. Soon enough, I was taken with the surrounding landscapes, particularly the waterfalls. This was long before the tourism board made any efforts to mark or sign these landscape features. Waterfalls were, for me,...
Waterfall Blue Ridge Escarpment
This is my favorite waterfall. This is where, when I lived in Upstate South Carolina, I went to sit and find silence; the type of silence that is loud on the exterior and quiet on the interior. Most waterfalls in the Southern Appalachians are not solitary features....
Liverwort Macro
Much of the biodiversity in the Southern Appalachian Mountains occurs at a small scale: liverworts, mosses, ferns etc. Becoming comfortable with a macro rig has been hugely liberating for me and my photography. This is a liverwort, a non-vascular land plant that...
Blue Cohosh Raindrops
Rich Cove Forest is where I lose time! Days seem to compress as I crawl about on hands and knees, finding endless combinations of herbaceous plants to delight me and the lens. Finding rich cove forest isn't hard if you've ever driven the Blue Ridge Parkway in early...
Blue Ridge Escarpment Waterfall
When I returned to Clemson University in 2008 for my master's degree, I was deep into a new passion for landscape photography. There are over three hundred recorded waterfalls in Oconee County, South Carolina. It was my over-zealous goal to visit and photograph them...
Virginia Bluebells Dew
I didn't grow up in a naturally rich environment. The suburbs of Washington D.C. are not exactly a playground of wild environments. However, there are surprising pockets of abundance. Every spring, along the rich alluvial floodplains of the Potomac River, Virginia...
Chattooga River Vernal Pool
While photographing a rapid along the Wild & Scenic Chattoga River in Georgia, I began to notice the teeming life within the vernal pools along the banks of this section of river. Vernal pools are seasonal puddles, distinctinve types of wetlands that are devoid...
Chattooga River Bull Sluice Rapid
The intimate focal range--between wide and telephoto--is often the most challenging for me. And the most rewarding. I don't naturally see in this way: to remove the sky and leading line elements, but also to not punch in so close that the scene becomes abstract,...
Maidenhair Fern Unfurling
I find beauty in shape and pattern. This is the beginning of a Maidenhair Fern. It's absolutely fascinating. And it's why I love macro photography.Camera: Canon EOS 5DrLens: Canon MP-E 65mmTripod: Handheld w/ flash Date taken: March 18, 2024Settings: f14,...
Juvenile Maidenhair Fern
When I bought and built my macro rig, it was with a dream of finding subjects and making images like this one. The Southern Appalachian Mountains are rich with plant and fungi diversity; every hike an opportunity to find, notice, and pay attention to something new,...
Lake Jocassee Sunrise
*From my journal March 17, 2024: Camp filled up last night. Neighbors on all sides. Children. Bicycles. Dogs. Sounds of life, human life. Sometimes the campground is a real shitshow. Try any weekend. It will almost happen without fail. I thought, as I settled...
Shealys Saxifrage Dew Drop
In 2021, Pat McMillan and Larry Cushman discovered the only known population of a new species of Saxifrage, which they named Shealy's Saxifrage for Dr. Harry Shealy. Unlike other nearby saxifrages, Shealy's Saxifrage flowers late winter to early spring, has five...
Oconee Bell Pair + Raindrops
*From my journal, March 15, 2024: Flashes of light. Distant rumbling. Songbirds singing. An eery reddish/pink light at sunrise through the mesh of my tent fly. My first thunderstorm of 2024! Unexpected. Not in the forecast. Plans get derailed. When camping and...